What is helical piling?

Helical piling is a way to support a settling foundation by turning steel shafts with screw-shaped plates deep into the ground until they hit soil firm enough to hold your house. A crew drives each pile in with a hydraulic motor, brackets it to the foundation, and the weight of the home shifts off the loose dirt up top and onto stable ground below. At 603 Basement Solutions we install them at $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that, and the price comes down mostly to how many your home needs.

You may also hear it called a helical pier, a screw pile, or a screw pier. Same product, different names. The word a contractor uses usually depends on their region and habit, not on any difference in the part or how it goes in.

How a helical pile actually works

Picture a long galvanized steel shaft with one or more spiral plates welded near the bottom. The crew turns it into the soil like a giant screw. The plates pull the shaft down. They keep going past the disturbed dirt near the surface and reach a deeper layer that can actually carry weight.

The capacity is measured while the pile goes in, not guessed afterward. As the shaft turns, the crew watches how hard the soil pushes back. That resistance is called torque. The harder the ground resists at the right depth, the more load that pile can hold. So we know each one has reached load-bearing soil before we stop driving it.

Then we connect the pile to your foundation with a steel bracket. From that point on, your house leans on the pile and the firm soil under it, not on the loose stuff that let it sink in the first place.

The screw-pile idea is old and proven. Irish civil engineer Alexander Mitchell first described it back in 1848 to anchor lighthouses in soft tidal ground (Wikipedia, “Screw piles”). The modern home version is the same principle in steel.

Why foundations settle here in the first place

The soil right against your foundation is usually disturbed backfill. That is the loose fill that got dug out and shoveled back when the house was built. It drains slowly and holds water. Over the years it can compress or wash, and a corner or a wall starts to drop.

New Hampshire adds frost. When wet ground freezes it swells, and it can shove and lift in ways that crack and tilt a foundation. Helical piling gets around all of that by ignoring the bad surface soil entirely and reaching down to ground that does not move.

What helical piling costs

Helical piles are priced per pile, and at 603 the rate is $2,700 per pier for the first three, then $2,200 per pier after that. That covers the pile itself, the hydraulic install, and the steel bracket that ties it to your foundation.

Your total comes down to one main thing. How many piles it takes to stop the settling and carry the home. One dropping corner is usually a few piles. A long failing wall or a full perimeter is more. Depth to firm soil, the weight of the house, and how easily we can get equipment to the spot can move the number on bigger jobs.

You do not always need piles. If your problem is a bowing wall rather than a sinking one, the fix is often a power brace or carbon-fiber straps, not piling. Sagging interior floors over a span can sometimes be handled with lally columns or added floor support instead. We will tell you when a smaller fix does the job. The only way to know which one you need is to look at it.

Why 603 installs them in-house

Most foundation companies hand the structural lift to an outside crew. We do not. 603 self-performs every helical pile install with our own people. The same crew that measures the problem drives the piles and stands behind the result, so nothing gets lost in a handoff.

We back the work with a 25-year engineered performance warranty that transfers to a new owner. The transfer holds as long as nobody else alters the installed work. A documented foundation repair with a warranty you can pass on tends to help when you sell, not hurt.

We install helical piles across New Hampshire, southern Maine, and northeastern Massachusetts from our base in East Kingston. Trusted by 5,000+ homeowners in New England, rated 4.9 on Google, BBB A+ accredited, licensed and insured.

If your floors are tilting, a corner is dropping, or new cracks keep opening, get it looked at before it spreads. Call 603-610-1770 or book your free inspection. The inspection and the estimate are free, and you get a quote within 24 hours.

See also: helical piers · structural and foundation repair · supplemental support · sill replacement · the 603 guarantee

Related questions

Is a helical pile the same as a helical pier? Yes. “Helical pile,” “helical pier,” “screw pile,” and “screw pier” all name the same product: a steel shaft with spiral plates that gets turned into the ground to support a foundation. The different words come from regional habit, not from any difference in the part.

How deep do helical piles go? As deep as it takes to reach soil firm enough to carry the home, which changes from site to site. We confirm the right depth during the install by the torque each pile reaches, not by a set number.

Can helical piling be installed in winter? Yes. There is no concrete to pour and cure, so we install helical piles year-round, including through the New England winter.

Do I always need helical piles for a foundation problem? No. Piles fix settling and sinking. A wall that is bowing inward is usually a job for a power brace or carbon-fiber straps, and sagging floors can often be carried with lally columns or floor support. We will tell you when you do not need piling.