Saint East 17th Phase 1: Residential Excavation

Zebiak supplied a full range of services on this East Vancouver MCD retention project. Our friends at Saint Construction took on the task of turning an old single-family home into a development with 4 units. This project is located in a peat area of Vancouver; the ground is moist, organic, spongy and soft. True compact bearing soil is not located until a depth of about 35 feet. It would be cost prohibitive to excavate so deep for foundations to sit on, thus helical piles were selected to support the new foundations. But before the piles could be installed, Zebiak had to carefully excavate the footprint of the basement for the main house. The ground is so soft that getting a machines badly stuck is a real possibility. Relying heavily on our experienced leadership, our operations made tactical use of swamp pads and a dig your way out approach to ensure this excavation ran smoothly and on schedule. Upon completion we laid a base of geotextile upon the peat and installed a 16 inch base layer of clear crush gravel. This set the stage for our next phase helical pile install and foundation construction.