Conducting Pile Length Verification 1

[keither21]

Does anyone know the accuracy in the tests available in determining the length of existing timber piles.
Part of a problem is that these timber piles were installed/driven?? in the eary 1930s. No record of AS-BUILTS. Is there any type of testing that will guarantee
an accuracy within +/- 1"?

Thank you,

KC

 

[epr]

I assume you are talking about wave propogation analysis.

I am aware of a recent situation where all the piling under a new house were checked using this method. Since numerous piling lengths were computed to be considerably less than they should have been, the house was jacked up, relocated, and all piles extracted for measurement. The end result was that there was no reason to move the house and extract all the piling. A few of the results were as follows:
As tested = 19' versus actual length = 33'
14' versus 27'
39' versus 33'

In summary, your money is better spent extracting a pile or two to measure tha actual length.

By the way, for a nice homogeneous material, such as steel piling, the method works quite well. But there are still no guarantees as to the length.