Plain answers on helical piles and new foundations in Colorado, from frost depth and swelling clay to codes, costs and what an engineer puts on the drawings. Looking for our earlier posts? They are on Our Articles.
Helical piers are fast, clean and load-ready the day they go in, but they aren't the right call on every lot. Here's the honest list of what they do well, where they struggle, and when a concrete foundation makes more sense.
Read More »Most backyard sheds in Denver don't legally need a frost-depth foundation. Many still need one if you want the doors to keep closing. Here's how gravel, blocks, slabs and screw piles compare on Colorado clay.
Read More »A post and pier foundation holds a building up on isolated supports instead of a continuous wall. The pier is the part that decides how it performs. Here's the whole system, and how concrete and helical piers compare.
Read More »The number of helical piers on a project comes from the load path: how much area each pile supports and how much each pile can carry. Here's the arithmetic for a deck, and why additions and homes get an engineered layout.
Read More »A sloped lot changes the foundation, the code setbacks and the geologic review. Here is what the Colorado foothills add, and when piles make more sense than cutting the hill.
Read More »Denver now enforces the 2025 Denver Building Code, based on the 2024 I-codes. Here is what it says about foundations: frost depth, soils reports, expansive clay, helical piles, special inspection and the footing inspection.
Read More »There's no single depth for a helical pier. It goes until it hits the engineer's torque target in good soil, and never shallower than the minimums set by frost, swelling clay and the pile's own geometry. Here's how those rules stack up on a Colorado lot.
Read More »Pierre Shale is a thick marine claystone under much of the Front Range. Thin bentonite beds inside it swell far more than the rock around them, and where the layers stand on edge, they've wrecked whole subdivisions. Here's what that means for a new build.
Read More »A detached garage can sit on a thickened-edge slab, a frost wall or helical piles under a grade beam. Here is how each one behaves on Front Range clay and what Denver's code says about depth.
Read More »Shallow groundwater floods excavations, softens bearing soil and complicates concrete. Here is how a high water table affects a new foundation and which options handle it.
Read More »Helical piles handle gravel, scattered cobbles and weathered claystone. They don't screw into hard rock. Here's what Front Range ground actually looks like, and the options when a pile stops early.
Read More »The IBC leaves helical pile depth and torque criteria to the design professional. Here is what a complete helical pile specification covers, section by section, and where specs most often leave gaps.
Read More »
