Foundation Repair: Steel Piers

Steel piers, also called resistance piers, are an excellent choice for structural foundation repairs on settling foundations. Most foundation repairs are caused by organic soils, shrinking and swelling clays, poor compaction, improper footer embedding, and erosion. The function of steel piers is the support and stabilization of your structure’s load bearing walls by transferring the weight of the structure from weaker soils onto the steel piers that are driven deep to load bearing soils.

At KC Pro, we can determine the source of your foundation failure and provide the best foundation repair solution for your settling foundation. KC Pro is the main foundation repair team of Missouri and Kansas that provides professional service for residential and commercial projects. We can fix your foundation by using quality steel piers for your settling foundation.

Steel Piers: How They Work

The Earth Contact Product Steel Pier™, like other resistance piers, is an end-bearing steel pier that does not rely upon nor require skin friction to produce support, unlike concrete cylinders. Each pier is field load tested after it is installed. These push piers are able to develop a factor of safety because the piers are installed and load tested individually using the maximum weight of the structure as the reaction force. The ability of the system to develop significant factors of safety comes from the different foundation lifting methods used between pier installation and load transfer during restoration.

ECP Steel Piers are driven individually and the entire structure works as the reaction. A friction reduction collar is attached to the lead section of the galvanized pier pipe. The purpose of the collar is to create an opening in the soil that has a larger diameter than the pier pipe. This dramatically reduces the skin friction on the pier pipe as it is driven into the soil and allows the installer to load test and verify that the pier encountered firm bearing stratum or rock that is suitable to support the design load.

During load transfer or lift, high pressure hydraulic jacks are placed at multiple locations thus reducing the load on each resistance pier to only the design working load. These hydraulic jacks are connected to the ECP Manifold System to provide a synchronized lift or stabilization of the structure. A building with substantial construction and rigidity can develop greater pier factor safeties than lighter or weaker structures.

Please contact us today to handle all your foundation repair needs.