Foundation Drilling Tampa What is Foundation Drilling and Why is This Technique Utilized?

Tampa engineers may turn to a geotechnical drilling firm like Amdrill, Inc. for assistance with a foundation drilling project. Foundation drilling can be utilized to improve a structure’s stability, particularly in areas with less-than-ideal ground composition. Foundation drilling can be performed on existing structures that require some added stability or on new construction projects.

Tampa developers and engineers may contact the expert drilling technicians at Amdrill, Inc. to assist with a project involving a building or another structure, such as a wind turbine, communications tower or bridge.

Foundation drilling near Tampa involves drilling at the site of a structure’s foundation, typically penetrating down into the bedrock. Once the bedrock is accessed, metal rods may be inserted and affixed to the foundation. This transfers the structural loads deeper into the earth, reducing some of the load that is placed upon the foundation.

This type of foundation, known as a “deep foundation” can be ideal for areas with soil instability, as is commonly the case in Florida, where we have an abundance of wetlands and sandy soil which can necessitate the creation of a deep foundation, particularly for large structures.

Florida also has a high-water table, meaning that the ground is saturated with water at a fairly shallow depth. This is one of the reasons why Florida homes generally do not have basements. As a result, you can end up with a situation where you cannot create a sufficiently large and deep foundation or footing.  This results in more widespread usage of foundation drilling for the placement of anchor rods that shift the loads down below the shallow subsurface layer and into the bedrock.

We may also perform foundation drilling in cases where the integrity of the concrete and the underlying earth may be in question. We can drill and extract a cylinder of concrete (better known as a core sample) from the structure’s foundation, which is then sent out for testing to evaluate the quality and strength of the building materials.

In other cases, if the foundation appears to be cracking and deteriorating in an abnormal manner and the integrity of the underlying earth is in question, our geotechnical drilling crews can drill into the ground to extract core samples and perform testing to determine the density and other ground attributes. In some cases, we may find that there is an underground void – a potential sinkhole site – which requires remediation.

*Disclaimer: The views expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of Amdrill Inc*