driveway piers

chiefwiggum

hi everyone

im thinking of building two driveway piers myself for a pair of gates at our house,now i have never done anything like this before and have a few questions,
how deep would the foundations need to be for the piers,we live on a site thats mainly sheet rock underneath(found this out when doing the foundations for the house...nightmare) and im guessing i could get down maybe 6-9 inches at vey best

we have a pallet and a half of 4 inch solid blocks left over from the build,could i use these or would cavity be the better option?

would i have to set the hinge recievers for the gates into the piers or would the guys who install the gates do that when the fit them?

there is power brought down to there from the house so would i need to bring cable up through the piers incase of wanting to add lights at a latter stage?

if i was to employ someone with the current climate what would i be lookin at paying to get two 5-6 ft piers built basing it on me supplying the materials?

thanks for any advice recieved

Dupont

i would put the foundations in at 12" deep.no point building a strong pier if the base is going to move. use the 4" blocks,you can build them on their flat and leave out some 1/2 flat steel built into the bed as a top hanger for a gate. a bottom farrell can be set in concrete later.or you can build them on their edge and put a girder inside the pier weld a top hanger on it and fill with concrete. a builder would have them built in a day so a days wage would have them done

chiefwiggum

Dupont wrote: »

i would put the foundations in at 12" deep.no point building a strong pier if the base is going to move. use the 4" blocks,you can build them on their flat and leave out some 1/2 flat steel built into the bed as a top hanger for a gate. a bottom farrell can be set in concrete later.or you can build them on their edge and put a girder inside the pier weld a top hanger on it and fill with concrete. a builder would have them built in a day so a days wage would have them done

thanks dupont

could you explain the 1/2 inch flat steel built into the bed bit a little more? i presume the bottom farrell is the thing the bottom of the gate swings on?
thanks again

Dupont

yes the bottom one is for the gate swinging,but you need a top one aswell so if building blocks on their flat just use some flat like 1/2 thick X 1 1/2 wide and set it on top of blocks about 3/4 way up then continue to build so it will be built into the wall and will be strong enough,leave it sticking out a couple inches so the people that fit the gates and cut it off where needed and weld their bracket to it.

chiefwiggum

top man ...very helpful thanks

Dupont

no bother building a set for a friend at the minute,buillt 18" block pier on edge and left middle holllow for steel because theyre being finished with stone

chiefwiggum

sounds good....im just going to plaster mine to match the house i think,nothing too fancy