FAQ
The Questions Owners and Developers Ask
Written for someone who already knows the vocabulary.
Send the geotechnical report and the site plan. You get a written read on the water, the excavation and the risk.
FAQ
Dewatering, SOE and deep foundations in Florida
- Do you self-perform dewatering?
- Yes, along with support of excavation. Very few Florida general contractors do, and it is the reason this service line exists.
- Will you price without borings?
- Not the dewatering. Without data it is a guess that becomes a change order.
- What is the longest lead item?
- Usually the discharge permit for the dewatering. Start it before you think you need to.
- Wellpoints or deep wells?
- Wellpoints for shallow drawdown in permeable sand; deep wells for greater drawdown or lower permeability. The borings decide.
- When do sheet piles not work?
- Against a refusal layer such as coquina or cap rock, and on sites where vibration is unacceptable.
- Why choose a secant wall?
- Hard or obstructed ground, vibration limits, very tight movement tolerances, or a wall that stays as permanent structure.
- How is auger cast pile quality verified?
- Grout volume against depth recorded for every pile, plus integrity testing. Ask for the records.
- Can muck be compacted?
- No. Organic soil keeps consolidating. It is removed or bridged with deep foundations.
- What is down-drag?
- Consolidating soil hanging on a pile, adding load instead of supporting it. It has to be in the design.
- Can dewatering trigger a sinkhole?
- In karst, yes. Rapid drawdown is a known trigger, which is why it is staged and monitored.
- Does groundwater really move with the tide?
- On waterfront sites, with a lag that depends on the soil. It is measured at the site rather than read from a tide table.
- Do we need a pre-condition survey?
- On any site with a neighbor. It is cheap and it is the only evidence of what was already cracked.
- Who sets monitoring thresholds?
- The engineer of record, agreed in writing with the owner before work starts.
- Can helical piles carry heavy loads?
- They are a light to moderate capacity solution. For large loads they are the wrong tool.
- What is uncontrolled fill?
- Fill placed with no compaction record and no control over content. Unknown rather than necessarily bad — and unknown is the problem.
Still not answered?
Call (954) 807-3208 or send the geotechnical report. If the borings do not support a price yet, that is what you will be told.
Capabilities
Construction Dewatering
In most of coastal Florida the groundwater sits a few feet below grade. Any excavation deeper than that is an excavation in water until something is done about it, and what gets done determines the program.
Read more →
Support of Excavation
Support of excavation is the system that keeps the hole open and keeps the ground next to it from moving. On a tight urban site it is the whole job.
Read more →
Sheet Piling
Interlocking steel sheets driven or vibrated into the ground, giving retention and a groundwater cut-off in one system. In saturated Florida sand that combination is often exactly what the job needs.
Read more →
Secant & Slurry Walls
Overlapping drilled piles, or a trench supported by slurry and filled with concrete, forming a structural wall that also cuts off groundwater. The answer where sheets will not go.
Read more →
Auger Cast Piles
A continuous flight auger is drilled to depth and grout is pumped through the stem as it withdraws. The soil is never left unsupported, which is why the method suits saturated Florida sand.
Read more →
Helical Piles
Steel shafts with helical plates, screwed into the ground with equipment small enough to work inside a building. Capacity is verified by installation torque and the pile can be loaded immediately.
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.