Colorado’s Trusted Helical Pier Installation Company

It depends on how many piles your plans call for, how deep each one has to go to reach its target torque, and the site. Extra depth past the quoted standard, swelling clay that pushes piles deeper, getting the machine to your lot, tight access, galvanizing and permit paperwork all move the number, which is why we price from your plans and site photos instead of a list. Our helical pile cost guide covers what goes into a quote, and deck pile costs works through real deck layouts.

As deep as it takes to reach the installation torque the engineer specified, in the soil layer the engineer wants it bearing in, so there is no fixed number. Minimum depths for frost (36 inches in Denver), swelling clay and the pile’s own geometry set the floor, and on Front Range lots with swelling clay piles often end up past 10 feet. See how deep helical piers go.

Yes. Helical piles are part of a permitted foundation, and because Denver’s residential code has no prescriptive helical pile rules, they need an engineered design: a stamped pile layout, the soils report and the manufacturer’s ICC-ES evaluation report, with minimum depth and torque on the drawings. Denver also applies special inspection to residential jobs, so the special inspector’s depth and torque records for each pile go to the building official. Our guide to the Denver building code for foundations has the details.

Yes, especially for attached or raised decks and on clay or fill. Engineered helical piles go below Denver’s 36-inch frost line into firm soil, can be designed for uplift as well as compression, and need no digging, no spoils and no wait for concrete to cure, so framing can start the same day. On a flat, open lot with good soil, concrete footings are often the cheaper answer, and deck footings without digging compares the options.

On the Front Range’s swelling clay, helical piles usually win for homes, additions and decks; on a flat lot with stable, sandy soil, concrete footings often do. Piles carry load as soon as they’re installed, need small equipment, leave almost no spoil and have their capacity confirmed by torque on every pile, while they need an engineer and a soils report, don’t like cobbles and boulders, and can cost more per pile than a simple footing on good ground. Read helical piers vs concrete footings for the full comparison.