The foundation on screw piles is used in the construction of low-rise, private houses, capital and temporary outbuildings. The main advantages of such a foundation are: its reliability on any soil, including swampy, independence from the climatic conditions of the region, in addition, such foundations do not need a flat area. All this attracts developers. So, we build the foundation with our own hands.
What is a pile foundation
To build a screw foundation with your own hands, you first need to understand what a screw pile is. This is a stainless steel tube with a pointed tip, to which a blade is welded, in appearance resembling a propeller. The blade is screwed into the ground to the required depth. The depth of the pile directly depends on the type of structure for which the screw foundation is being made.with your own hands. A brick or wooden house, a bathhouse or a utility block require different depths of piles to be screwed into the ground, but in any case it cannot be less than one and a half meters.
If a firm decision is made that you will build a foundation on piles with your own hands, then the work will require the help of several people. Piles are screwed by rotating them to the required depth. It should be taken into account that if at this moment stones, tree roots or something else interfering with the process come across in the path of the pile, the pile must be unscrewed, the place cleared, and only after that continue work. After the piles are screwed in, special head plates are welded on top, on which the load from the building will be distributed.
The piles themselves are connected to each other (to stiffen the entire structure) with a wooden beam or a metal channel. When the required depth is reached, the pile, thanks to the blades, is securely and firmly fixed in the ground. When building a screw foundation with your own hands, you need to remember that the quality of the piles plays a key role. In this case, the quality of the metal, the location of the blades (they should not be symmetrical) and their manufacturing technology also matter.
The foundation on such piles is not very difficult to build and has a number of advantages compared to other types. These include low cost, long service life (over a hundred years), short (from one to two days) installation time, seismic resistance and, asmentioned above, the possibility of erection on any soil and year-round. In addition, a do-it-yourself screw foundation suggests that after installing the piles, you can immediately begin further work on the construction of the building, since it does not settle. The foundation on such piles is not without its drawbacks: it is the impossibility of equipping the basement, the need to insulate the lower part of the building and the weight limit of the building under construction.
If the screw piles are chosen correctly, and the process of their installation is not violated, then you will get a reliable and durable foundation that will withstand the structure and last for many years.
