Home Owner

What You Need to Know

As the trend towards smaller housing lots increases and the use of uncontrolled filled site becomes necessary due to the lack of available land, the demand for cost effective piling and soil stabilization methods has increased exponentially.

Situations where one of these services may be required in domestic housing applications is:

  • Poor Soil Profiles
  • Sewer and Drainage Easements
  • Retaining Wall and Pool Construction Close to Existing Structures
  • Underpinning (building settlement)
  • Timber Decking
  • Semi-Permanent Modular Buildings
  • Contoured Sites
  • Ground Retention or Soil Stabilization (Shoring)
  • Marquee and Shade Structures

For the homeowner, one the most common requirements for piling is where existing underground services such as sewer and drainage easements fall within the required building envelope. These easements will require the transfer of any building loads to below what is calld a "line of influence".

Where a building's foundations have settled due to loose or poor soils, we specialize in engineered underpinning solutions. A solution may or may not the jack as part of the underpinning process.  Where the new construction of a retaining wall or swimming pool may interfere with an existing structures foundations.  Underpinning may include the use of screwpiles, grout columns or microfine cement grout soil injection as the best solution.

Careful consideration needs to be given to the foundation system and design should be provided by an experienced and qualified certifying structural engineer.  Engineering certification is required for Council and Services Authorities building approvals.  Use your preferred consulting engineer, or alternatively Screwpile Australia offers a turnkey approach through our associated consulting firm Foundation Engineering Pty Ltd.

Screwpiles are installed using rotary hydraulics on earthmoving equipment such as bobcats (skid-steers), mini-excavators (5 to 8 tonne) and large excavators (12 to 30 tonne).  The minimum headroon requirement is a typical carport height with an access width minimum of 1.7m.  For more detailed information on access click here.

Click on a category that best suits your requirement on the left side panel of this page for more information or simply email us your query. One of our staff will respond promptly.