4 Advantages of Using Helical Piers

Pick a Foundation Repair Solution with Strength & Precision

No homeowner ever wants their house to need foundation repair. If your foundation ever does begin to fail, however, you want a solution that is going to cause minimal disruption to your home and yard. You want a solution that can provide immediate support. And, most of all, you want a solution is going to last, because the last thing you want is to have to start the whole process over again in a couple years time. When you want a reliable foundation solution that is going to last, it doesn’t get much better than helical piers.

Let’s look at some of the advantages that helical piers have over other foundation repair methods, especially those that involve pouring more concrete below your house.

What Are Helical Piers?

Also called helical piles, screw piers or screw piles or torque anchors, helical piers consist of a central rod, or pier, with helical plates attached.

These helical plates give it the appearance of a giant screw.

And the piers are, indeed, screwed into the ground until the reach a weight-bearing strata of soil that can support your home or business.

After reaching this depth, the piers are attached to your foundation footing by a bracket and, after the foundation has been returned to level, the weight of the house or business will be transferred onto the piers.

Reasons to use Helical Piers

1. Steel Helical Piers are Strong

At Alliance Inc., we use steel helical piers from Earth Contact Products.

When you think steel, you think strength, and ECP certainly does not skimp in that capacity.

The ultimate capacity of ECP steel helical piers ranges from 60,000 pounds to 120,000 pounds.

Our helical piering systems have the capacity to provide the type of strong, stable support for your foundation that it wasn’t getting from the soil below it.

2. Helical Piers Offer a High Degree of Precision

You don’t want a foundation repair method that you THINK is going to be strong enough to support your house. You want a foundation repair system that you KNOW will support your home.

Helical piers remove any guesswork from foundation repair.

We take torque measurements throughout the installation process. Those torque measurements are then used to precisely calculate the load-bearing capacity of the soil that the pier has reached. In this way, we can be certain when the piers have reached a depth where they can support your home.

3. Less Invasive Installation

Many of the other traditional foundation repair processes involve adding cement piers or pads under your home. As you can imagine, many of these methods require extensive excavation and heavy machinery.

Make no mistake, foundation repair will always be at least somewhat invasive, whether it involves excavations or drilling holes in the slab floor.

With helical piers, however, we are able to minimize the impact. Excavations are small and are limited to the areas where the piers will be attached to the foundation (the foundation footing must be exposed to attach the bracket).

The hydraulic equipment needed to “screw” the pier into the ground is also smaller than that which you usually picture for construction projects.

We will keep the project’s footprint as minimal as possible.

4. Immediate Support

Once the piers are sunk and the brackets attached to the home, they are ready to support your home and provide the strength needed by the failing foundation.

There is no curing time like with concrete. There is no drawn out process. We come in, install the piers, refill the excavations, and leave you to enjoy your home and your life.

Outside of lightning storms (we are dealing with metal piers, after all), installation of helical piers is also not weather dependent. We aren’t going to have to keep postponing until the temperature falls within a precise range.

If the weather is too hot for steel to provide strength, we all will have bigger problems than foundation failure.

Contact Us For Foundation Repair Services in the Annapolis Region

If you have any questions regarding Alliance Inc.’s foundation repair services, contact us today. We can be reached by phone, text, or by filling out the contact form on our website.