Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions
Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions
(OP)
We are adding a walkway to a massive building built in the 20's. It is post and beam with brick walls. It is in Collin county.
Question 1. Where piers a common construction practice back then?
Question 2. How deep are most piers for commercial buildings in this area?
(We dug piers yesterday and hit water around 12 feet. First hole was so bad there was no way to even cut a bell. Drilling rig went down to 20' and it was very wet.
Drill operator said he could not provide pier holes with bells that would be suitable for pouring.)
The soils report mistakenly said water should not be a problem. Done last summer
Question 3. What other foundation system could be used in this situation? (Concrete deck 10 feet wide with canopy. Building has crawl space of about 8 feet so deck is at first floor height with stairs to grade. Owner is excavating in crawl space to pour slab for storage and future retail space.
THanks
Larry
Question 1. Where piers a common construction practice back then?
Question 2. How deep are most piers for commercial buildings in this area?
(We dug piers yesterday and hit water around 12 feet. First hole was so bad there was no way to even cut a bell. Drilling rig went down to 20' and it was very wet.
Drill operator said he could not provide pier holes with bells that would be suitable for pouring.)
The soils report mistakenly said water should not be a problem. Done last summer
Question 3. What other foundation system could be used in this situation? (Concrete deck 10 feet wide with canopy. Building has crawl space of about 8 feet so deck is at first floor height with stairs to grade. Owner is excavating in crawl space to pour slab for storage and future retail space.
THanks
Larry






RE: Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions
RE: Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions
Get with your geotech.
RE: Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions
Also - typically when I've specified belled piers only to find that the bells can't work due to water or more sandy conditions than what the geotech thought - we've gone to straight shafts.
These straight shafts sometimes get very large and/or deep but sometimes the geotechnical engineer can help by also adding skin friction to the capacity.
RE: Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions
RE: Advice for North Texas pier depth and techniques for moist conditions