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Pilings Make Buildings Resilient and Strong

When you need to have a building built, you need to consider who to contact about piling and underpinning. Contact a company that has a great deal of experience and that will ensure the success of your building project.

Common Pilings Used for Construction

One of the great ways this can be done is by using commercial piling services that feature steel case driven piles or auger bored piling. Driven piles are common piles used for foundations. They support structures by transferring the load to tiers or rock or soil that feature the right amount of bearing and display the right settlement attributes.

How Pilings Are Used

When the piles are steel-cased, no worries emerge about supporting structures such as towers, tanks, walls, buildings, and bridges. Driven piles, also known as displacement piles, are also used in applications such as retaining walls, cofferdams, and bulkheads.

A Long Yet Supportive Column

A foundation is considered piled when the depth is over three times the width. This long, slender column features a pre-planned size and shape that can be added by pushing, vibrating, or hammering into the soil. Pre-drilling is sometimes done if it is hard to insert the pile to the needed depth.

A Popular Choice for Construction

Driven piles are popular because they can accommodate various kinds of loads. Also, they can be adapted to the specifications established for a building’s architecture, surrounding terrain, and budget. When steel is used, piles can be established to form box section types of piles or piles with H-section designs. These piles are percussion driven when used for underwater structures.

Making a Choice

Steel screw piles are rotary driven and used to accommodate shallow depths in sands or silts. Steel tube piles are also used in soft subsoils. These types of piles are typically driven with a drop hammer. As you can see, the way a pile is added is not “set in stone”. Your choice of installation depends on the soil and the type of pile.

Therefore, pile testing is used to confirm pile capacity or the optimum load that the pile can hold without failing. The capacity depends on three conditions:

  • The soil type
  • The type of installation
  • The cross section and length of the pile

Compacting the Soil for Strength

When a pile hammer is used, it compacts the surrounding soil, increasing the bearing capacity. However, with that being said, the water found in the soil triggers a decrease in bearing capacity. Therefore, the pile’s design must accommodate this factor.

Where to Obtain Further Details

Learn more about piles and underpinnings by going online and exploring the various types of piles for yourself. Piles are crucial to the success of any engineering or construction project. The main benefits associated with driven piles are their efficiency and the way they increase bearing capacity. When you use driven piles, again, you compact the soil. You do not need to remove it. Some deep foundations can end up structurally unsound after soil removal.

This cost-effective approach to piling makes it easy for you to fabricate the pile off site to your specific dimensions. In turn, you do not need as many piles for construction. The piles usually have excellent structural strength and they can bend to seismic loading as well as wind or water.