Industry Case Study: SubZero Warehouse
Challenge
Situation: SubZero, a manufacturer of kitchen appliances, recently purchased an empty 400,000 SF warehouse on the West side of the Phoenix Valley. SubZero upgraded the interior of the warehouse, adding very heavy interior load-bearing walls.
Challenges: As built, the warehouse foundation could not handle the new load-bearing walls. New grade beams had to be saw cut to support the walls and some sort of load-bearing element had to be designed by engineers to support these walls. Caissons were not an option due to access.
Solution
Solution: Helical piles were designed into the plans to support the loads for the walls. Piles were value-engineered by helix diameter and pile diameter to provide the best cost to the customer. Arizona Foundation Solutions used tight access equipment to install the piles and worked around the clock with double shifts 7 days a week to help meet the construction schedule.
Conclusion: 272 helical piles of various sizes were installed as the foundation element to support the new building design.
