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Specification, capacity verification, supply and training questions from the people who put helical piers on drawings, buy them by the truckload, or install them. Written for the trade, not for consumers.
FnD Piers manufactures the piers we install. That means the people answering a torque question are the same people who welded the shaft, ran the rig, and stood in front of the inspector. If an answer here needs to change for your site conditions, it usually will, and we would rather say so than hand you a spec sheet number.
Two deeper tracks split off from this page: training questions for crews bringing pier work in-house, and commercial and midstream questions for larger projects and energy infrastructure.
When you need immediate load capacity, limited site disturbance, verified capacity at installation, or the ability to keep working in wet conditions.
Drilled shafts require excavation and then cure time before they can take load, and they are the first thing to stall when groundwater shows up or the hole wants to collapse. Driven piles bring noise, vibration and access requirements. Helical piers are rotated into competent soil with hydraulic equipment, can be loaded immediately, disturb far less of the site, and give you a torque-based measure of capacity as they go in. Where a drilled shaft still wins, we will tell you.
Design loads per support point, the geotechnical report if one exists, structure type, and site access.
Pier configuration comes out of the load requirements, the soil profile, and the structural needs of the specific project. Without a soils report, test holes are how the profile gets established, which is why we provide free test holes upon approval.
Yes. New construction foundations are a primary use, not a secondary one.
Common applications include new commercial construction, deck and column supports, retaining structures, boardwalks and docks, equipment foundations, and midstream and energy infrastructure. On new builds the advantage is schedule: the foundation element is ready for load the day it goes in.
They work by bypassing it, transferring load through the active zone into deeper soil that does not move with seasonal moisture.
In North Texas the active zone is the problem: clay swells when wet and shrinks when dry, and anything bearing on it moves. The design question is not whether the clay will move but whether your bearing stratum is below the depth where it does.
Often yes, but it changes the lead configuration and the installation approach.
Rock, cobble, old foundations and buried debris all affect what tooling is required and how the pier advances. This is a site-specific conversation rather than a catalog answer, and it is one of the cases where a test hole pays for itself.
By installation torque. Torque correlates with the soil's capacity, so it is the field measure of whether the pier reached competent bearing.
The pier is advanced until the required torque is achieved rather than to a predetermined depth, which is why installed depths vary across a single site. Torque is monitored throughout installation and recorded per pier location.
Yes. A torque log records the torque achieved at each pier location, which is the documentation that what was designed is what was installed.
That record is what an engineer, an inspector, or a future owner reviews to confirm the installation met the design. It is also what protects you if the structure is ever questioned.
Load testing applies controlled loads to installed piers to confirm they carry the design load. It is typically driven by the engineer of record or the authority having jurisdiction.
Both are performed with hydraulic equipment and gauges that record movement under load. Testing verifies the engineering assumptions against actual site conditions, which soil reports and calculations alone cannot do.
Yes. Our piers have been independently evaluated, and the stamped documentation is available on request.
Ask us and we will put the stamped evaluations in front of you, alongside the torque log and load test documentation for your specific job. If your building official or engineer of record needs the paperwork before specifying, send us the request and it goes out with the quote.
J55 carbon steel with material per ASTM A572 Grade 50, welded in our own shop by certified welders.
Corrosion protection is cold plate galvanizing (CPG) per ASTM A780, and hot-dip galvanizing per ASTM A123. Those are standard designations a specifying engineer will recognize rather than a proprietary coating description.
Because we manufacture rather than resell, the material and the process are ours to control, and we can build configurations that a catalog product does not cover.
Shafts in 2-7/8 inch round and 4.5 inch. Leads in single, double and triple helix configurations, on 5, 7 and 10 foot lead sections.
Standard helix combinations run 8-10-12, 10-12-14 and 12-14-16 inch plates. Because we fabricate in our own shop, a configuration outside the standard set is a conversation rather than a no.
Yes. We supply helical piers wholesale to contractors, and we provide installer training.
Contractors buy from us both to install on their own projects and to add helical capability to what they already offer. Training is part of the package rather than an afterthought, because an improperly installed pier fails as a foundation element regardless of how well it was made.
Standard lead time on a pier order is 3 days, and non-specialty helical piers are installed next day. We deliver across Texas and surrounding states, and we ship nationwide.
Jobsite delivery is free, so materials arrive where and when you need them without a pickup run. Local Dallas-Fort Worth pickup is also an option. Support is available around the clock if something looks wrong in the field, and if a job runs into trouble we will come to the site.
Quoted per order, driven by shaft and helix configuration, lead sections versus extensions, and quantity. As an installed benchmark: a 2-7/8 inch helical at 15 feet on new construction runs $550 to $950 per pier depending on coating.
Our full installed ranges, from bare 2-7/8 inch shafts to hot-dip galvanized 4.5 inch, are published with their assumptions on the pricing page, current as of August 2026. Product-only orders are quoted against the same drivers, and jobsite delivery is free rather than billed on top, so the delivered cost is closer to the quoted cost than you may be used to.
If you are pricing a first order alongside training, the one-day program in North Fort Worth is $6,500 total, which includes a $4,000 credit toward pier product. To get a number back quickly, have your pier count, the design loads per support point, and the geotechnical report ready if one exists.
Commercial foundation repair carries a 10-year warranty, and every job carries our Green Tag Guarantee.
The Green Tag Guarantee is a promise about inspection day: we show up with everything the job requires, we install exactly what the engineer's spec sheet calls for, and the work earns its green tag. A green tag is Texas inspection language for work that passed and may be covered up; a red tag means it failed. Whatever it takes to get the green tag gets done, and if you are not happy, the money comes back.
Ask for the written warranty terms with your proposal.
Yes. We serve Texas and surrounding states, including Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arkansas.
Our city coverage pages list the specific markets where we regularly work. For projects outside those areas, ask, because it depends on scope and scheduling.
No. Correct installation requires hydraulic equipment, torque monitoring, load calculations and soil interpretation.
The concept looks simple, which is exactly the trap. Installing to a depth instead of to a torque criterion, misreading torque, deviating from the engineered design without consulting the engineer, or using the wrong lead configuration for the soil all produce a pier that looks installed and is not carrying what the drawing says it carries.
Installing to depth rather than to torque, deviating from the engineered design without consultation, and skipping documentation.
Add to that inadequate torque monitoring equipment, wrong helix configuration for the soil profile, and no torque log at the end. Every one of them is invisible after backfill, which is why the documentation matters as much as the installation.
The contractor. FnD does not file permit applications as part of the job.
Where the municipality requires a permit for the work, applying for it is the contractor's or owner's responsibility. What we provide is the documentation that supports it: the engineered design compliance and the torque log recording what each pier achieved at each location, which is what the inspector reviews.
Yes, and that is one of the main scheduling advantages on a construction program.
Because there is no open excavation waiting to collapse and no concrete waiting to cure, rain does not stop the foundation work the way it stops drilled shafts.
Three different routes, depending on how you want to work with us.
Most crews already own about 90 percent of the equipment for this: a skid steer, mini-excavator or excavator does most of the work.
It is a manufacturer training certification issued by FnD Piers, not an industry or association credential.
What the training gives you is the workflow, the torque criteria and a support line to the manufacturer, which is what determines whether your installations pass inspection. It is not a license.
Texas does not license foundation repair contractors at the state level the way it licenses some other trades.
What governs the work in practice is the engineered design, the authority having jurisdiction in your municipality, and the engineer of record's acceptance. The absence of a state license is exactly why documentation and verification carry so much weight here.
FnD Piers itself is licensed, bonded and insured, and we will show you the certificates on request. Our USDOT number, 2164542, is active and publicly checkable on FMCSA SAFER.
Talk to someone who manufactures and installs the product. Free test holes upon approval, and next-day installation on non-specialty helicals.
