Not all screw piles are created equal
March 23, 2023 | Ronda Bertram Senior Project Manager, Screw Pile Pros.
Home Owners and Builders Beware!
After sending out thousands of quotes over the years for every kind of job related to screw piles, we have come to learn that not all screw piles are created equal. You may ask, “What does this mean exactly and how does this affect me when hiring a screw pile installation contractor?
So let’s first talk to you as a homeowner. You have decided to use screw piles for your deck. You go to google and type into your search bar the words ‘screw piles’. Google then feeds you a list of screw pile installers in your area that you can contact to get a quote. You decide you are going to do your ‘due diligence’ and get 3 quotes and compare pricing. So you contact the 3 companies that pique your interest and ask them to provide you with a quote. As the quotes start coming back you realize there is quite a discrepancy between the pile pricing. In fairness, you want to compare apples to apples but due to the way the quotes are worded you have no idea what to compare what to and why the price is different. Here are some questions you could ask to clarify:
Is the material you are using for the screw piles new or used contaminated oilfield pipe?
As a screw pile installation company we have installed thousands of screw piles over the years and we have become aware that some of our competitors to be more aggressive in their pricing are using contaminated oilfield drilling pipe as shafts for screw piles. This can create a difference of over $40 per installed pile. Often times these piles are dripping on the inside with contaminated oil. Why would this be important to you?
- This pile is being installed in your ground by your home where your children play. It could contaminate by leaking into your ground.
- If you are on a acreage and have a well system it could contaminate your water supply.
- You are not aware of what products, by products, chemicals, etc. have travelled through that pipe. Do you want to risk exposure to your land, your animals and your family. Are you willing to take that chance even if it is a remote possibility.
Screw Pile Pros uses Brand New Material Only!
We will NOT install used oilfield pipe for the three reasons stated above, and the following reasons below:
- It causes grief for our installers if the pile is dripping with oil it contaminates the deck of our trailer. Why would this matter to you as a homeowner? While our installer is getting the piles and machine off our trailer deck, the oil is tracked in their boots and in the tracks/wheels of our equipment and the next thing you know it is being tracked onto your concrete and sidewalks.
- If we have to weld an extension to the pile to get torque the contaminated oil many times catches fire and now you have pollutants being airborne through the smoke being creating putting our installers health at risk and contaminating your breathable surrounding air.
- Used oilfield pipe cannot be verified for its integrity to hold up a foundation without each individual pipe being tested.
- Our engineer will not sign off or confirm any job that has used oilfield pipe.
One common phrase in our industry is ‘steel is steel’, but that is not necessarily the case. The steel that the company you hire uses should be important to you and we will hopefully convince you why by the end of this article.
‘Steel is Steel’ …. no it is NOT.
I am all for recycling and reuse, but when something is reused it still need to be cleaned and void of any hazardous waste contaminants. Used oilfield pipe could be filled with contaminants as there is no way to know what contaminated material has travelled through that pipe. There are companies in Alberta that deal with removal and separation of contaminants and reusable oil. These companies clean and separate good oil field products from contaminated ones by rinsing and removing the material from the pipe and then spinning the waste at super high speeds. The contaminated waste is funnelled in one container to be disposed of properly and the good material is filtered to another to be resold on the marketplace. One such company is Tervita. Once the pipe has been cleaned it could then be reused for applications like being the shaft for a helical screw pile. Until the piles have been cleaned and removed of contaminants, these piles should not be allowed to be reinserted in Alberta ground and should be treated like hazardous waste. If companies that sold used, contaminated oilfield pipe had to send them for cleaning before resale, the pipe pricing would be more competitive to new steel pricing and would be better tracked for use in other fields.
Alberta Building Code Compliance and Engineer Sign-off
So now lets talk to you as a builder. Let’s say you built multiple homes and had a screw pile installation company install piles for the sidewalk concrete support, the garage, the foundation and the deck piles. We are not talking just 3 piles for a deck, we are talking 20-30 piles on the site. Would you want to find out 5 years down the road, you have to clean and remediate the soil of a home that you built and sold to a homeowner due to contaminated oil seepage into the ground causing ground contamination? How would you feel to know as a builder everything else in the home is brand new except the screw piles that were installed?
Another reason why the steel used during install is important would be because we want to be able to confirm or comply your project with the Alberta Building Code Compliance and be stamped by our engineer. Whether you need it today or in 10 years because you have decided to sell your home, we need to be able to instantly comply our jobs with our engineer and then approved by the ‘Authorities Having Jurisdiction’ (AHJ’s usually referred to as ‘Safety Codes Departments’ in the various cities and municipalities. We have run into situations with homeowners not realizing they needed to have a permit for their structure until they went to sell their house. We have had to no problem comply our projects sometimes 5 years after the fact because we keep proper records and always install to what is required by our engineer. We always say we are an ‘engineered company because everything we do starts with an engineering principle’.
What is the length of pile the company will be using?
Screw Pile Pros ‘deck piles’ come in 8’ and 10’ lengths. In order to be competitive in certain markets, we will use a 8 foot pile depending on the location of install. How do we know what length of pile to use? We have installers working all over Alberta. We also have a central database that tracks all depths and ground conditions where we install so our installers know pretty much at what depth they will get torque for decks.
It is up to our installers expertise to choose the pile to be installed based on their knowledge and experience of the ground conditions. Most companies install 10’ piles so we will provide up to 10’ for the price per pile to allow the installer to reach 5 kips which equates to 5000lbs of bearing capacity regardless of the length of the deck pile used. For example, if our installer uses an 8’ foot deck pile and doesn’t reach 5000lbs he will substitute a 8’ for a 10’ pile. If our installer doesn’t reach proper torque at 10′ it is only then that he would add an extension and there would be an extra charge to get torque. In 98% of the deck pile installations we get torque at 10’ or less. So Screw Pile Pros quotes are priced per pile for up to 10’. Our customers are not charged anything more unless torque isn’t reached and an extension is used. When Screw Pile Pros sends you a quote for a deck and it has no hot tub or roof on it, our deck pile quotes will only say the shaft size and that it is a deck pile (2 7/8″ inch shaft). The installer will then choose what length and helix size drawing on our expertise of the ground conditions.
Our screw pile installers are experts in their field and they know what size of pile to use, with what length, pitch and size of helix to get the best chance of reaching torque in Alberta ground.
The moral of this blog post?
Ask the right questions to the company you want to hire to do your screw piles. Remember that not all screw piles are created equal and if one company is substantially less per pile than another, there is usually a reason for it!
