Mercer Cottage, West Berlin, NS

Description:
The construction of a new one storey cottage near the beach in West Berlin, Nova Scotia required that it be supported on piles due to poor soil conditions and the necessity to elevate the structure to protect it against the possibility of extreme tides.

Subsurface Conditions:
Loose homogenous sand for approximately 12 feet deep over bedrock.

AMCON Solution:
The Ductile Iron Pipe Pile (DIP) is a driven piling system that uses high strength ductile cast iron pipe connected together by an unique spigot and socket joint that can be designed as either a friction and/or end bearing pile. This application required a pile  that would provide both end bearing and friction to resist uplift loads. This was achieved by encapsulating the pile with grout for its full length to increase its bond strength with the surrounding soil and then driving it to rejection using a hydraulic hammer mounted on a mid-sized excavator.