Capabilities · Support of Excavation
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.
Send the geotechnical report and the site plan. You get a written read on the water, the excavation and the risk.
Self-perform
Dewatering and support of excavation, in house
Tidal
Deep foundations in tidal environments
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Water
The variable that decides the schedule in Florida
The neighbor is the constraint
On an open greenfield site you can batter the sides back and be done. In Brickell or on Las Olas there is a building, a road or a seawall within a few feet, and the design stops being about the excavation and starts being about how much the adjacent ground is allowed to move. That tolerance is usually specified in fractions of an inch and it governs everything.
What decides the system
- How close the nearest structure is, and what it is founded on.
- The permitted movement at that structure — often a fraction of an inch.
- Soil type and whether it will stand at all unsupported.
- Groundwater, because a cut-off wall and a retaining wall are different problems.
- Whether tiebacks can cross the property line, which is a legal question first.
How we handle it
- 01Review borings and adjacent structure conditions before selecting a system.
- 02Pre-condition survey of neighboring buildings, documented and dated.
- 03Design the system to the movement tolerance, not to the excavation depth alone.
- 04Install with instrumentation in place from the start.
- 05Monitor through excavation and respond before a threshold is reached.
- 06Remove or leave in place per the design and the permit.
The pre-condition survey is the item most often skipped and most often regretted. Photographing and recording every existing crack in the neighboring building before you start is what turns "your excavation did this" into an answerable question. It costs very little and it has settled more disputes than any argument.
Said plainly
Where we stop
Where tiebacks would need to cross a property line, that is an easement negotiation before it is an engineering decision. We will not design around it and hope nobody notices.
FAQ
Common questions
- What is the difference between SOE and shoring?
- Broadly the same thing — the system holding the excavation open. SOE is the term the design and permit documents usually use.
- Do we need a pre-condition survey?
- On any site with a neighbor, yes. It is cheap and it is the only evidence of what was already cracked.
- Can tiebacks go under the next property?
- Only with an easement. It is a legal question before an engineering one.
- How much movement is acceptable?
- Set by the engineer and often a fraction of an inch. That tolerance drives the entire system selection.
Ground conditions
Saturated Sand
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Coquina & Cap Rock
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Organic Muck & Peat
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Tidal & Waterfront Sites
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Karst & Sinkhole Risk
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Uncontrolled Fill
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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.