The tradition of digging or drilling holes to concrete in timber piles for typical New Zealand house and deck foundations is a widely used system. But when looked at in detail, this method is both slow, wasteful and often has unknown elements that lead to delays — and thats before the weather is factored in.
The process of digging, waiting for excavation inspections, pouring concrete, stripping temporary bracing and cutting piles to height is a process that will take a minimum of two or three days, and produces a bin of waste to go to landfill, and a large amount of spoil to truck off site. Multiple site trips by contractors and delivery trucks adds to the inefficiency and carbon emissions.
In contrast, a groundscrew foundation is installed and ready to build on in a single day (or less!). There is no impact on the ground, so nothing to clear up.
The groundscrews are set to a laser level datum and therefore create zero waste, and the fact StopDigging!'s comprehensive system is certified by CodeMark means no onsite inspections required. This eliminates a large number of site trips by engineers, contractors and delivery trucks.
A completed house foundation in a single day, with zero waste and low carbon footprint is available NOW with the StopDigging! groundscrew system. Backed up by CodeMark, StopDigging! offer a pre-engineered solution that is also simple to specify and gain building consent for — this allows the highest form of product assurance available in NZ today.
When you also consider the fact that for temporary buildings the groundscrews can be unscrewed and re-used, the sustainability of the system becomes second to none.
Groundscrews have significant less CO2 emissions than both a timber pile or a concrete slab foundation, as shown in StopDigging!'s emissions summary and lifecycle assessment produced by MyImprint.