All interested parties are well aware of such advantages of screw piles as relative cheapness, no cost for heavy equipment during their installation, ease of installation itself, and so on. However, not everyone knows that if some rules are not followed when installing such products, the consequences for the home can be the most sad.
One friend told me about the unpleasant consequences that occurred after improper installation of piles. He said that already in the first year after the construction of the house, the piles began to bulge out of the ground. At first it was not very noticeable, but the next year frosts hit in the winter and the piles simply crawled up.
As a result, the house skewed, the doors stopped opening, the ceiling on the second floor separated from the walls and the metal tile was crumpled.
The conclusion from this story can be made unequivocal - a gross violation of technology was committed during the installation of piles. They were twisted over the freezing depth, which indicates the low qualification of contractors. Experienced professionals will never make such an oversight.
Let's look at this and other errors when installing screw piles in more detail.
- the blade remained above the freezing area. The pile will definitely begin to be squeezed out of the ground in winter;
- vertical deviation. If verticality is not observed during twisting, the bearing capacity of the screw pile decreases, deviating from the design one. Consequently, the support will not be able to hold the load that will rest on it;
- the pile is not screwed up to dense soil. Screw piles must necessarily reach dense soil. Otherwise, after the load is applied to them, the piles risk sinking into the ground. The consequence of this will be a decrease in the reliability of the foundation to such an extent that the building may warp. After sinking piles under the house, it seems that the floor is squeezed up;
- when building on bulk soils, on peat bogs or deep pits, with a base height of 65 cm no metal binding. If these mistakes are made, the so-called "trampoline effect" is possible. Simply put - rocking piles.
This disadvantage can be eliminated by metal strapping, even if the construction has already been completed. Although, of course, it is not necessary to bring to this, it is enough to weld the metal at the stage of foundation construction. It is also necessary to prevent construction on deep pits;
- welded joints are not painted, the pile shaft is not filled with sand concrete. The piles themselves are coated with a protective compound or galvanized from the outside.
However, there is no such coating from the inside and condensation forms in the pile, leading to corrosion, which reduces the service life of the product. Therefore, the pile must be filled with sand concrete from the inside.
Sand concrete is designed to protect the pile from this phenomenon. If welded joints are not treated properly, there is a risk of rapid corrosion.
Important: spot welding of the heads is recommended to avoid a larger area for corrosion. In general, if strong winds and loads pulling out piles are not expected during the operation of the house, there is no need to make an annular seam once again so as not to injure the metal.
Compliance with these rules will avoid serious problems with the house or structure for many years.
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