The foundations
Building a house on a remote bush block and positioned high up on an escarpment exposed to the force of the
prevailing winds is normally deemed a costly combo when is comes to foundations or earthworks. For this reason, we decided to investigate
alternative methods of attaching our house to terra firma.
What we came across on the web and decided to proceed with was an unique pier system called Mega Anchors, which incidentally is an Australian invention.
This pier system is particularly suited for light weight construction on steep or rough sites where the fixing of traditional piers is difficult, time
consuming and costly. Basically each steel footing is "anchored" to the ground by three steel piles
driven in at opposing inclines by a jack hammer. Steel piers and bracing members are then fixed to the each anchor footing as
with conventional concrete footings. Not only is the Mega Anchor system relative economical to install,
the system also offers environmental benefits by having minimum impact on the ground surface and the surrounding natural vegetation. A big plus for
sensitive ecosystems and erosion prone sites. With Mega Anchors, clearing a building site would only be necessary for fire prevention measures.
Further preparation of the house site involved setting out and marking the position of each pier footing ready for the Mega Anchor installation team.
Unfortunately a number of nearby trees posed a future threat and so these were cut down and dragged away, with the aid of our neighbour's small dozer. Not
only are gum trees fire prone, they are also renown for dropping branches as a natural pruning process, giving
them the dubious reputation as "widow makers".
The installation of the Mega Anchors and fixing the piers took about two and a
half days for the two men involved.
As a cosmetic gesture, cement blocks were placed at the foot of each pier to be set in position and capped later.
For more information on Mega Anchors
visit
www.mega-anchor.com.au
and
www.cvsubstructures.com.au
The first Mega Anchor.
This then became the reference point for the rest. Each one was held on position
by the central pin while the jack hammer rattled away....
A Mega Anchor up close
and personal. This one will be the support for a verandah post .
The Mega Anchor
installation is completed and ready for the bearers and joists. The concrete
blocks will be dolled up later.