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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
I'm getting involved in installing 8" or 10" square posts or pilings for new homes here on the gulf coast. Some are for modular homes; some stick-built. Heights range from 3' off the ground to as much as 28' to the bottom of the first floor (FEMA requirement). Some pilings can weigh as much as 1000lb. or more. I use a bobcat with an auger to make the holes which can be 24" x 4' deep to 36" x 6' deep. I use the bobcat with a jib crane attachment and a choker chain to place them in the holes guided by two men, and a third to supervise. I've been helping other crews do the augering and lifting, but it's still taking three others to final-position them and brace. It's all day job.
I want to offer this complete service to the general contractor instead of using his laborers. But I have to do it with one man plus myself, not three plus me. I need to devise a system using an I-beam "nailed" or otherwise anchored to the ground to replace the string line and use it as a back stop to rest the post against while being braced. Adjustable stops on the beam would hold the post in line and would make the system repeatable for the typical 3 rows of piles required. Concrete pads are poured in the holes or a flat concrete unit is dropped in so moving the pile sideways is a chore but not as much as if it stuck in dirt or mud and being forced sideways. Currently it takes about 20-30 minutes cycle time per pile depending on site conditions. I'd like to cut that in half or more. After the posts are set then concrete is poured around them.
Any ideas if I'm on the right track, or should I just keep using string lines and three helpers at $15-20 an hour each plus worker comp and taxes? Any other ideas to make this job quick, easy, profitable, and injury-free?
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
Thanks Murf---that's the bracing part. How about getting them in the hole quickly and aligned quickly too without constant repositioning? Keep in mind these are 8x8's or 10x10's up to 30 feet tall (the longest I've done so far are 22' 10x10's at about a 1000lb. or more each but 30's are coming soon). The choker chain tends to cause the pile to bias away from the chain as it finds its center. The only way I know to pick up the pile and get it to hang plumb is from the very top, but I can't reach more than 20' so it has to from the side. I'm thinking a gimbal arrangement. Any ideas?
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
Murf you described exactly what I had in mind both for the pole grabber and the method of aligning the poles to each other--I took the idea one step further and thought of using a long beam to align them in a row.
P.S. Did you get my emails about the golf courses in Miss.?
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
By all means put him in touch with me. I have access to properties where we can do some testing. If these are helical piers I have some knowledge of them. And I have a 1700 lb-ft auger head if they have to spun into the ground. I have gotten to know the city officals here in Waveland where the eye went through. They might be instrumental in getting the word out. A lot of the homes going back in are in the 300k to over a 1M. Granted some are not but there is money here.
My direct email is earthwerks-jeff (at) hotmail (dot) com
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
Dropping it in the hole and holding isn't the issue so much as getting it aligned to the string line and perfectly plumb. I'm leaning (no pun intended) to a centering pin (piece of 6" x 1" rerod) imbedded in the concrete pad that would index the post to a drilled hole in the post. Even this will take some precision in getting the pin in the right spot. But I'm working on it. Any ideas on this is appreciated. Or maybe there is another avenue I haven't considered. But keep in mind all the posts which like I said are very heavy and cumbersome have to be perfectly aligned as a 2-story modular home will be sitting on them therefore the perimeter rim joist have to be aligned to suit the home when it is craned on top of them.
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
Murf: I got one recently about the golf courses were all done. That one? Or the one about the grapple on a lumbering web site?
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
Tony---you have been picking my brain long-distance I see. The template idea is one I have been thinking about which is basically the rail system I mentioned before. I thouight about pinning it to the ground too but they sometimes use sand here to build up the pad area so pinning won't work; it might work in clay though. The template could be light-weight too versus heavy (read: e-x-p-e-n-s-i-v-e). Somewhere someone has come up with an easy solution to this. Also the timbers can vary as much as 3/4" over or under size
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System for rapid installation of square posts piles
I'm no longer on the Coast doing that work, but you're right: set the corners first and string from there. And two guys.
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11-19-2006, 21:55 
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