High capacity through a doorway, socketed into till and ledge.
Micropiles & Pin Piles
Micropiles are small-diameter, high-capacity drilled and grouted piles that carry heavy loads on sites where a driven pile or drilled shaft cannot go. ESC installs them with owned Klemm KR 806-3GS limited-access drills, which is what makes basement, low-headroom, and inside-the-building underpinning practical. In New England the capacity is normally developed in dense glacial till or a rock socket into argillite or granite bedrock.
Typical spec
Plain-language view of the same typical ranges.
- Pile diameter (typical)
- 5–12 in
- A typical range for this kind of work.Typical value — confirm against the project's geotechnical design.
- Typical depth
- 25–100 ft
- A typical range for this kind of work.Typical value — confirm against the project's geotechnical design.
- Design load (typical)
- 30–150 kips
- A typical range for this kind of work.Typical value — confirm against the project's geotechnical design.
- Bond zone
- Glacial till or rock socket
- A typical range for this kind of work.Typical value — confirm against the project's geotechnical design.
- Rock socket length
- 10–25 ft
- A typical range for this kind of work.Typical value — confirm against the project's geotechnical design.
- Verification testing
- Per specification
- A typical range for this kind of work.Typical value — confirm against the project's geotechnical design.
How it goes in
- 01
Set up in the constrained space
The limited-access drill is walked to the work point — through a doorway, into a basement, or onto a slab that has been checked for the machine load — and set up under the available headroom.
- 02
Drill and case through overburden
The hole is advanced through fill and overburden with temporary or permanent casing as required to hold the bore, then continued into the bearing stratum.
- 03
Socket into till or bedrock
The bore is advanced into dense glacial till, or socketed into competent bedrock, to develop the bond length the design capacity requires.
- 04
Install reinforcement and grout
A steel bar or casing is installed full length and the pile is tremie-grouted from the bottom up so the bond zone transfers load to the ground.
- 05
Test and connect
Verification and proof testing is performed where the specification requires it, and the pile head is connected to the structure or new pile cap per the structural design.
Equipment on this work
Klemm KR 806-3GS
Limited-access anchor & micropile drill
Equipment shown as illustrative renderings.
Where it fits
- Underpinning existing commercial and institutional foundations
- Interior and low-headroom installation inside occupied buildings
- New foundations on sites with no crane or rig access
- Resisting uplift, overturning, and seismic retrofit loads
- Foundations bearing through deep fill onto till or ledge
- Bridge, transit, and infrastructure substructure repair
Frequently asked
Related projects
Illustrative tear sheets — example case studies pending verification.
Ready to scope your foundation?
Tell us about the project and we'll put together a detailed quote within 3 days. We generally work with general contractors.