Anybody used one of the steel tube type pile systems

just had a chat with a structural engineer who has done a couple of jobs local to me, and even though we haven’t had our soil survey done yet I’m doing a bit of research just in case. 

 

Do you include the idea of ground improvement (that uses a steel tube to insert the stone)? if so, yes.

But you might not mean that, so I'll hang back until you reply.

Ian

Yes.  We had some about 200 diameter steel tubes.  V small rig.  The first tube is crimped at the end and a weight is lifted and dropped down repeatedly.  When the tube is nearly in the ground, a further tube is welded on and so forth until the desired depth is achieved.  Then the hollow case is filled with concrete, sometimes with rebar.  Ours were about 16m and several welds broke.  Also several did not drive straight.  The piling took an age.

 

If you have the room, CFA or SFA seem far quicker / better.

@Mr Punter any idea why they used this method if it was a pain. 

 

This is a method used locally as an auger type pile still needs a tube around it to stop the hole caving in

i like the idea as I think we will struggle to get a big rig on site

 

@recoveringacademic mr punter described it perfectly I’ve looked at your ground improving method and think the set up is to big to get down our access track. 

11 minutes ago, Russell griffiths said:

@Mr Punter

[...]

I’ve looked at your ground improving method and think the set up is to big to get down our access track. 

 

Thats a shame because the job was done in one day.... 64 4 meter  'piles' 

25 minutes ago, recoveringacademic said:

 

Thats a shame because the job was done in one day.... 64 4 meter  'piles' 

I’ve had a good look at your pics @recoveringacademic And I think we will struggle to get the rig around a 90degree corner we have, that’s very quick 64 in a day. 

What did you put on top a slab or strip footings. 

Slab.

We got the rig round two 90 degree bends. Heart in mouth true enough, but we also got it over a weak bridge   

We had 26 x 10m deep piles as you describe.  It took about a week.  The little tracked rig arrived on trailer behind a 4x4 so no big mobilisation fees, minimal noise and disturbance to neighbours. Filled with concrete with rebar down the centre for tying into the ring beam.  I've no experience of other methods, but I'd happily use this again without a second thought.

9 hours ago, Roundtuit said:

We had 26 x 10m deep piles as you describe.  It took about a week.  The little tracked rig arrived on trailer behind a 4x4 so no big mobilisation fees, minimal noise and disturbance to neighbours. Filled with concrete with rebar down the centre for tying into the ring beam.  I've no experience of other methods, but I'd happily use this again without a second thought.

Thanks for that

can you give me a rough idea on price. I know price will be dependent on many things but it might give me something to go on. 

10m is fairly deep your ground must have been double crap. 

 

I have a few reasons for wanting to use this method which I will go into if it ever happens. 

Edited March 3, 20188 yr by Russell griffiths

Yeah, fenland, so an underlying layer of peat.  Engineered foundations are pretty much par for the course round here.  I've just checked the paperwork - my mistake, 24 piles not 26; in round figures, £9.5k for the piling and £13.5k for 111 linear metres of ring beam ...and this is what it looked like!

On 02/03/2018 at 16:14, Russell griffiths said:

This is a method used locally as an auger type pile still needs a tube around it to stop the hole caving in

i like the idea as I think we will struggle to get a big rig on site

 

 

The CFA and SFA piles work with a hollow stem auger and concrete is pumped through the auger as it is withdrawn, so there is no risk of caving in.  The only issue can be if you come across a void which is too large to fill with concrete.