Previous slide
Next slide
WHAT WE DO
Our Services
Expert solutions for building strong and stable foundations through advanced geotechnical engineering
Project Management
Precision project management from A to Z
Estimation
Expert estimation for deep foundation work
Engineering Plans
Crafting precise engineering plans for your project
Claims support
Supporting claims through clear examination and rapid turnaround
Expert witness
Specialized to serve as an expert witness
Post project analysis
Thorough post-project analysis for continuous improvement
Piling And Caissons
Drilled, Driven, Screwed
Anchors
Support of excavation
Berline walls, Sheet pile walls, secant walls, Slurry walls
Soil Improvement Methods
Stone columns, Rigid Inclusions, Slurry Trenching or Cut-off walls
HOW WE DO
Technologies
Innovative technologies for assessing, designing, and constructing deep foundations in challenging geotechnical conditions.
- Piling and Caissons (drilled, driven, screwed)
- Anchors
- Support of excavation (Berline walls, Sheet pile walls, secant walls, Slurry walls)
- Soil improvement methods (Stone columns, Rigid Inclusions, Slurry Trenching or Cut-off walls)
Benefit 1
A short description of the benefit.
Benefit 2
A short description of the benefit.
Benefit 3
A short description of the benefit.
Benefit 4
A short description of the benefit.
OUR STORY
About Us
We've been in business for 20+ years
This professional journey in the foundation industry began at an early age and includes roles such as welder, operator, foreman, estimator, project manager, engineer, management, director, and owner of a foundation company, leading to a specialist position at WSP. With over 25 years of experience as a contractor in deep foundations, there’s extensive expertise in managing projects from conception through completion.
As an engineer with a background in overseeing people, projects, and budgets, this experience allows for effective cost-saving strategies while generating business opportunities. The deep foundation industry is niche, but this diverse skill set allows clients to adapt structures and approaches within budget constraints while maintaining profitability.
Technical knowledge spans driven piles, drilled piles, caissons, various earth-retaining walls, slurry walls, cut-off walls, and soil improvement techniques. The complex assessment of factors such as soil conditions, equipment needs, and financial impacts of each technique is a core strength. This comprehensive experience ensures clients receive cost-effective and timely project guidance.
LET'S CONNECT
Contact Us
We're a phone call away to helping you solve your deep foundation needs
- fontekdeepfoundation.com
- (514) 772-8544
- info@fontekdeepfoundation.com
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
FAQ
We're here to help answer your questions and concerns
A pile is a type of deep foundation that is used and selected by engineers when shallow foundations are not suitable. There are multiple reasons why piles can be selected over shallow, like design loads being high and/or concentrated, poor underlying soils and site constraints and property lines. There are several different types that exist, and their installations also vary along with sometimes their materials. Piles can be made from wood, steel, concrete and a composite of both steel and concrete. They can be driven into the ground, drilled, screwed, and pushed hydraulically. The selection of the material and installation varies often due to site conditions and underlying soil stratums.
Caissons deep structural elements that are drilled and often have a much bigger diameter than piles. Although caissons do not have a specific minimum diameter, their size offer a much higher resistance axially and laterally. The nature of a caisson and what gives its uniqueness is the fact that they always have a socket and reinforced concrete.
For the simple facts that they are very versatile and cost effective. Soldier piles can be driven or drilled which allows them to pass through soils that would normally block sheet piles. They are simple and easy and meet the need of many clients due to their budget friendly costs. They use wood planks between the soldier piles called lagging which is considerably cheaper than steel. Unfortunately, although their widely popular, there are not suited for high ground water conditions and are also very flexible which can cause issues around sensitive overlying structures such as roads and sidewalks.
Sheet piles offer great support of excavation with soils that are normally not too dense and with no underground obstructions such as blocks. They are often vibrated into the ground and offer good ground and water support with no wood installation since the final product is a continuous steel sheet structure. Sheet pile walls are more costly than berline walls but the sheet piles can be recuperated once the excavation is backfilled and reused multiples times which can make that technique more cost effective than leaving the steel in the ground.
The big advantage of secant walls is that they can be put in area’s where sheet piles cannot. When facing dense and rocky ground conditions sheet piles will often stop and tear when trying to reach desired depths. Installation techniques for secant walls involved drilling, which make this technique suitable in harsher soils while offering watertight solutions.
Slurry walls are the most expensive of all walls because they are soil retaining structures and structural walls at the same time. Their installation advantages favor downtown areas with high water tables where space is an issue, along with maximizing building area. Having the support of excavation combined with structural walls is the best way to maximize building space. This technology because of its combination and complex installations has costs that exceed all other walls.
The short answer is cost. It is always cheaper with favorable ground conditions to improve their resistance and use conventional shallow foundations than using deep foundations techniques like piles and/or other. Things to remember for this to be possible are that structural loading must be limited and underlying soil must be able to receive densifications materials. If these cases are met installing stone columns and inclusions will improve ground quality and offer a rigid platform to then place a structure with simple concrete footing on top of it.
Although other techniques exist to improve soils such as compaction and CFA’s, all these different types of methods are normally selected according to ground conditions, building loads and material costs that may differ depending on location. Some techniques can also offer better lateral resistance than others, but decisions predominantly favor costs. In general, stone columns are more cost effective under comparable circumstances due to stone costs versus concrete.
Slurry walls and slurry trenches are similar in the way the are built but different as a final product and final usage. They both share the use of slurry during their installation which often leads to confusion. Slurry walls are structural elements used to support buildings while trenches are used as underground cut-off walls. Once installed, slurry trenches create underground barriers that blocks ground water from migrating though it. Various applications exist for this non-structural wall when needing to isolated area from water tables or contaminants that can be found in it. Furthermore, different types of slurry trenches can be utilised using in situ soils, concrete, cement, and polymers.