How to twist piles under a standing house. We twist the pile manually on our own. Calculation of diameter, length and number of piles

Experts recommend not to take on the manufacture and mechanical screwing of piles with your own hands, since these works carry many risks. Nevertheless, it is necessary to consider different aspects from one point of view and, comparing the opinions of practitioners and specialists, determine whether it is possible to manufacture and tighten screw manually and how this will happen.

Factors that determine the reliability of the foundation

The pile foundation is most often built on clayey, macroporous and floating soils. The method involving the use of piles gives the house greater reliability. Such a foundation has a structure that is strong and stable on the ground with unstable soil. A house on stilts is sometimes erected in those places where there is no road along which special equipment could pass.

On a pile foundation, strong and light houses are usually built from timber, blocks and prefabricated panels. The location of the piles is determined by the purpose of construction. For private houses, the pile field method is most often used. A small building is located on a pile foundation, experiencing serious vertical loads. To increase the strength of the piles, they are combined with a grillage.

The main rule for ensuring the reliability of the foundation is the correctness of the calculations made independently and the characteristics of the soil. In other words, the load that the pile can withstand without further settlement is calculated. Calculations are made based on the weight of the future home.

The piles should be screwed in such a way that it passes the layer of soil that freezes in winter. Sandy and clay soils are capable of holding water. In winter, when it freezes, it will occupy a larger volume in the ground. This process is called heaving of the soil, so the shrinkage of the house must be limited using acceptable values, i.e. the pressure of the house on the foundation should not exceed the calculated resistance of the soil, which is affected by heaving forces. The pile is usually buried in the ground by 1.5-3 m. The helical part of the pile must be included in a strong layer that does not contain groundwater. In order to calculate the depth of entry of the lower end of the pile, you can use construction regulations. For example, a pile with a diameter of 56 mm can withstand a load of up to 3 tons. For this type of pipe, the average load should not exceed 5 tons.

Corrosion rate of piles, according to regulatory documents, is determined by 0.2 -0.5 mm per year. Some documents indicate that in undestroyed soil, this figure will be 1-2 mm in 90-100 years. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the aggressiveness of the soil, the quality of the steel from which the screw piles are made and the anti-corrosion compounds used. The main parameters used in calculating the reliability of the foundation are: soil conditions, features of piles and their production, the mode of occurrence of groundwater, the presence of sludge (dust of small inclusions) in the solid soil of the end point.

Back to index

Making screw piles with your own hands

The pile will consist of 3 parts: the bearing part of the pile, in fact, the pile itself - a pipe of the required diameter (from 8.6 cm or more); a screw welded onto its sharp end, and a special head where a beam or harness will be attached. The pile is made from a metal pipe of the required diameter. If it does not have a cast tip, it is made as follows: the end of the pipe is cut into sectors to the desired size in depth. After that, the sectors are welded onto a cone and the seams are straightened.
For the manufacture of the screw, used metal disks are used or new ones are cut from steel with a thickness of 5-6 mm. The workpiece must be clamped with a vise and stretched to obtain a screw of the desired size. The outer diameter depends on the type of soil. The deeper the pile is planned to be twisted, the smaller the screw should be. Then it is attached by welding to the pile and painted or coated with an anti-corrosion coating. A head is fixed on the pile, which will later become the basis for a beam or channel.

Back to index

Pile field installation

To do this, you will need the following materials and tools:

fittings for marking;
magnetic or laser building level;
Bulgarian;
levers;
welding;
concrete mixture;
container for preparing the solution.

The area for the construction of the foundation is marked with pegs and a rope. To do this, it is necessary to carefully clear and level the area. Reinforcement is installed at its corners, along the outlined perimeter. Pipes must be screwed in the center, this should be taken into account when marking. The reinforcement or pegs are connected with a rope, it must be pulled so that it does not sag. The rest of the points will be set along the rope. The countdown must be from where the rope crosses. can be varied.

The fittings must be installed taking into account the proximity of the drilling sites. After measuring the resulting diagonals, make sure that the distances are the same. If the twisting of screw piles involves the use of a drill, its diameter is taken slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe. should be the same. When setting a magnetic level on them, make sure that the angle of inclination is no more than 1-2 °, otherwise the pile will move away from the vertical. The denser the field, the more reliable the foundation will be.

Back to index

Driving screw piles by hand

On the question of whether it is necessary to use a drill at, there are different opinions. In some cases, with the help of a drill, leader holes are made to facilitate screwing. However, they violate the density of the soil. When a pile is screwed into the ground, the soil around it is compacted, so it displaces it. This improves the characteristics of the soil compared to loose. The probability of water penetration into the mine shaft is reduced. The piles are screwed in using a pipe used as a lever. A crowbar is inserted into the pipe and levers of a larger diameter are put on with its help. You should be aware that this is a very time-consuming process, which must be performed with strong assistants or use special equipment.

If you still decide to make leader holes, they should be a couple of meters shorter than the pile itself.

Piles in some cases are leveled with crowbars or struts. A discrepancy of a couple of centimeters is easily eliminated by using a screw jack.

Building a house on certain soils requires the use of a pile foundation. A large selection of screw piles is currently available, which are not driven, but screwed into the surface. Screwing screw piles under the foundation on your own allows you to save on the rental of expensive special equipment without losing the quality of the foundation.

But there are a few nuances on how to screw the screw piles with your own hands.

List of required tools

Before starting work, in addition to the piles themselves, you need to take care of the following tools:

shovels;
magnetic level;
hydraulic level or level;
roulette (regular or laser);
scrap;
two pipes with a diameter slightly larger than scrap, each about 2 m long;
twine or rope;
marking elements - pegs.

Depending on the situation, you may need: a garden drill, a welding machine, a power source (generator or connection to a local network) and a grinder saw with metal discs. If there is no desire to manually tighten the screw piles, manual labor can be replaced with a powerful 1.5 kW drill and a geared wrench attachment.

Pile field marking

The process of screwing screw piles always begins with marking the pile field for the future foundation. It is necessary to mark the field in order to accurately record the number of required piles and correctly place them so that in the future the structure does not sink and collapse.

There is a wide range of ready-made screw piles on the market, the specifications of which indicate the maximum load that they can withstand. The caliber varies from 47 to 108 mm. Under the construction of a one-story house, 108-mm structures are used, each of which can withstand a maximum load of 3.5 tons.

It is necessary to choose piles from trusted suppliers. Saving is undesirable, it is fraught with loss of foundation strength and collapse of the entire structure.

The formula is: S = M/N, Where S- number of piles, M- projected mass of the building, N- bearing capacity of one pile. If a fractional number is obtained, it is rounded up.

Then you need to draw a field diagram on paper or in any suitable program. Mark the location of future buildings. Piles are necessarily brought under the foundation in the corners and along the perimeter of the building. The maximum distance between adjacent points is 3 m.

Then the field is marked on the territory. The installation points of screw piles under the foundation can be marked with metal rods or pegs driven into the ground. To avoid mistakes, a twine is stretched between the marking elements, aligning it with a tape measure and a level.

Installation of piles manually

After marking the field, the twisting of the screw piles begins from the corners of the future foundation. With a garden drill (if its diameter is less than the “caliber” of the pile) or with a shovel, you need to make a pit 0.5–0.7 m deep, so that the metal pole enters it tightly and holds on its own.

After that, using a ladder (if the support is long), you need to insert a strong crowbar into the technological holes on the top of the pile. On the ends of the scrap, on each side, a piece of a metal pipe with a length of at least 2 m each is put on. These are shoulders of a lever design, designed to facilitate the process of screwing in screw supports. The longer the shoulders, the easier it is to twist.

To twist the piles under the foundation, the efforts of 2-3 people are required. Two rotate the lever structure, moving around it in a circle, the third from time to time checks the angle of deviation of the metal column from the vertical on the magnetic level. The support must enter the ground strictly vertically, without the slightest deviation, otherwise the strength of the foundation will be at risk.

You can do without a third person if you fix the magnetic level on the pile.

After installing the corner supports, the remaining foundation supports are screwed in around the perimeter.

Installation with a hand tool

If the process is tight, and the above-ground part of the column does not exceed human height, you can ease the work using a powerful hammer drill with a power of at least 1.5 kW. You will need a nozzle - a gear wrench, which increases the force by reducing the number of revolutions.

To the upper part of the support, you need to attach a structure made of a large-caliber bolt welded to a powerful flange base. This flange is bolted to the top. Using a drill with a wrench mounted on the head of the bolt, the pile can be screwed into the soil alone. So that it does not go to the side, a channel is used as a support.

Immersion depth

The pile is screwed into the ground until it stops, until the moment when it stops entering even with the application of maximum effort. This means that a layer of such density has been reached that will withstand the support with the load. You can build a foundation.

After that, the supports are cut off, maintaining the cut height along the level.

How to tighten screw piles with your own hands? Such a question arises during the independent construction of a pile foundation, the correct installation of which determines the reliability and duration of operation of the building under construction. The choice of technology for screwing in screw supports is determined by the budget of the developer, the type of soil and the availability of special devices.

Soil analysis

The pile foundation is used as a foundation in the construction of houses in areas with moving, clay or flooded soil, as well as in areas with difficult terrain and large height differences.

Before starting to tighten the screw supports, it is necessary to study the condition of the soil and determine the level of groundwater. To do this, you can use special directories, choosing the necessary parameters for the location of the construction site.

To get more accurate information, test drilling or screwing the pile is carried out. The first method is more informative, since it allows you to find out the depth of solid ground.

In addition, during test drilling, it is possible to mark out and prepare holes of a smaller diameter for the subsequent tightening of the screw supports.

Selection and calculation of pile parameters

When using factory-made piles, one should be guided by the type and estimated weight of the objects being built. Screw supports with a diameter of 47‑76 mm are used in the construction of various fortifications and fences. For the construction of light structures and frame houses, piles with a section of 89 mm are used.

With a diameter of 108 mm, they can withstand up to 3500 kg and are therefore suitable for most buildings under construction, excluding stone buildings. The mass of buildings is calculated according to the overall dimensions of the house and the weight of the walls and other structural elements.

The length of the piles is determined by the level of the base of the grillage, taking into account the characteristics of the soil, the depth of its freezing and the location of groundwater. Important factors are also the overall dimensions and weight of the structures being built. Most often, piles with a length of 2-2.5 m are in demand.

How many screw supports are required, and what should be the distance between them is calculated in accordance with parameters such as:

the type and properties of the soil on the site;
foundation shape;
the magnitude and nature of the acting load.

Before starting work and test drilling, you should make sure that there are no underground utilities on the territory of the construction site.

Tools and fixtures for screwing piles

Screw piles for the foundation can be screwed in manually, using home-made and factory-made small-scale mechanization tools, as well as using special equipment. The choice of a certain option depends on the financial capabilities of the owner of the future real estate, the availability of assistants and the possibility of vehicles driving to the construction site.

To tighten the screw supports for a pile foundation manually, you will need:

shovel;
roulette and level;
reinforcement or pegs and twine for marking;
hammer or sledgehammer;
grinder and spare wheels for leveling piles in height;
pipes with a diameter of 50 mm and a length of 2.5 m, which act as levers;
a special marker for marks on pegs or fittings.

The hole for the pile is made using a garden drill, the diameter of which should be less than the cross section of the screw supports used. It allows you to check the structure of the soil and identify stones and other obstacles, if any.

Piling technology

To carry out the installation of screw piles for the foundation with your own hands, you first need to mark the location of the supports according to the calculations made, using twine and reinforcement. The distance between the piles should not be more than 3 m, otherwise the strength and stability of the base are significantly reduced.

Further activities for screwing piles include the following types of work:

Drilling of holes on a marking. It is performed using a garden drill in such a way that the depth of the resulting pits is less than the length of the pile. In some cases, the supports are screwed in without prior drilling. This complicates the installation of the pile foundation, but avoids looseness of the soil.
Twisting. The pile is placed in the hole and the scrap is threaded into it, having previously strengthened the building magnetic level on the support. Then the support begins to be screwed, avoiding its displacement. Upon reaching denser soil layers, levers in the form of pipe segments are used, evenly distributing the impact force. How many people will be required to install the pile depends on the density of the soil and its diameter. Usually a minimum of three participants are needed: two screw the support, and the third controls the vertical level and makes timely adjustments. In the same way, the rest of the foundation supports are screwed in the corners of the building under construction and along its perimeter.
Alignment. Upon completion of the installation, the supports are leveled and cut in height using a level. How much will need to be cut? Typically, piles are shortened by about 10 cm, which corresponds to the length of a technological hole that does not have a bearing capacity.
Concreting. To protect the supports from corrosion on the inner surface and to strengthen the foundation, they are poured with a concrete solution. In this case, the brand of cement should not be lower than M150, and it is desirable to use sand without impurities.

Watch the video on how to properly mount the supports with your own hands.

If, when screwing in, the pile shifted to the side, and the depth did not reach 1.5 m, it should be removed and screwed again. With excessive soil resistance, an additional load should be provided that puts pressure on the support from above.

Screw piles are a fairly ancient technology that was successful during the Napoleonic Wars and was patented in the early 19th century. Today, piles are used in construction as an element of a pile-screw foundation. The installation of piles is not difficult, it is done quickly, and if the base is being erected under a one-story light building, then the piles can even be made by hand.

Benefits of screw piles

Screw piles are pipes made of steel and empty inside. On one side there is a sharp tip with a cutting blade that allows you to screw the pile into the ground to the desired depth. After reaching the mark, the penetration stops, the piles are securely fixed in the ground, since the blade prevents them from being pushed out in the opposite direction.

The advantages of screw piles are as follows:

When installing them, there is no need to plan the site and provide for paths leading to it.
The use of piles does not depend on the season and weather.
The possibilities of using piles are wide, as they are used both on swampy soil and on permafrost.
Low labor costs for the construction of such a foundation, when compared with other types of foundations.
Construction work begins immediately after the installation of piles, without waiting for the foundation to shrink.
When erecting an extension to a building, there is no shrinkage of the new foundation relative to the old one.
Installation of piles is allowed in the area where underground communications are developed.
A pile foundation in combination with a reinforced concrete strip foundation will be the best solution if construction is carried out on soft soils, not excluding even quicksand.
After the piles are removed from the ground, they can be reused.

Disadvantages of screw piles

Along with numerous advantages, screw piles are not without disadvantages:

When used in moist soils, the reaction of which is different from neutral, the service life of the piles is limited. The duration of operation of metal products is 50-60 years, drill-driven products are much longer, reaching 100-120 years.
You can not build multi-storey buildings on such a foundation.
With a pile foundation, it is impossible to build a basement, otherwise the interaction of the piles with the soil will be disrupted.
It requires complex finishing of the basement and the creation of a high-quality scaffold to prevent water from entering the underground.
When constructing a pile foundation, it is impossible to use a standard project; calculations are carried out individually for each individual case.

Screw piles are used in the construction of foundations for temporary and light houses, for example, prefabricated panel, wooden baths, outbuildings, sheds, fences. Sliding gates using piles are not recommended. They are also not suitable for the construction of the base for the garage.

Production of screw piles

Screw pile - a structure consisting of 3 parts, which is made as follows:

The bearing part is the pipe. A product with a diameter of 85 millimeters or more is used. Next, the screw is welded, it should be located at the pointed end. The harness is attached to a special head.
To create a tip, the ends of the pipes must be cut into sectors of a certain size, facing inward, and then welded into a cone, not forgetting about straightening the seams.
For the screw, used discs or new ones, cut according to a template, or steel of 5-6 millimeters are used. When choosing the outer diameter, take into account the characteristics of the soil. The screw is made smaller with a deeper pile location.
Clamp the screw blank and stretch it using a vise and attach it to the pile. The connection is made by welding. From above, the attachment point is recommended to be coated with an anti-corrosion compound or painted without fail.
Now we will make a head for the pile. A channel will be attached to it. Choose such a size of the blades that they are wider than the pipe by 30 millimeters.

Pile field installation

The installation procedure for the pile field is as follows:

Prepare a set of tools, including fittings, welding, grinder, building level, pipe segments that serve as levers.
Calculate the number of piles that will be needed when installing the foundation, and their length, and also mark the field. For convenience, when marking the building plan, divide it into rectangles.
Clear the site of debris, remove the top layer of soil and level it.
Place reinforcing bars at the corners of the site. For their connection, a strongly stretched, not sagging rope is used.
Focusing on it, mark all points with reinforcement, starting from the place where the rope intersects. During installation, keep in mind that the drilling sites are located next to the reinforcement. To confirm that the distances are the same, it is customary to measure the diagonals.
Choose a hole drill that is slightly larger than the diameter of the pipe.
Piles are installed in drilled holes, starting from the corners, and aligned vertically.
There should be the same distance between adjacent products, the denser you plan to make the pile field, the more reliable the foundation will be.
Twisting the piles, pipe sections are used as levers. A crowbar is inserted into the hole of the pile, with the help of which levers are put on.
Carefully screw the pile in until it reaches the bottom of the hole. On light soils, piles, the length of which does not exceed 5 m, are wrapped by hand. The mechanical method of driving piles involves the use of a mini-excavator.
Check its location with a level. The maximum angle of inclination should not exceed 1-2 degrees with a pile length of 5 m. If it was not possible to install the pile in a strictly vertical position, cut it off and screw another next to it. If the pile has gone to the side, you should not screw it up, as this provokes its subsidence.

Thus, the process of installing screw piles does not involve any specific and complex work, although it is laborious. Therefore, it is important to use only high-quality piles that will last you for many years.

When a pile foundation is taken as a basis during construction, the question arises: how to install screw piles with your own hands, how difficult it is, what tools and equipment will be required. All these problems are solvable, you just need to follow the installation technology and observe the geometric dimensions between the mounted elements.

It is important to know which piles to use, how to make a binding on the site, how to properly mount the piles so that they are a reliable support for the foundation.

Why screw piles?

The popularity of the use of screw piles for the foundation is a consequence of the simplicity, availability of technology for mounting the pile field and frame, and the budgetary cost of the project. Other important parameters are:

the speed of foundation construction;
the possibility of installation in hard-to-reach or swampy areas without the use of complex mechanisms;
independence from the availability of electricity;
the possibility of creating a foundation based on deep-lying bearing soils;
no excavation during installation.

What piles to use

In order to find out what type of piles to use, the length, diameter of the body and supporting blades, determine the loads on the foundation, the state of the soil on the site. For this you need:

Binding of the pile field and the necessary tools for installation

The installation of a pile field is the first and most important stage in the construction of a foundation for a structure under construction. The operation of the foundation during operation and the service life depend on the correctly selected bearing layer of soil, the dimensions of the products and the diameter of the blades according to calculations, high-quality installation, compliance with the technology.

Necessary tools for the installation of piles

To carry out work on tying the location of the pile field on the site, assembling products on your own, you will need the following tools:

Laser or water level, level.
Welding machine.
Portable generator if there is no power connection point.
Angle grinder for cutting the pile head to the design level.
Two magnetic levels. One is allowed.
The drill is manual or driven by a perforator with dimensions = the diameter of the pile blades for pits.
Round metal finger >400 mm long, thick< диаметра монтажного отверстия, из твёрдого, закалённого металла.
Two pipes with an inner diameter > of a finger, 2.5-3 meters long for hand tightening.
Two tape measure length > diagonally along the axes of the foundation of the house.
Level marker and twine.
Reinforcement pegs or round wooden pegs.
Sledgehammer for driving pegs, bayonet shovel.

Binding of a pile field on a site

Binding to the site of the pile field according to the rules given below, guarantees the correct design location and geometry of the foundation for the house. GOST allows the following deviations during the installation of products:

Deviation from the vertical is not more than 0.1% of the length.
Axial deviation in one row< 1/3 диаметра.
Diagonal difference between corner elements< 100 мм.
Immersion of the blades in the carrier layer is not< 300 мм.
Height difference between the heads of the corner elements along one axis for class 2 houses made of brick or concrete blocks< 50 мм, для сооружений из пенобетонных или газоблоков < 20 мм.
Distance between mounted elements< 3 метра.

The binding begins with determining the design position of the side piles of the foundation in relation to the red line of the site and the boundaries with the neighboring one. Instructions for the binding steps:

Clear the area from tall grass, shrubs, objects that interfere with the work 3 meters more than the area of the pile field.
Snap any corner point of the foundation according to the project from the red line and the border with the neighboring site, hammer in a peg well. This is where the center of the first pile will be located.
Make accurate, up to a centimeter, calculations of the distances between piles and diagonals, taking into account and without taking into account the diameter.
Determine the position of the center of the second corner pile by reference to the site, the distance between the centers with the first pile along the same axis, hammer in a peg.
To determine the center of the third corner pile, 2 tape measures are required. On one, take the design distance along the centers from the first point, on the second tape measure, set aside the distance from the center of the peg under the second pile. Align the marks on both tape measures and drive a peg here under the third corner pile.
The position of the center of the fourth point is determined similarly to point 5.
Check again the distance between the centers of the pegs along the axes and diagonals. They must match exactly.

Mounting technology

During installation, it is necessary to strictly monitor the verticality of the installation of elements and compliance with the calculated geometric dimensions along the axes and diagonals. The stage is responsible, laborious. Follow the step by step instructions for the installation process:

When mounting the next two corner elements, observance of diagonal dimensions in the centers is added. Therefore, the process becomes more difficult, it is necessary to align simultaneously in 2 planes. It is important not to rush, take measurements more often, correct deviations as described in paragraph 11.
After mounting the corner elements tightly, without sagging, pull the twine over them. Tape mark the position of the remaining piles along the outer axes. Consider the geometric dimensions between the centers.
Mount the piles. The maximum allowable deviation from the axis of the heads should not exceed 1/3 of the body diameter, but try not to allow this.

The last to be marked, the elements of the internal axes are installed.

See a detailed description of the process on the video: Instructions on how to tighten screw piles. Installation of a pile-screw foundation

Final works

After installing all the elements of the pile field, the following work must be carried out:

A few final tips:

If there is an obstacle in the ground, and the bottom of the pile remains in the freezing zone or groundwater, it is necessary to remove the stone or add two more elements at a small distance along the axis. This will reduce the load on the pile. If it is a reference for the internal axis, then a simple displacement of the pile will make it necessary to change the position of the remaining piles of the internal axis and the design of the house as a whole.
The bearing capacity of piles can be determined by the magnitude of the torque with a device that determines the force when turning.
After concreting the cavity, fill up to the top of the head with a dry cement-sand mixture, it will take on the remaining moisture when the concrete hardens.
Clean the seams from slag, cover with anti-corrosion compounds.