'We started this almost as a hobby that boomed into what it is now.'

Kevin Druet owns Hanover Screw Pile, an engineered steel piling company based out of Niverville. He says they had no idea they’d become one of the larger players in the commercial space.

'We’ve been around now for just shy of ten years,' says Druet. 'We started as sort of a niche business, realizing there are a lot of guys out there making these steel piles in their garage and installing them all over the region – no engineering, no responsibility, no certification – they’re just winging it.'

Druet says there are several other screw pile specialists in the province who also use certified products and do a great job.

'But I found that when I was looking for something as a customer, they were priced somewhat too high for the homeowner,' says Druet. 'Being that I came from a mechanical background, I realized there was a huge hole that could be filled.'

Druet says the engineered piles that his company uses are manufactured in ISO-certified facilities and all the welders that Hanover Screw Pile works with are certified with the Canadian Welding Bureau.

'We’re manufacturer-certified through several different manufacturers,' says Druet. 'We’re using equipment that the smaller contractors, the old-timers in the business, just don’t have. They put a pipe in the ground and they kick it and say that’s a good pile.'

Druet says there’s much more to installing a reliable screw pile that can stand up to the pressure of weight and time.

'There’s a relationship between how much torque it takes to turn it in, and what that finished capacity will look like,' says Druet. 'So, using the right torque-monitoring equipment when we screw down the pile, we can tell you each individual pile’s capacity, right now. So, when the engineer says we need a 70,000-pound pile, we can confidently deliver that pile.'

Druet says there’s a big difference between a 20,000-pound pile and a 70,000-pound pile.

'If I gave you a number ten deck screw and a 2x4 and said, ‘here, screw it into this,’ we can hang a few hundred pounds off that screw before it falls out, or we can push a lot of weight on it before it pushes into the 2x4 further,' explains Druet. 'But what if that 2x4 is a rotten piece of wood?'

Druet notes that this is exactly what the soils dictate, and that’s why his engineer selects the proper pile and foundation design.

'So (there’s a) guy with signs saying ‘city-certified piles up to 5000 pounds’, but the pile itself could just crush under the weight of 5000 pounds,' says Druet. 'It doesn’t mean that (if you) screw it in your yard it’s capable of that sort of weight – and they don’t know that, because they simply don’t use the right equipment to put them in.'

Druet notes the contractors that Hanover Screw Piles works with are always happy to see an engineer’s stamp of approval on their piles and designs.

'We totally remove the guesswork,' says Druet. 'Those handscrews – we’d never put one in the ground, but we love them because we get paid to take them out, replace them and take your deck apart, fix it.'

Druet says the pandemic has caused a few projects to be put on hold.

'We can see that the homeowner is holding onto their hard-earned cash and not spending it on renovations right now,' notes Druet. 'It’s been a catalyst for us to search for other opportunities, to find other ways to use our equipment to keep people working.'

Druet immediately began considering what else his company could do the people and equipment they have on board.

'We hire certified welders and designers and engineers, so we worked our way into designing and manufacturing snow buckets and steel workbenches for industrial shops, industrial equipment, adapter plates for farmers to put their skid steer attachment on their John Deere tractor or their Ford attachments on their Case tractor, and it’s been very cool,' says Druet. 'You know, we’ve got access to all these people and we’re paying the bill anyway, we may as well utilize what’s in front of us.'

Druet says he’s also enjoyed this slower season to spend more time with his family.

'I’ve been home a little bit more, working in the home office, getting closer to the family, being more of a dad instead of being out working the seven-month construction season,' says Druet. 'It’s been great.'

Druet says he’s intrigued by what he sees when Hanover Screw Pile is called on to fix the mistakes of others.

'It’s interesting to see the numbers of failed pilings done by other companies who were of the get in/get out business model,' reflects Druet. 'Especially this last year, we’ve seen so much frost heave, and to see garages literally lifting out of the ground, and people’s decks! Some of these really beautiful decks built on these walk-out basements and they’re less than 10-year-old houses – the pilings under them are jacking out of the ground – which isn’t something that can happen with a screw pile.'

Druet says his company’s success almost happened by accident.

'We just wanted to base our business on integrity and honesty – and here we are. When engineers want me to prove that my pile capacity is actually 20,000 pounds, I think to myself, ‘why would I do any less?’'

To learn more, visit http://hanoverscrewpile.ca/index.html