How Helical Piles Are Helping Shore Up The Shore – #sp

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This is a sponsored post. Please note that any personal opinions reflected in this post are my own and have not been influenced by the sponsor in any way.

Almost one year ago, Hurricane Sandy (or Superstorm Sandy as she later was renamed) came ashore not far from here and devastated the area that I live. in. In my own neighborhood, people were stranded. Homes were ravaged. Cars were flooded, Boats littered the streets. It was bad. And as hard as it is to say, just two miles away it was even worse. Homes were flooded and uninhabitable. Slowly, our area has been rebuilding.

Some of you may recall the slideshow I did after Sandy, showing the damage to the homes. It’s been odd living in the area while people rebuild. The things you see are incredible. Homes that were totally destroyed had to be taken down and/or taken away. Homes that managed to remain intact needed much repair, including making structural changes so they could withstand future storms or a similar strength.

One day about a month or so after Sandy, I saw a home up on these stacks of what reminded me of pallets. It looked something like this.

I had no idea what was going on, so I had to ask my Dad. He explained to me that this was a way of stabilizing the foundation of a home and raising the home above flood level. It turns out this would become very important in my area, since we were considered in a flood zone and as insurance companies were going to start requiring it for because of the extensive damage our area had received. It’s called helical foundation support. To simplify, first the house is raised, as you see above. Then, piles (which remind me of a long, thick metal rod) are anchored into the ground, then attached to the house. After the system is tested, then the house is finished off nicely, so you can’t see the new support system. The finished house would look something like this.

Hubbell Chance (the company who shared the images above) does this kind of work. Their helical piles were designed for foundation stabilization back in 1912. They specialize in helical foundation support for flood zone homes, and offer a fully transferable, product warranty. Many homes in the area are going this route, in case we ever get hit by a storm like that again.

Check out the widget below to learn a little more about the process, it’s actually pretty interesting.

So here’s a question.

If you didn’t know otherwise, what would you think was happening in the picture above where the house is being raised?