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Building on Utah's tricky soil — expansive clays, rocky fill, sandy washes, hillside lots, frost-prone slopes — and traditional spread footings either don't work or cost a fortune to over-engineer. Helical piers change the equation. Screw-in, immediately load-bearing, no excavation, no cure time, installable in any weather. Lift Right Concrete is a PierTech-certified installer serving builders, contractors, architects, and homeowners across Utah.
Helical piers (also called helical piles, screw piles, or earth anchors) are engineered steel shafts with helix-shaped plates welded along their length. They're hydraulically driven into the ground — literally screwed in — until they reach soil with the load-bearing capacity required for your structure. Once installed, they transfer the load of the structure above through the helix plates onto stable, deeper soil — bypassing the unstable surface soils entirely.
For new construction, helical piers replace or supplement traditional spread footings, eliminating the need for excavation, concrete cure time, and seasonal weather delays.
Helical piers are engineered for a wide range of new construction applications:
Helical piers are installed with a hydraulic torque motor on a skid steer, mini excavator, or specialized rig. No backhoe trenches. No spoil piles. No exposed footing forms. Especially valuable on small lots, mature landscapes, or sites with utilities running close to the foundation.
The day a pier is installed, it's ready to carry its rated load. No 7-day concrete cure. No waiting for the perfect weather window. Framing crews can be on-site the same week — sometimes the same day.
Concrete footings can't be poured below freezing without expensive winter measures. Helical piers install year-round, in any weather, in any temperature. For Utah's short construction seasons, that's months of additional building time per year.
Utah's expansive clays swell and shrink with moisture, putting massive stress on traditional footings. Helical piers extend through unstable surface soils to deeper, more competent layers — often 15-40+ feet down — making the structure essentially independent of surface soil behavior.
Each pier's load capacity is verified during installation by recording torque-to-depth. The relationship between installation torque and ultimate capacity is engineered and documented. You aren't guessing what the foundation can hold — you have install records proving it.
Critical for hillside lots, lots with mature trees, environmentally sensitive areas, and tight infill sites. Helical piers leave a small footprint. The bracket attaches with minimal disruption.
Unlike concrete footings, helical piers can be unscrewed and removed if a structure is later relocated or demolished — important for temporary structures, modular installations, and projects with future flexibility requirements.
Lift Right Concrete is a PierTech-certified installer. PierTech is one of the most-trusted helical pier and foundation system manufacturers in the United States, with a comprehensive product line for residential, light commercial, and structural applications. PierTech systems carry transferable lifetime product warranties — a meaningful asset that follows the property forever.
Our certification means our crew is trained on PierTech's installation specifications, our torque equipment is calibrated to PierTech standards, and our project documentation meets PierTech and engineering review requirements.
We meet with you, your architect, and your structural engineer to review the design loads, soil conditions, and site constraints. For most projects, your engineer will specify the pier size, depth, and bracket type. We provide installation expertise and site feasibility.
For larger or higher-risk projects, a geotechnical investigation provides soil parameters that guide pier engineering. We coordinate with local geotechs for soil borings and analysis when the project warrants it.
We translate the engineer's drawings into a field layout, mark each pier location, and coordinate with the building department on permits, inspections, and any special engineering submittals.
Each pier is screwed into place using calibrated torque equipment. Installation torque is recorded at each depth, providing real-time verification that we've reached load-bearing soil. Most residential projects install 8-30 piers in a single day.
Once piers are at depth and capacity is verified, we install the appropriate bracket — new construction caps, side-load brackets, or custom assemblies — that the framing crew connects to. We provide installation records, torque-depth logs, and any documentation required for inspection or engineering sign-off.
We install helical piers for new construction across Northern and Central Utah:
Salt Lake County: West Jordan, Salt Lake City, Sandy, Murray, Draper, South Jordan, Riverton, Herriman, Taylorsville, Midvale, Millcreek, Holladay, Cottonwood Heights, West Valley
Utah County: Provo, Orem, Lehi, American Fork, Pleasant Grove, Eagle Mountain, Saratoga Springs
Tooele, Davis & Weber Counties: Tooele, Grantsville, Stansbury Park, Bountiful, Layton, Kaysville, Farmington, Clearfield, Ogden — including hillside, mountain, and rural lots
For a simple slab-on-grade with good soil, traditional footings are usually cheaper. For decks, hillside foundations, additions matching an existing foundation, expansive soils, cold-weather installations, or sites with utility constraints, helical piers are often equal or less expensive — and dramatically faster. Per-pier pricing starts around $400-$700 for residential decks and scales up by size. Engineered structural projects depend on pier size, depth, and design load.
For most permitted construction in Utah, yes — engineering review is required. We work routinely with local structural engineers who understand helical pier systems and can produce stamped drawings cost-effectively. We can also recommend engineers if you don't already have one.
Depends entirely on soil. In good soil, 8-15 feet may be sufficient. In Utah's expansive clays or fills, 20-40+ feet is common. We don't pre-determine depth — we install to engineered torque/capacity, which means we go as deep as needed for your specific site.
Yes — and they're often the best option for hillside construction. Slopes complicate traditional excavation and footing pours, and surface soils on slopes are often unstable due to creep and erosion. Helical piers reach through unstable surface layers to stable deeper soil, making the foundation essentially independent of slope conditions.
Yes. Helical piers are particularly well-suited to modular and manufactured home installations because they install fast, can be precisely located before the home arrives on-site, and provide engineered foundation support comparable to or better than traditional perimeter foundations.
Most residential projects (decks, additions, ADUs) install in 1-2 days on-site. Larger commercial or multi-pier residential foundations take 2-5 days. The savings versus a traditional footing pour come from skipping the 1-3 weeks of excavation, forming, pouring, and curing — your framing can start immediately after pier installation.
Yes. Most jurisdictions require inspection of foundation work, and helical piers are no exception. We coordinate inspections, provide torque-depth installation logs, and meet whatever documentation requirements your local building department or your engineer specifies.
