{"id":234,"date":"2020-09-28T15:22:51","date_gmt":"2020-09-28T15:22:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/powerliftfoundation.com\/?page_id=234"},"modified":"2021-05-24T23:49:12","modified_gmt":"2021-05-24T23:49:12","slug":"helical-piles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/powerliftfoundation.com\/helical-piles\/","title":{"rendered":"Helical Piles"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"One of the most important things that sets Power Lift apart is our unlimited range of helical pile and anchor systems \u2014 which we manufacture ourselves!<\/p>\n

In our experience, we\u2019ve learned that there\u2019s one way to get the results you want \u2014 a custom-made helical design solution that\u2019s based on a structure\u2019s specific needs.<\/p>\n

Helical Piles \u2014 History<\/h2>\n

\"\"Earliest Use<\/h3>\n

A blind Irish engineer named Alexander Mitchell is credited as the first person to start using helical piles for their superior performance. Helical piles (sometimes called \u201cscrew piles\u201d) began appearing in the 19th century as pile foundations for lighthouses. Mitchell found the helical design to be highly effective for constructing lighthouses and other structures on top of mud or shifting sands. He described their use in a paper in Civil Engineers and Architects Journal in 1848.<\/p>\n

Solid Results & Improvements<\/h3>\n

Over the next half-century, more than 100 screw pile lighthouses were built up and down the U.S.\u2019s eastern coastline. And although they were made from cast or wrought iron, they had limited capabilities. Modern helical piles are made from a variety of materials and can provide impressive bearing and tension capacity for any kind of structure. For the past 20 years, Power Lift Foundation Systems has used custom-designed helical piles to provide foundation support for projects across the United States. Our specialty and what sets us apart from the rest is our custom design approach. When it comes to large capacity helical screw piles in the central United States, Power lift is unmatched.<\/p>\n

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Helical Piles \u2014 Design Capacity<\/h2>\n

\"\"At Power Lift, our helical piles are custom-designed to offer the capacity required and can be extended to any required depth \u2014 efficiently and economically. Most companies purchase manufactured low capacity piles from a distributor and apply the same cookie cutter approach to all projects. For instance, if piles are used to support new pile caps with a service load of 400 kips, they might install eight 50-kip piles or four 100-kip piles. At Power Lift, we would likely choose one 400-kip pile. We manufacture our own pile shafts (both round and square) as well as the helix plates. Every facet of the helical pile is custom tailored to each project\u2019s unique needs<\/p>\n

Testing<\/h3>\n

\"\"Although there are huge amounts of data available about predicting helical performance, we believe that custom designs should be field-tested for capacity verification. That\u2019s why we routinely perform full-scale load tests per ASTMD-1143 and often discover that our piles are able to exceed our calculated predictions and handle greater loads than expected.<\/p>\n

Special Note: All of our testing is observed by independent laboratories and the results are certified by our engineers.<\/p>\n

Helical Installation Process<\/h3>\n