We start where the drawings stop.
Piling, foundations and ground engineering across Malta and Gozo. We work on the tight, awkward, neighbour on three sides sites that make up most of these islands.
Ground first. Everything else follows.
Every structure on these islands sits on the same problem. Rock that looks solid until it is not, clay that moves when it is wet, and a building next door that was there first.
We work on foundations, retention and civil works for main contractors, developers and consulting engineers. That ranges from a single underpinning job in a townhouse to a full basement box in the middle of a village core.
We survey before we quote, we tell you what the ground is likely to do, and we put it in writing. Where the ground investigation is too thin to support a confident price, we say that rather than carry the risk quietly into the programme.
How we work
Defined by the crews who run the rigs
Working at BGGround engineering is unforgiving of improvisation. The method is planned, briefed and then worked as briefed, because the consequences of adjusting it on the day land on somebody else’s building.
Our operators and banksmen are certified for the plant they run, and those records are held on site rather than in an office.
Foundations, retention, civils.
Bored and CFA piling
Continuous flight auger and rotary bored piles for bearing and settlement control, cased where the strata demand it.
foundationsSecant and contiguous walls
Embedded retaining walls for basements and deep excavations where there is no room to batter back, which is most of Malta.
retentionMicropiling and underpinning
Restricted access work inside existing buildings and against party walls, on plant that fits through a standard opening.
remedialRock excavation
Mechanical excavation and controlled breaking through Maltese limestone, with vibration monitored against neighbouring structures.
earthworksCivil and structural works
Pile caps, ground beams, retaining structures and reinforced concrete substructure finished to the engineer’s detail.
concrete
Five disciplines, one crew
What that means on siteMost jobs use more than one of them. The point of a single contractor is that the interfaces between piling, excavation and concrete become our problem rather than yours.
It also removes the argument about who caused the overbreak, which is the dispute that costs the most time when these packages are let separately.
Three rocks and a clay.
Malta is built on Globigerina Limestone, Blue Clay and Coralline Limestone. Three materials that behave nothing like each other, frequently within the same plot, and one of which moves.
Reading that correctly is most of the job. Pile schedules are set against the ground investigation for your site, never assumed from the plot next door.
The Maltese successionSend us the drawings.
Early is better than late. A conversation at design stage costs nothing and frequently changes the foundation solution for the better.
Request a site survey