Matt this was a great video. You always produce professionally directed/narrated videos. Please keep making more videos.

I'm frustrated by the nay-sayers in the comments. If you want to build a luxury home, on a lake, on bad, wet soil, this is what it takes, and what it costs. You wouldn't use this system on a whim on different site. You would use it here, for people who could afford a custom home on a lake. Or you would use it on an "unbuildable" lot you got a good deal on, trading engineering and construction cost for value-add.

i understood this video really easily and i am considering purchasing a new property built on river delta. The builder says he used pre-loading as well as piles. Thanks for the info Matt.

Was in Hanoi in early 90's as owner's rep for our hotel project. Shimizu, one of our short-listed construction companies invited me to observe the "Pile Driving Ceremony" for the Intercontinental Westlake Hotel. Shimizu (design/build) had opted for pile driven cast concrete solution as lower risk, lower cost solution - our engineers strongly recommended cast in place. Hanoi sits on ancient, I mean ANCIENT, alluvial plane and the hotel's location at the lake's edge was certainly problematic. So after much ceremony and fanfare, the ancient pile driver hoisted up the cast pile and started chugging away at the pile: 1st slam PUFF, 2nd slam PUFF, 3rd slam PUFF and the ENTIRE pile shot down and literally disappeared into the murky sludge of Westlake! The hilarity of the ensuing scene is beyond to description. Shimizu PM and his engineers scurrying about, Shimizu Asia GM seething, the architect trying to make light of it, the owners obvious concern, etc. Then there was the Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, and even General Freaking Giap squirming about in their seats. One of the great moments in my life. We went with cast in place piles and paid the substantial premium. Haha!

Nice job on the vapor barrier. Very clean looking. Start right , finish well.

That foundation is going to be absolutely indestructible.

Awesome foundation and great detailed video thanks.

It was very common back in the days. Good job.

I like how you properly pointed out that the landscape is also pined

Amazing detail ... super impressive foundation 🙂

Yours videos are great! Thanks! Regards from Argentina

Great video as usual Matt! Very thorough and informative. Good thing you finally got a professional cameraman! :)

"No matter what If you're foundation moves, you're going to have big problems" Most rigid objects can be moved without breaking. Seems like it aught to be the same for houses.

Fascinating!

They did not add any punching shear protection. Even a wholly welded square (cored) plate with five tacked gussets underneath would have help.

did you use compacted fill in the middle of your slab to create the concrete beams

Hi Matt. Are you able to recommend the best foundation option for a clay cottage in Canada (freeze thaw cycle)? I would love to have a 4-5 crawl space using ICF and standard stick frame build for first level floor (only 1 floor at about 1050 sq ft). Thanks

Hi i'm in Ireland doing a course in construction and the built environment which leads to me heading to university in September. Your videos are proving very helpful in completing my building technology assignments. Just one question. is the vapor layer, or as we call it damp proof course, placed directly onto the soil or is it placed onto a compacted layer of hardcore? Cheers Chris!

What if you needed to have the house lifted in areas with flooding. Could you have a house lifted 5+ feet and sit on piles?

That looks pretty close to a vertical well for a geothermal exchanger. You ever think to run numbers and see about sinking some of that Austin heat into the ground? Trying to make a guess based on trying to count the pipes behind you, you might have 1,000 feet of "wells" dug.

How much did it cost for the foundation project?

This foundation probably cost more than my whole house. Really impressive.

how many piles did you end up using and what was the square footage for the slab? Any specific pattern to the placement of the piles (I know you said grid; could you be more specific)? What would you have done if the house were to be raised above the slab on 9 ft beams (stilts); would you have extended the piles with reinforced concrete columns before the slab was poured in? And if the problem wasn't shallow water table, but rather sloped ground and weak silty loamy soil on porous rock bed, would the same technique be used or just rely on soil friction without going deep into the rocks by using top and bottom pile caps through raft foundation?

Hello, What kind of Steel were the piles? I'm considering this type of foundation for my own home but want to see if I can find a suitable substitute such as well drill or casing pipe or something. Thanks for the great content

how do you put drain tiles from the inside the home? or is it not needed?

what is the spacing on the pile post ???

Very nice, clever & more affordable solution for bad soil.

that's a BIG house!

My cottage is about a meter off the ground, and has poles supporting it, but the concrete around the base of the poles is all cracked. Can I just dig down so the hole is about 2 feet in diameter and just fill it in with concrete? Any suggestions please?

Just the DIY project I was looking for... thanks!

Why wouldn’t you use helical piles?

ooooooooooooooon the BUILD SHoooooooow

that feel when your area needs at least 16m of footing

Wow, that was really interesting. I'm curious what sort of cost jump there is going from a regular slab foundation (say if you were just building a house in the middle of Round Rock) to doing this particular set up.

Please help Matt, I have a question. My parents house is brick and on a cinderblock foundation. It sits a top 3 underground springs and so settles badly. It has a crawlspace. How would one drive I beams under the house in the crawl space in order to replace the cinderblocks that keep settlings with the ground under the house?

I'm in similar situation in coastal area, but with marine clay going from 23 feet down to 93 feet, so conventional pilings are not an option. What I ended up going with is a Waffle or floating slab then sonotube posts.

How would I best build a cabin on exposed canadian shield rock ? I was thinking, steel tubes with the underside, of the cabin, exposed.

What were those giant corrugated black plastic pipes snaking through the foundation?

How to build when money is no object...

What's your thoughts on helical piles?

Matt, did you guys consider helical piles? Would have saved all the noise from the banging. In my neighborhood, mechanical driving with hammer is NOT allowed ... would disturb the ears of tree-huggers.

Greater video. Thanks! Question: is there an alternative way to drive the pile down of you do not have a crane pile driver?

Never angered to start steel piles in my life. 8"× 3/8" wall is a good choice. I have seen larger diameter thin wall piles collapse like an accordion, and make a turn and come back up through the ground 15' away. Looked like a fish hook.

The formers did a nice clean job for not having panel forms. Such a waste in material using 2x4’s/2x6’s

Auger cast piles are faster. Don't know if they are more expensive in your area.

No insulation underneath the slab? Perhaps you don't need that in Austin, Texas.

Could probably build a skyscraper on that thing

Those steel piles are going to be in permanent contact with water . Isnt that a thing to be worried?

Wow probably raises the price by double

Most excessive case piles I've ever seen. Steel must be cheap over there. What is the purpose of such thick wall piles other than not having the capacity to bottom drive.

im surprised no corrosion control on the pipe

Amazing but $$$$$$$

whatever is wrong with the traditional block and cement foundation.

to expensive

green screen btw

Your not building a sky scraper, it's a house. Sounds like a money making racket.

"Geotentical" engineer?

They shouldn't build houses so close to lakes

Swamp Land

Really, I give all this unnecessary over capacity, expense, COST, a thumbs down. What are they building, a skyscraper? This is totally ridiculous.