Are you here because you did a foundation inspection and your contractor said you’d need helical piers? Are you wondering what those are? Maybe, you’re here because of some other reason. No matter what, we can help you with that, we are after all the foundation repair experts in Charlotte, North Carolina, and the surrounding areas. So sit with us as we tell you all about helical piers.
A helical pier is a galvanized steel pipe that can be either circular in shape or square. Galvanized steel is the material used because it delays rusting or oxidization; it also comprises lead, extensions, and remedial brackets. It has a load-bearing capacity of up to 33,000 kilograms or 74,000 pounds and is typically driven 25 to 30 feet into the ground; that is 760 to 910cm.
Fun fact, North Carolina requires a minimum clearance height of 18 feet for overhead power and communication lines crossing all highways. Despite this fact, power lines are typically mounted 35 feet or higher; this means the poles have to be at least that height. With this, you can look at a pole and estimate how deep the helical pier is usually driven into the ground. Pretty deep if you ask us. Won’t you sleep better knowing your home is on such stable footing?
The pier is hydraulically driven into the ground until it reaches load-bearing soil and then anchored to your home’s footing, which would have already been prepped and the necessary remedial brackets would have already been installed to stabilize, secure and/ or lift your home.
We did an article on how helical piers and push piers are installed, feel free to jump into that to learn about the other method that could be used to fix your foundation problems.
INSTALLING HELICAL PIERS
If you opt not to read the article on how helical piers and push piers are installed, let me just go over how helical piers are installed just for you.
Helical piers can be installed independently of your home; the brackets are essentially installed after the piers have made it to their required depth. The required depth is determined by the depth of the competent soil, bedrock, or required torque; this can be up to 30 feet deep as we previously mentioned. Yikes, you can see why this might take a while right? The installation process may be a bit lengthy.
To simplify, these are the steps to installing helical piers (assuming you have done your foundation inspection already and these are the type of piers that will be used based on your specific circumstance).
- Excavate the foundation
- Dig the required number of holes
- Install the brackets
- Install the helical piers
If our brilliant apprentice were of the mind that this might be a couple of days, you’re right or you’re wrong. All jokes aside dear friend, the installation process can vary from as short as a day to as long as two weeks for residential properties. This is heavily dependent on the number of piers the structure needs to recover from and prevent future damages.
- Excavating the foundation consists of digging until you reach the footing of your home. A standard footing is usually around 18 inches but can be as deep as 4 feet. The depth of the footing will affect the amount of time that is taken to complete the entire installation process.
- The number of holes that need to be dug is dependent on how many helical piers are required for the project; this is dependent on how big, tall & heavy your home is and other factors. Needless to say, the fewer piers you need, the less time installation should take.
- Installation of the brackets is really as straightforward as you read it. Of course, you need as many brackets as piers and that’s all there is to it.
- Installing the helical piers; this is the really tough part. The entire project is really a hand full but we say this is the really tough part because it takes the entire production team to install one helical pier. Can you imagine that? While the team can split the load and work on digging different holes, installing different brackets, and excavating different sections of the foundation, they all need to be working simultaneously on this one task in order to get it done; three, fully grown, really strong and efficient adults for a single helical pier. Whew! The equipment isn’t light. This section of the installation process will for sure slow down the installation time, especially if you have quite a number of piers to get installed.
Cost of Helical Piers
Helical piers are a better option for lighter homes. Helical piers tend to be more expensive due in part to the machinery that is used in the installation process, the number of additional hands, and the amount of additional time that is needed to get the job done. As you might guess, the bigger the team of contractors the more you would pay in labor costs across the board.
Helical piers require more hands to get the job done; more hands, more labor costs, and higher overall costs. This typically means it requires more time to get the job done; the longer the job takes to be done, the more you can expect to pay in labor costs. So, now you have additional information in your back pocket; you now know that push piers are the less complicated, more affordable option.
Helical piers are going to run you around $3500 per pier location; the pricing is due to the complexity of the installation process. Unfortunately, asking your contractor to use a different type of pier won’t work because he likely choose it because your home was too light for a push pier and it was overall the only feasible option.
We truly enjoy helping you make informed decisions about your foundation repair needs. So, if you have any suggestions on other aspects of the foundation repair process that you’d like our expert advice on, feel free to interact with our social media profiles and we’ll be happy to help you.
