Pile Drive – Professional Helical Pile Contractors

When you need to build a relatively light structure, instead of using expensive concrete for the foundation, It’s better to go with a helical pile. The cost of helical piles for your country house, store or production workshop will be much lower, especially if the construction is carried out on an uneven area with a large difference in height. Also, helical piles allow building houses on too soft, waterlogged or unstable soil, where the concrete foundation will quickly crack or “sink”.

Helical piles – installation advantages

The first buildings on helical piles were British lighthouses. Over time, the technology “grew” from coastal to universally applicable, and especially took root in Australia. The demand for piles was largely determined by their following advantages over traditional self-leveling reinforced concrete belts:

Installation speed – it takes 1–2 days to install helical piles under a bathhouse, similar in bearing capacity to reinforced concrete takes 10 times longer.

No vibration when screwing in – the absence of vibration feedback when screwing the blade support makes the process safe for nearby buildings.

Resistance to extrusion is a necessary quality for the construction of bridges, fences, outbuildings, houses on sites with large drops and in places where the soil layer is deeply frozen.

Pile Drive – One of The Best Helical Pile Installation Contractors

At Pile Drive, all helical piles are manufactured under a quality assurance system. We only use high grade steel and ensure all designs are complaint with Australian Standard 2159.

Our screw piles are designed to bear compressive, tension and lateral loads through the blade at the bottom of the shaft which is governed by the safe working load (SWL) required for the project. The installation of helical piles takes places in the following stages. 

Piles are installed using an excavator with a torque motor attachment which monitors the torque achieved during installation to verify the design. We currently use Digga PD25 Auger drive on our fleet which have been reliable. Our team cannot speak anymore highly of Digga’s equipment 

The piles are advanced to the predetermined (design) bearing strata by rotating the steel shafts with the torque motor attached to the excavator plant/rig. Multiple steel sections are connected via a bolted connection and sections are added to complete the total pile depth.

Specific helical flights are designed to penetrate the soil without augering, displacing the soil, whilst the torque is carefully monitored as the pile advances. 

The final torque reading is taken over the last 1m of advancement to ensure the pile is achieving the required design before terminating at the correct datum level.

On completion, the top of the pile can be connected in various ways to the structure by a direct steel flange plate connection or plate/rebar connection to concrete.

Direct installation of helical piles takes place in 5 stages:

Preparation: drawing marking lines directly on the ground, cleaning the screw-in points of supports from large stones, drilling holes.

Installation: Screwing in helical piles at the load points, as a rule, starts at the corners and intersections of the inner walls of the structure under construction, and trimming the trunks to the required height.

Strengthening: filling the cavity in the pile shaft with concrete mortar, which prevents the development of corrosion processes from the inside and significantly strengthens the supporting element.

Barrel welding : the heads are welded with a strong seam, which is additionally coated with a protective primer to extend the service life in an aggressive environment.

Strapping: a grillage beam is welded onto piles aligned in height and a reinforcement bundle of units standing next to and opposite each other is performed.

The average productivity of the assembly team is 2–5 piles per hour. To obtain the required bearing capacity and stability, piles of different lengths, diameters, wall thicknesses and blade metal can be used in one project.

Small diameter helical piles are screwed by hand using a lever stop made of solid steel. For strengthening with a screw with a diameter of over 121 mm and a length of 2 m, it is advisable to use special drilling machines. For these purposes, we have light mini-excavators on rubber tracks: they have excellent maneuverability and practically do not deform the top layer of soil on the site.

You can build on a pile foundation immediately after installation. It is not necessary to withstand the time for hardening of concrete poured for hardening. Due to this, the construction time is reduced several times, and with them the cost price – this is due to the abandonment of complex earthworks.

We have teamed up with some of the most creative engineers in Melbourne who certify all designs and ensure your structure is built the highest of standards. 

Pile Drive as one of the best Helical Pile Contractors is capable of servicing project of varying sizes. Our dedicated staff and team all undergo extensive training and have decades of experience within the construction industry. Not only will you find out service second to none, you will be outstounded with the quality, professionalism and easy going nature of our team.