Micro-Piles and Deep Foundations

Micro pile installation continues under the lighthouse foundation.

One of the early developers of Micro-piles, Palmetto Gunite has continued to be on the cutting edge of installing deep foundation Micro-piles for over 15 years. The Charleston area, as well as the low-country in general, provides a unique problem to engineers. Often times existing homes or structures need deep foundation work due to the lack of a bedrock layer or suitable surface soil profile. Other times, space is too limited for the installation of pre-stress driven piles or the structure (or surrounding structures) cannot allow for the vibrations that are associated with driven piles. Sometimes the costs of driven piles outweighs the needs of the job. Micro-piles provide the adequate strength to support the structure in question without damaging vibrations. We can even set up our Micro-pile drilling rig in a closet if the space is truly limited.

We install steel, Titan rods to a soil depth that is determined by the design professional to be the location of an adequate soil profile capable of supporting the desired loads. Micro-piles have proven reliable and consistent in supporting loads in excess of 100 kips with lateral capacities in excess of 10 kips with one inch deflection. Micro-Piles are the ideal solution for designers needing support on sites where vibration, layout and other site specific conditions preclude the use of conventional pre-stress driven piles.