Revolutionizing Backyard Decks in Edmonton with Helical Screw Piles

Building a backyard deck in Edmonton presents unique challenges due to the region’s climate, soil conditions, and local building regulations. However, the evolution of foundation solutions has greatly improved with the introduction of helical screw piles. These innovative foundation supports are not only robust and reliable but also compliant with the stringent requirements for structures such as high decks, roofed decks, or decks supporting hot tubs. In this article, we delve into why helical screw piles are an essential choice for your deck project in Edmonton, AB.

Understanding Helical Screw Piles

Helical screw piles are deep foundation elements constructed from steel, featuring one or more helix-shaped blades attached to a central shaft. These piles are driven into the ground using hydraulic machinery, twisting like a screw into wood, which allows them to anchor deeply into the soil. This method provides exceptional stability and load-bearing capabilities, crucial for supporting structures subjected to the shifting and heaving conditions typical of Edmonton’s freeze-thaw cycles.

Advantages of Helical Screw Piles for Decks

1. Speed of Installation: Unlike traditional concrete foundations that require excavation, curing time, and considerable labor, screw piles can be installed quickly, often within a day, depending on the scale of the project.
2. Minimal Landscape Impact: The installation of screw piles is less invasive, producing minimal soil displacement and disturbance. This means your surrounding garden and landscape remain intact.
3. Year-Round Installation: Screw piles can be installed in any season, despite Edmonton’s harsh winters, because they do not require poured concrete, which can be problematic in cold weather.
4. Immediate Load Bearing: Once installed, these piles can immediately bear the load of your deck. There’s no waiting period for materials to set or cure, allowing construction to proceed without delay.
5. Environmentally Friendly: With no need for large-scale excavation and concrete, screw piles are a greener alternative, reducing the carbon footprint of your construction project.

Regulatory Compliance for Decks in Edmonton

In Edmonton, specific regulations mandate the use of robust foundation systems like screw piles for certain types of decks:

• Decks Over 1.8 Metres in Height: Decks that are higher than 1.8 meters off the ground face increased leverage forces from wind and usage. These decks require a foundation that can securely anchor the structure, preventing tipping or swaying. Helical screw piles are ideal for this application because they can be driven deep into the ground to reach stable soil layers, ensuring the deck’s stability and safety.
• Decks with a Roof: Adding a roof to a deck introduces additional load and requires a foundation capable of supporting both the live and dead load without settling or shifting. Screw piles are engineered to handle specified loads, and their depth and bearing area can be adjusted to meet the demands of a roofed deck.
• Decks with a Hot Tub: The substantial weight of a hot tub, especially when filled with water and occupants, demands a foundation that distributes this load evenly and resists sinking. Screw piles can be strategically placed and driven to depths that provide the necessary support for the heavy loads imposed by hot tubs.

Installation Process

The process of installing helical screw piles begins with a site assessment to determine the soil conditions and the depth required to reach stable ground. Specialized machinery is then used to drive the piles into the ground. The depth and number of piles depend on the structure’s load requirements and the soil analysis results.

Each pile is fitted with a pile cap, which provides a secure and level mounting point for the deck’s substructure. The precise installation ensures that the deck will not shift, even in unstable or highly plastic clays common in some areas of Edmonton.

Choosing the Right Provider

When selecting an installer for deck piles, it is crucial to choose certified professionals who comply with local building codes and standards. Look for providers with a proven track record in Edmonton, familiar with local soil conditions and capable of providing detailed load-bearing calculations.

Conclusion

Helical screw piles represent a modern solution to the traditional challenges of deck construction in Edmonton. They offer rapid installation, immediate load bearing, and compliance with stringent regulations, making them an ideal choice for homeowners looking to build safe, durable, and compliant decks. Whether your deck is ambitiously high, luxuriously roofed, or equipped with a relaxing hot tub, helical screw piles provide the foundation strength and stability needed to enjoy your outdoor space with peace of mind.

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If you have ever seen strange looking vegetables before and wondered where they came from, you are not alone. These types of vegetables can grow because of abiotic and biotic reasons. The abiotic reasons might be related to the weather and biotic could simply be due to living organisms, such as insects and diseases.

There are some vegetables that are common on prairies and here is a list of some of them:

Fussed Cucumbers

These are more common than you might realize. They sometimes develop a fruit that in the shape of a crescent moon with another cucumber developing on the inner surface of the fruit. This creates a fusion of two fruit conjoined. There are some varieties of cucumbers that are more prone to this type of fusion. This starts to develop after pollination due to a connection of fruit ovaries.  It is eatable.

Hairy Carrots

There are some occasions when a smooth carrot becomes hairy. The taproots create a fusion of fine, white hairs that make them look odd. Hairy roots develop because of too much soil nitrogen due to excessive manure being applied to it. Carrots require fertilizer but only a small amount to actually produce the results that are most common.

Knobby Potatoes

The smooth tubers quickly start developing small nodules that will eventually erupt directly from the skin’s surface. This will then create an interesting amount of appendages. These odd potatoes develop because the potatoes went through a drought period that was then followed by a lot of soil moisture. Its tubers react fast to take in the water, however, this won’t increase the girth, knobby offshoots develop. They can be eaten but the knobs break easily. This leads to the potato rotting if they are stored. Russet Burbank is one type of prairie potato that is prone to developing knobby potatoes. In this case, the prairie potato should consistently have moist soil so that they grow smooth and knob-free. Please take not that there is no difference in the taste in the knob-free potatoes and the knobby potatoes. Both of them look the same once they have been smashed.

Bald Headed Vegetables

We’ve mentioned a hairy vegetable but there are also some that are bald. Bald plants don’t fully develop to maturity. If seeds are not handled properly this will cause cracked seed coats that damage tiny yet sensitive growing point inside the seed. The most common vegetables that are prone to being bald is string beans, cauliflower, and cabbage.

Stunted Corn

When the temperature is too cold it will limit the height and width of the plant. However, transported corn will fail to grow more than a foot or two no matter how much sunlight, fertilizer, or rainfall it receives. It is because of root restriction in the corns cell that its growth becomes stunted. It has to mature early to grow to maximum capacity.

Collecting odd and weird vegetables is something that many people have fun doing, Edmonton restaurants have even begun to use them .