“Wetlands” can imply many conditions. It could involve a lake, river, or swampy area. It could be a soft wetland that has standing water at certain times of the year. Perhaps it is a site with a high water table, making the soil soft and compressible. Often these are organic sites, such as manure or loam.

What if you want to build on these sites? It’s possible? Will helical pillars help? The answer is yes.

But the first issue is not the foundations but the permits. Local and state rules often control your options. Rules of thumb, existing buildings on the site, and other factors may affect results. The use of the structure can also influence the permissions. In general, time-consuming processes and engineering are implicit in the objectives.

If options are open, helicals are a very viable option.

So what could the project be? A farmhouse, permanent home, storage building, garage, or even a boat garage could be your idea. Yes, propellers have potential for all of these. But in such bad conditions, how can they be effective?

The first thing to know is that there is almost certainly good fertile soil there. The problem is that it can be 10, 20, 40 or more feet below the surface. This is okay because the propellers can be turned deep into the “bad stuff” to get to the “good stuff”. Even on the bottom of the lake that is organic, the propellers can spread through the loose stratum. Clearly a ground bore would be useful in predicting depths, but it doesn’t change how deep you’ll go.

Your structure should be designed for dock placement and loading. From that information, propellers can be designed and installed. The top of the propeller can be custom capped to fit whatever you need, such as concrete beams, precast concrete beams, wood or steel beams. Top bracket designs can vary widely.

Two big advantages, among many, include the absence of vibrations during installation. Nearby neighbors have nothing to worry about. Additionally, small equipment or even handheld equipment can be used to install coils. This gives great flexibility. They could even be installed through icy areas in winter which, in some situations, solves some access problems.

The design of the pier itself is very important. An extended expanse of very soft soils would require a design that could include any of the following: over-specification of a stiffer column shaft, tubular grout elements, use of rods to strengthen the grout, X-braced column shafts for above grade or use of side pillars to resist lateral movement. Clearly a quality contractor and engineer are very important.

For construction on a desirable wetland site, the propellers will be the key component to make it work.