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Choosing Between Screw Piles and Bored Priers When Restumping Your House

15 January 2016

Lawrence Kim

Having your house restumped can be a tedious task that demands careful planning and that might make your house impossible to live in for awhile during the restumping process. Restumping is an alternative to underpinning and replaces the wooden piles in your house's foundation to level and stabilise it. Wooden piles are outdated as foundation material, as wood is being replaced with sturdier options that are incapable of rotting, like steel or concrete. The most common types of piles to use for restumping projects are screw piles or bored piers. They both have different advantages, and depending on your situation, you might want to choose one over the other.

Screw Piles

Screw piles are increasing as the most used option for restumping projects. They are easy to install due to their size and manageability, which means that you won't have to get out of your house to allow for the restumping work to be performed. Because of the material they're used and because no digging is required to install the piles, there's also a minimal amount of cleaning up to do afterwards. There will be no heaps of soil or left over concrete that has to be taken care of in your garden after the restumping is finished. Screw piles are durable and can be put it pretty much every material. However, when used in very hard materials, the process might be slower, and they shouldn't be used at all if the soil under your house contains of bedrock.

Bored Piers

Bored piers are piles made from reinforced concrete and are most commonly used for high buildings. The piles are long and can penetrate even the hardest of soil. This is the main reason for why it's used where the ground is frozen or where there are other conditions that makes the ground hard to penetrate. It's, however, a time consuming process, and the machines involved are large and noisy. This means the project might take some time and disturb you in your daily life.

Best Type

Screw piles are the faster and easier option of these two different types of stumps. As screw piles are also very durable and adaptable after many types of foundations and soils, this is usually the type of pile you should go for. However, bored piers have an advantage when restumping high houses, as they can be bored deeper into the ground and, thus, make the house stand firmer. It's also a better option if the ground beneath your house is made out of hard stone or bedrock. If you have any questions, consider contacting a house restumping specialist to discuss your options.

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