Helical Piers

Helical piers are foundation support systems consisting of steel shafts with a helical-shaped blade, driven into the ground using the power of an excavator. They take advantage of engineering technology developed to repair damaged foundations and overcome weak, unstable soil conditions — a common problem here in North Carolina, where our red clay soil doesn't drain well.

Why Helical Piers

• Load rated to hold up to 20,000 pounds per pier
• Can be used in restrictive, overhead-limited access areas
• Can be installed on steep slopes and even inside crawl spaces

How Installation Works

A galvanized bracket is bolted to the bottom of the concrete footing. The pier is engineered to be screwed into the ground with an auger bit, using the power of an excavator to drive it to the correct depth. That depth is determined by a structural engineer after evaluating your soil conditions and the weight of your home. Resistance is measured with a pressure gauge as the pier drills down, and the pier is secured to the bottom of your foundation with a 12-inch bracket, extending down to load-bearing soil at the recommended level.

Foundation Underpinning

Underpinning is the general term for extending a foundation down to soil that can actually carry it, and helical piers are how we do it. The distinction matters mostly because it is the word engineers and inspection reports use — if a report has recommended underpinning, piers are the method being described.

The reason it is needed here is usually the soil rather than the building. Triangle homes sit largely on clay, which swells when it takes on water and shrinks as it dries out. A foundation resting on that moves with it, season after season, until something cracks. A pier bypasses that layer entirely and transfers the load to competent soil below, which is why it stops the movement rather than patching its effects.

Do You Lift the House, or Just Stop It Sinking?

Both are possible and they are different conversations. Stabilization halts further settlement, and it is the goal on every job. Lift attempts to bring the settled section back toward its original elevation, and how much is recoverable depends on how far it has dropped, how brittle the finishes above are, and what the structure will tolerate.

A house that has settled over twenty years will not always come all the way back, and forcing it can do more damage upstairs than the settlement did. We will tell you what is realistically achievable before the work starts rather than after.

Signs You May Need Piers Rather Than a Smaller Fix

• Stair-step cracking in exterior brick or block, widening toward the top
• A section of the house visibly lower than the rest, or floors sloping consistently in one direction
• Doors and windows that stick on one side of the house only
• Cracks in interior walls that reopen after being patched
• A chimney or porch pulling away from the main structure
• Cracks that visibly change with the seasons — worse in a dry spell, easing after rain, which is clay soil doing exactly what clay soil does

Not every sinking foundation needs piers. Where the problem is inside the crawl space — settling support columns rather than the foundation footing itself — the fix is support jacks and structural repair, which is a considerably smaller job. Establishing which of the two you have is the point of the inspection.

Product Options

Depending on your situation, we offer several different products: a fully galvanized steel helical pier, two sizes of cylindrical-shaft helical piers, and a commercial concrete caisson for heavier structures.

Helical piers come with a lifetime warranty against further settlement, and that warranty transfers if you decide to sell your home.