Helicals Are For The Birds
We love our animals in America. There are approximately 85 million companion animals or pets in the USA. The vast majority is comprised of 79.5 million dogs and cats and 68% of all households have at least one pet. We spent 62.75 billion dollars on our pets in 2016. In January of this year, Danbro and our Installer, Northeast Foundation & Concrete, were immersed in a construction project driven by the homeowner’s concerns for the potential negative impact on her beloved Parrots.
Project
The garage and driveway had developed cracks and were settling. There were a few cracks to start with, but over time they got worse and worse. The project was tailor made for helicals.
Investigation
A subsurface investigation revealed that the garage had been built on top of an underground spring that was washing out the soil. The weight of the car, constantly coming and going, was excellerating the problem.
The Challenge
There were some of the usual overhead access issues associated with work inside the garage, but nothing out of the ordinary. But this was not going to be your ordinary “Helical Hero” story.
Access Issues are for the Birds
So coming in 3rd in the pet popularity contest are birds. The homeowner wanted to avoid any and all stress for her rescue parrots, as the garage was attached to the house. She pleaded, no mess, no noise, no vibration and no fumes. Many contractors would have walked away or delayed the job until the birds were on vacation. It was too cold in January to expose tropical denisons to the elements while in transit. How do you install ANY deep foundation system with the above mentioned limitations AND face the near impossible challenge of equipment access. “Oh, by the way, try to stay on budget!”
Ian Smith Steps up to the Challenge of being a True Helical Hero!
Ian Smith, President of Northeast Foundations & Concrete, aided and abetted by Nick Gill (also a pet lover) of Danbro Distributors were pet friendly heroes of great resource. Here is how they accomplished the impossible on time and on budget.
Stage the excavator, the noisy power source, in the street downwind and away from the house. Run a 100’ of hydraulic hose across the property to the garage. They used the hand-held portable installation unit to install the helicals and communicated by walkie talkies from the power source to the installer 100 feet away. Despite the restrictive environmental and access issues, the job was completed in less than 2 days, cleanly, quietly and with no toxic fumes.
See more about this and our other projects by visiting our Apple Drive Project on our Case Studies page
