helical piers - helical screw foundations

[J & D Goldman]

Hi all,
  Sometime ago I came across these helical piers and was impressed by
the opportunities they present. They are a lot like those little screw
anchors you can buy to hold your tin shed down in a storm - a lot like
them, on steroids that is.  These are designed to hold the load and
resist uplift for full size buildings as a substitute for concrete
foundations.  Consider yourself trying to get your dome up before the
snow falls, and deal wilth these issues:

"Sorry, its too wet for me to get in there and dig footings. Call me
when it dries out"
"If I dig now, the walls of the trench will collapse before I can get
the cement truck here".
"We had to stop digging. We are getting groundwater in the trenches
before we can even finish."

Helical piers require no trenches

"We can't put concrete trucks in there. The ground is too soft and its
too steep. You can wheelbarrel it up there if you want."
"Sorry guy, those trees will just have to come out if you want my
people to come in and pour."
"We have a big road job right now. Call me in about two weeks and I'll
see if I can get you a few loads."
"Can't pour concrete in this kind of weather. Even if we did, it'll
never cure right."
"Yeah, I can get a slab there for you but what are you going to do
about footings?"

Helical piers require no concrete.

"The ground can handle the weight of that light building you want to
put up, but a foundation is too heavy and is out of the question".
"I'll need my carpenter to do the forms for this one, and he's out
sick."

Helical piers are much lighter than concrete.

No, I'm not getting a commission from the National Helical Pier
Salesman's assoc   :-).     However, these can be put in place with a
machine no larger than a skid-steer loader, or even walked into place
and driven in with a hand-carried post hole auger in some situations.

Take a look at some of these sites. I'd like to hear what you all
think.  Anyone got any experience with these, or know anything about
them? Any downsides?  Do you see the same potential I do for getting
your building up, especially for the DIY market?

What about you dome companies? Does this provide new options for you
to consider in working with the owner/builder, or even taking your
crew out to build a dome?  Are there good reasons "not to"?  They meet
code in most places, although they might be new to a lot of building
inspectors.

A few examples below, but there are quite a few more if you look.

http://www.helicalpierinfo.com/newconstruction.htm
http://www.piertech.com/index.php
http://web.umr.edu/~stephens/helical%20anchors.htm

- Dan G.