FOUNDATION
LOAD TESTING
Helical Piles excel in situations where deep foundations are needed.
They are cost-effective and maintain minimal environmental impact.
Certifications & partnerships
What Is Foundation Load Testing?
Load testing is the process of applying a force a deep foundation system to determine its yield capacity, ultimate capacity, and displacement. This information can then be used to verify existing building designs or optimize the design to reduce costs.
With over 20 years’ experience in load testing, TerraCana has become highly skilled. It requires specialized equipment, including structural steel beams that we have designed and built for this purpose. The size of load that we can test keeps growing; our current record is a test of 2.2 million pounds on a single pile. TerraCana can conduct static compression, tension, and lateral load tests.
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Our current record: a test of
2.2 million pounds
on a single pile
When Is a Foundation Load Test Required?
Every site presents different challenges. TerraCana’s field experience and in-house engineering mean we’ve developed practical solutions for the ground conditions that stop other contractors.
Proof of concept
Engineers ask us to prove that our piles or those of other companies can bear the intended load. The load tests we perform are often used to prove an existing design or help to optimize it.
Quality control
We include load testing to verify design specifications. During installation of our testing equipment we frequently test every reaction anchor to ensure test reliability and safety.
3rd party installations
We can perform static load tests on any type of pile installed by other companies. TerraCana is also frequently called out to test ground densification.
Types of load tests
Pre-stressed rock and soil anchors test
Tests the integrity of drilled anchors (recommended procedure).
High strain dynamic testing (PDA)
Dynamic impact testing of driven, helical, and concrete piles.
Pile integrity testing (PIT)
Low strain impact testing to verify pile integrity. Reveals cracks, necking, voids, and other defects.
