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.
Soil heave on the Front Range comes in two kinds: swelling clay and heaving bedrock. They need different foundation answers, and a new build has to be designed for the right one.
Read More »Frost heave isn't just water expanding as it freezes. It's ice lenses pulling water up from below and growing until they lift whatever sits on top. Here's how it works, which soils are worst, and how footings and piles are designed to stay out of its reach.
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 »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 »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.
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