Helical piers for new construction,
built for general contractors.
Deep foundation support installed under new commercial footings, equipment pads, and solar and battery structures. We install the design your engineer produced and hand back the records your inspector wants.
Who This Page Is For
You are buying a pile scope, not a repair.
Residential foundation repair and new construction piling are different purchases. This page is for the people who buy the second one, across California, Arizona, and Nevada.
General contractors
You hold the schedule and the subcontracts. We price off the structural drawings, mobilize on the date in the proposal, and hand back installation records your inspector can read.
Owners and owner representatives
You are carrying a soils report that calls for deep foundations. We install what the engineer designed and document it, so the capacity you paid for is a record rather than a claim.
Developers on constrained sites
Helical piles are installed with compact equipment, so they suit tight lots, low overhead clearance, and sites where spoils removal is a problem.
Solar and battery storage builders
Ground mount arrays, inverter pads, and battery enclosures are light structures on deep loads. Helical piles reach competent soil without a poured footing cure cycle.
What We Install
How a helical pile foundation goes in.
A helical pile is a deep foundation element, not a patch. Understanding how it is installed is the fastest way to judge whether the number in front of you is realistic.
What a helical pile is
A helical pile is a galvanized steel shaft with one or more helix plates near its tip. A hydraulic torque motor turns the shaft into the ground, the helices pull it down, and the pile keeps advancing until it reaches competent soil or the torque the design calls for.
Why they suit new construction
Nothing has been built yet, so there is no structure to push against. A push pier is driven using the weight of the building above it. A helical pile is turned into the ground under its own torque, independent of the structure, which is why new construction work is helical work.
Helix size is a soil decision
Blade size depends on soil conditions. Large helices lock up at shallower depths in dense material, while smaller ones reach deeper. Two helices are common so that if the first spins out there is a second to pull the pile through. Round shaft is used for compression, square bar for tension.
Where the design comes from
Pile capacity, spacing, depth, and bracket detail are set by the engineer of record and the soils report. We do not design the foundation. We bid the design, install it, and record what happened in the ground.
What gets recorded
Every drive head and ram carries a gauge in the hydraulic line. The psi reading multiplied by that unit factor gives the torque rating or the load capacity of the pile, and it is monitored on every installation.
In place of caissons
On one project our crews installed 8 inch helical piers past 40 feet, joining 7 foot extensions as they went, to reach competent strata beneath new storefronts. They replaced the concrete caissons the site would otherwise have needed.
Shoring during excavation
Helical piles can also shore an existing structure vertically and laterally while you over excavate next to it. They can stay in place or be pulled back out, which comes down to the preference of the GC, the owner, and the engineer of record.
The related residential explainer, how helical piers carry a load, covers the same mechanics in plainer language if you want to hand something to an owner, and helical piles for residential new construction covers the smaller residential and light commercial version of this scope, where the same rule applies: we install the piles, somebody else pours the foundation. The rest of the commercial work sits on our commercial services page.
New construction helical piers: see the install.
DCI's own published video of a pre construction pile job, including the grade beam sister footing that ties the new piles into the existing structure. Every figure on this page is traceable to a video like this one.
"On our helical drive heads and our rams for our push pier systems, we actually have a gauge mounted to them and in the flow line of the hydraulics, so it'll tell you the psi that it's taken to push that ram cylinder down, or the amount of pressure it's taking to spin that drive head for the helical. With those psi values, each one has its own individual factor that you then multiply to the psi to give you either the torque rating or the load capacity of the pile."
How The Work Runs
Five steps, on your schedule.
Foundation work sits on the critical path. The sequence below exists so nothing about our scope is a surprise to your superintendent.
- 01Send the packageStructural drawings, the geotechnical report, and the pile schedule if you have one. Without the soils report we can only give you a rough order of magnitude, not a number you can carry in a bid.
- 02Written proposalScope, pile count and type, exclusions, and a start and finish window. Warranty terms are provided in writing with the proposal.
- 03Engineering and permitsEngineering review runs about four to six weeks. Permitting varies by jurisdiction: some cities issue in a few days, others take up to sixteen weeks. Both belong in the program rather than in a phone call later.
- 04Mobilize and installExcavations are roughly three feet by three feet by three feet to expose the footing. A push pier drive stand runs with one technician; a helical drive head and torque bar needs a crew of two, sometimes three. Torque and depth are logged as the piles go in.
- 05Closeout packageInstallation records, pile locations, and the paperwork the jurisdiction requires, delivered with the final invoice.
Engineering And Submittals
Where our scope stops and the engineer's begins.
The clearest commercial relationships are the ones where the line is drawn early. Here is ours.
- We install to the engineer of record’s design. We do not stamp structural drawings.
- Bids are based on the design we are given, so a design change is a change order, not an argument.
- Product data and installation procedure are submitted before mobilization when the job calls for it.
- Torque and depth records are kept per pile and handed over at closeout.
- Special inspections are sometimes required before backfilling begins, and are coordinated with whoever the jurisdiction or the owner appoints.
- Product evaluation reports are what city officials and the design engineer use to validate pile capacity.
- Arizona work is performed under Arizona ROC license 330307, class KB-1, a dual commercial and residential classification.
What GCs ask before awarding a pile scope.
Don't see your question here? Our team is happy to help. Reach out anytime.
The structural drawings and the geotechnical report. The soils report drives depth, and depth drives price, so a bid without it is a guess. If the engineer has already produced a pile schedule, send that too and the proposal will match it line for line.
Care and expertise from a team that's been doing this since 2011.
Dalinghaus Foundation Repair is locally owned and operated, with crews dedicated exclusively to foundation, concrete, and crawl space work across California, Arizona, and Nevada.
Foundation repair, concrete leveling, and crawl space repair are our entire focus. Not a sideline.
More than 2,000 projects on the clay and desert soils of California, Arizona, and Nevada since 2011.
CSLB License #983851 in California, ROC #330307 in Arizona, and License #0089738 in Nevada. Look us up with the state before we ever set foot on your property.
Warranty terms come in writing with every proposal, and the terms that apply to your job are stated in that job's paperwork. Ask your project specialist during the free evaluation.
Tell us about your commercial project.
Share the project address and the services you need, and add photos of the site if you have them. A member of our team will follow up.
Let's take the first step toward solid ground.
Tell us about the project, add photos of the site if you have them, and a project manager will follow up.