MINIPILES

Restricted Access and Limited Headroom Piling-Minipile

Branlow Piling Solutions operate nationally as a specialist geotechnical sub contractor to the Construction Industry. Our Clients include top 10 Main Contractors and Project Management Organisations undertaking a wide variety of projects for a range of project sizes big and small.

On sites with restricted access, a minipiling option is often the only viable alternative.  Minipiles can typically be installed using small scale piling rigs able to work in limited access or for low headroom piling.

Minipile Definition

The definition of a minipile is not straightforward as it is not always appropriate to think in terms of a definition by pile diameter alone. With modern state of the art minipiling rigs it is now possible to install piles up to 600mm diameter. In contrast ‘big rig’ piling rigs e.g. CFA piling rigs often install piles as small as 300mm. Hence there is significant overlap. However the methods of installation, and often crucially the geotechnical design (and structural design of a minipile), can be significantly different. For example minipiles are normally designed geotechnically in skin friction alone and end bearing is ignored. A CFA pile can often have an end bearing component in the pile design.

The actual method installation can also influence the load carrying capacity. For example a displacement pile such as a Branlow low noise low vibration driven piles (installed using bottom driven methods to limit pile driving energy losses) can be a lot more design efficient in terms of the installed pile length versus a conventional replacement pile e.g. CFA bored pile.

Branlow offer a complete minipiling and micropile service from design through to installation. We can offer feasibility and cost advice at any stage.