CASE STUDYHISTORICAL NAPLES HELICAL INSTALLATION

Naples Gulf Front properties set the milestone for Southwest Florida homes. Waterfront residences on Gordan Drive are some of Florida’s most exceptional luxury estates with pristine natural beauty and the assurance of privacy. Situated just footsteps away from the Naples pier lies a picturesque and historical home located on the sandy Gulf of Mexico shores.

The owners elected to enrich their historic residence and maintain the ambience of old Historic Naples, while modernizing the interior living space. The house was originally constructed in 1932 and was fortunate to survive many a hurricane. It the process of renovating the existing home, several additional rooms were designed to provide new expansive living quarters.

In addition, the homeowners elected to install a new swimming pool within the confines of their backyard. John Gaddis, of AVA Builders of Naples reached out to Coastal Foundation Solutions to assist in the intricate foundation situation. The design required approximately one hundred and eighty-eight (188) helical piling.

The project entailed various forms of helical pile configurations from interior underpinning piling, new construction piles within the interior of the house, exterior new construction piling and specific piles for the proposed new swimming pool.

PROPOSED SOLUTIONS

We contacted our helical engineers and forwarded them the geotechnical report with a request to draft a strategy for this complex project. There was a heavy blow count approximately 18- 21 foot below grade where we believed we could torque into. The interim soil layers beneath this level where quite weak and lacked adequate compaction qualities.

Coastal Foundation Solutions developed a strategy to install seven (7) test piles around the perimeter of existing structures to test the substrate layers. We contemplated that with the correct helix arrangement we could circumvent installing helicals to a depth of 80 foot.

The test piles were a resounding success with pilings achieving capacities of 24 to 28 tons ultimate capacity. This provided us with concise information to order the 198 pilings for the project.

The proposed helical piles would be rotated into the substrate to secure load bearing capacity upon refusal. The team recommended two types of piling for the project due to the lime rock conditions.

The project would entail utilizing “Chance” RS3500 round shaft helical piles with a schedule 80 pipe. In areas where lower load capacities where required, the piling would consist of RS2875.276 schedule area round shaft pipe piles. The pilings were to be installed using a 30,000 pound excavator to insure pile penetration to refusal.

Coastal Foundation Solutions fleet of excavators allowed us to access to the project site without limitations.