Concrete

Pre-cast pre-stressed concrete piles are commonly used in the pile market. We drive concrete piles on more than forty percent of our jobs. The pre-cast pile is one of the most cost effective pile types due to material cost, custom pile lengths, and availability.

• The cost of concrete pile varies based on design loads, dimensions, and length, but typically a concrete pile is more cost effective.
• After the completion of an indicator program pile lengths can be customized to site specific soil conditions prior to ordering production pile avoiding costly material waste.
• Concrete piles can be ready to drive in most cases in fourteen days, as opposed to steel piles which can require a mill rolling taking six to eight weeks.

Concrete Pile Diameters

Standard concrete pile sizes are 12-inch square, 14-inch square, 15-inch octagonal, 16-inch square, and 16-inch round. Other pre-cast concrete pile sizes such as 18-inch square, 20-inch square, 24-inch square, and 24-inch octagonal are used occasionally depending on the project requirements.

Pile Lengths

What are the length limitations to concrete piles?

Concrete piles up to 135-feet long can be fabricated, and trucked to most Bay Area locations – the controlling factor being the geographic area of the project. Due to restricted access or other factors concrete piles can be fabricated with splicing plates, which enable concrete piles to be field spliced, and driven in one continuous operation.

Pile Cap Connections

How does a concrete pile tie into the footings?

There are two standard pile cap connections:

• Piles with exposed rebar and or strand – this method can be provided in two ways. 1) Driving piles with the rebar and or strand projecting from the top of the pile. 2) Driving a pile that is cast sufficiently long to allow for breaking back of the concrete after driving to expose the rebar and or strand.
• Piles cast with flex tube – in this method the piling have cast-in tubes that allow for “setting” reinforcing steel after installation using either grout or epoxy.

There are variations to these pile cap connections. Exposed rebar method could use couplers to provide hooks or Tees of the reinforcing steel. And, exposed strands can be splayed or strand chucks can be installed to increase tension value. The flex tube option provides for a variety of steel strength, types, and sizes. Foundation has the equipment, and experience to install all types, and lengths of concrete piles, and provide for an appropriate cap connection.

Pile Types