| Deep Foundations and Helix Piers
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What makes a good foundation?
A foundation begins with the soil beneath it. Sometimes terra firma is not near ground level. When a foundation is founded in unstable soils, differential settlement occurs.
If a house is built over soft soils, engineers typically design for a deep foundation to ensure support.
Avalon Structural installs drilled pier foundations (deep holes with rebar and concrete) as well as helix foundations. Owners, engineers, and contractors are finding helix piers make sense in many new construction applications. We install both square shaft and round shaft helix piers and tiebacks. Where stout
columns are needed, we have installed 5.5 inch diameter helix piers. Larger piers are available.
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| For hillside foundations, round shaft vertical helix piers with square shaft diagonal helix piers are more cost effective than drilled piers.
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| Helix piers used for road repair.
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| A set of helix piers created an instant foundation for an equipment platform: |
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| In this example of helix pier application, Avalon installed helix piers, rather than drilled piers, to minimize damage to tree roots as required by the City of Santa Cruz. |
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| Helix piers for new construction: |
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| Avalon built the buttresses for this bridge. The buttresses contain vertical and diagonal helix members: |
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