To put it simply, pile essentially a long cylinder made from a strong material which is concrete, that is pushed into the ground and acts as a support for the structure built on top of it.

Foundation piling London is generally used in the following situations:
If there is a layer of weeks soil at the surface. This layer is unable to support the weight of the building, so the load weight of the building must bypass this layer and instead be transferred to a layer of stronger soil or rock below the weekly.
When the building hangs heavy, concentrated loads, such as high-rise structures, water tanks, and bridges.

Pile foundation is able to take a much heavier load than a regular spread footing.

There are two fundamental kinds of pile foundation and they both work in their own way. Piling contractors in London can determine the right kind pile foundation for the job based on structural behavior.

End Bearing Piles
With end bearing piles, the bottom of the pile rest on a layer of particularly strong soil or rock. The load from the building will be transferred through the pile into the stronger layer. This essentially acts as a column. The key principle of this kind of pile is that the bottom and will rest on the surface between a weak and strong player. The load was therefore bypassed this week layer and will be transferred safely to the strong player.

Friction Piles
Friction piles work differently. This kind of pile transfers the load from the building to the soil across the entire height of the pile using friction. This basically means that the entire surface of the pile, which is cylindrical in shape, will transfer the force to the soil.

You can get a good idea of how this all works by imagining that you are pushing a solid metal rod into frozen ice cream. After pushing the rod in, it is strong enough to support a load. The further the rod is embedded into the ice cream, the bigger the load it can support. This is similar to how friction piles work. With a friction pile installed by a piling contractor in London, how much of the load the pile can support is directly proportional to how long it is.

What are Piles Made From?
Piling companies in London will make their piles from wood, concrete, or steel.

Wooden piles were used as part of traditional construction, to support buildings and areas with weak soil. These days would piles are still used for constructing jetties. The length of the pile is limited to the length of one tree, which is about 20 m, since two tree trunks cannot be joined together. The city of Venice in Italy is famous for being constructed on wooden piles built over seawater.

Piling companies in London precast concrete piles, making them at ground level, before hammering them into the ground. Steel H-piles can also be driven into the ground. These kinds of piles are able to take on very heavy loads and can save time during construction. This is because there is no need to cast the pile first. The steel is not given a protective coating, as it would be scraped away by the soil. Concrete piles are best used in places with corrosive soil.

Get in touch today to learn more about piles, and arrange for a free consultation to learn which kind of pile is best for your property.

Given that pile foundations carry a heavy load, it is up to a foundation piling London company to ensure that they are properly designed and built. Great engineers take the time to study the soil that the pile will be placed in to ensure that it isn’t overloaded beyond what it is naturally able to bear.

The piles that are placed into the soil have what is called a zone of influence on the soil around. Piling companies must take care to space piles far apart enough that the load will be distributed evenly across all the soil they are in, and that it isn’t concentrated to a few areas. This ensures that neither of the soil, the piles, and the structure is not damaged.

Engineers typically group several piles together and top them with a pile cap. This power will be a sick Made of concrete that extends over several piles and serves as the base that a column can then be constructed. The load of the column then be distributed evenly to every pile in the group.

How Do Piling Contractors in London Build Piles?
A pile can easily cast-in-place or they can be precast. A cast-in-place pile is made by:
hammering a thin steel tube into the ground
removing the Earth left inside the tube
lowering a steel reinforcement cage into the tube
casting the pile by pouring wet concrete into the tube
The thin steel tube is known as the casing, and it is used to create a secure mold for casting concrete that is free from any debris and earth. The casing plays no structural role after the casting has been completed.

Certain soils are highly cohesive, meaning that if someone was to drill a hole into the soil, such as a hole that is 1 foot wide and 50 feet deep, then the soil would hold the shape of the hole and would not collapse into it and block it. If this kind of soil is at the site, then there is no need for a piling company in London to leave the casing in place: the casing can be used to drill the hole for the pile, and then removed, ready for the pile to be cast in place. This saves piling contractor money as they can then use the casing tube to drill the holes for other piles.

A precast driven pile will be cast at ground level and will then be hammered or driven into the ground with a pile driver. A pile driver is a machine that will hold the pile vertically, and then hammer it into the ground with repeated blows. The blows of stroke by lifting heavy weights and dropping them on top of the pile. The pile will be temporarily covered using steel to prevent it from disintegrating during this process. The pile driver serves two functions. The first of these is that it acts as a crane, to lift the pile from the horizontal position on the ground and rotate into the correct vertical position. The second is that it hammers the pile into the ground.

A pile must be hammered into the ground until it reaches the point of refusal, which is basically when it cannot be driven any deeper into the soil. At this point, the pile is securely in place and construction can begin.