How to remove screw piles from the ground yourself

Screw pile foundations are often used in the construction of private residential buildings and prefabricated structures. Sometimes, the question arises: can screw piles be removed? The advantages of such foundations are obvious, one of which is their mobility, meaning they can be reused. In this article, we'll look at how to do this.

Possible Reasons for Dismantling

Dismantling a pile foundation is almost always a planned undertaking, but sometimes the need for such an operation arises during construction. The need to dismantle metal pillars arises if:

•        The wrong size of steel supports was selected for installation. This force majeure situation occurs when errors were made in calculating the load-bearing capacity of the structure during design. In the vast majority of cases, pile supports are replaced with larger sizes.

•        Remodeling is being carried out with the addition of rooms or utility rooms, which changes the load on the foundation in certain areas.

•        A building needs to be moved to a new location—this could be a summer house, a retail pavilion, or a utility block.

•        The site needs to be cleared of temporary structures (utility sheds, temporary buildings).

With a good understanding of how to remove a screw pile, either manually or using machinery, you can easily complete these tasks in the shortest possible time.

Dismantling Methods

You can remove the steel rods yourself or hire a team of installers, who can remove the screw piles manually or mechanically, depending on the scope of the work. Professionals will be able to remove the piles faster and have a better chance of preserving their functionality (assuming no deformation occurred during installation). In some cases, dismantling is limited to simply cutting off the exposed portions of the steel supports, but most often, they require complete removal.

Manual Method

Before removing a screw pile by hand, cut off the pile head with a grinder. Then, weld on an extension with a coupling or make new mounting holes in the pile after removing enough cement-sand mixture or concrete to cut the holes. Then:

• Lightly dig around the pile;

• Insert a lever (crowbar or pipe section) into the mounting holes and begin rotating it counterclockwise while simultaneously lifting it;

• If the pile is difficult to remove, after digging, tilt it to the desired angle and unscrew it in that position;

• Unscrew the piles slowly, half a turn at a time, checking for metal integrity and play.

Caution! You can remove screw piles from the ground yourself, but their diameter should not exceed 108 mm. If the pile support was previously concreted, this will be extremely difficult for one person to do due to the increased weight. When planning to move the structure to another location, the shafts are not filled with a cement-sand mixture or cement mortar.

Specialized Equipment

Specialized equipment is used to simplify and speed up dismantling operations. The procedure is the same, except a mini-excavator with a hydraulic rotary drive is used for extraction, with the machine in reverse gear.

Mechanized removal of metal piles can be used in most cases, but difficulties may arise in marshy areas or in the absence of access roads. This method is most often used to extract pillars from great depths, for large pillars, and almost always when the shafts are filled with concrete or a cement-sand mixture. It is also advisable to order specialized equipment if the pile field has dense soil.

Is reuse possible?

Initially, screw pile foundations were built for military installations, in hard-to-reach locations, on permafrost soils, and in seismically active areas. If necessary, the shafts were removed and relocated for installation at a new site. This was very cost-effective, as costs were reduced significantly. Over time, the technology gained popularity and became widely used in private construction and the industrial sector. The feasibility and feasibility of reinstalling screw piles has been proven in practice, but there are several essential factors for a successful process:

•        Prefabricated products have the highest likelihood of survival during removal—they are made of high-quality steel, have a guaranteed weld safety factor, and have a durable anti-corrosion coating;

•        Extracted rods should not have critical deformations (most often due to improper installation or poor soil conditions), but even steel supports with minor problems can be straightened or welded;

•        for temporary buildings (utility buildings, trade or holiday pavilions, supports for heavy equipment) that are planned to be moved, it is not recommended to concrete the steel supports.