If you build garden rooms, decks, annexes or outbuildings, the foundation is the part of the programme most likely to cause delay — wet trades, curing time, spoil removal and weather. Ground screws remove all of that. We install the screw grid to engineered depth, level the heads to your datum and hand over a base your team can frame from the same day.
We are builders ourselves — our screw service grew out of building SIP garden rooms in Surrey on our own foundations — so we understand programmes, sequencing and what a subcontractor turning up prepared actually looks like. We carry our own equipment and First Base screw stock, so there are no hire delays or third-party dependencies.
Mobilisation & Equipment Setup
We price travel as Mobilisation & Equipment Setup — it covers getting our installation equipment, screw stock and team to your site and set up ready to work. The minimum mobilisation charge is £250 + VAT.
| Distance from our Surrey base | Mobilisation & Equipment Setup |
|---|---|
| Up to 30 miles | £250 + VAT |
| 31 – 60 miles | £350 + VAT |
| 61 – 100 miles | £500 + VAT |
| 101 – 150 miles | £750 + VAT |
| 151 – 200 miles | £1,000 + VAT |
| 201 – 300 miles | £1,350 + VAT |
| Over 300 miles | From £1,750 + VAT |
Accommodation: Where overnight accommodation is required, this will be priced according to suitable availability on the project dates. We will always aim to keep accommodation costs reasonable and agree them before the work is booked.
What Trade Clients Get
A foundation package designed to slot into your build programme, not complicate it. Screws from 800mm to 3,000mm (3m), selected to loads, ground conditions and engineering requirements.
Spec & layout
Installation to your engineer's screw schedule, or a screw layout designed from your architectural drawings with load calculations where needed.
Install & level
Screws driven to engineered depth with our own equipment, heads levelled to your datum, correct top fixings for your subframe — timber or steel.
Handover & programme
Most domestic-scale foundations installed in a single day, signed off, with your frame landing the same day. Trade pricing for repeat and multi-site work.
How We Engineer a Ground Screw Foundation
Four things determine whether a screw foundation performs for decades: ground conditions, load transfer, the subframe above and the setting out.
Ground conditions
Clay, sand, gravel, chalk and made-up ground all behave differently. We assess the ground before specifying, and adjust screw length, diameter and spacing so each screw reaches soil that can reliably carry its share of the load — including seasonal movement in shrinkable clays.
Load transfer
The structure's dead and imposed loads are distributed across the screw grid so no single screw is overloaded. Point loads — posts, glazed openings, heavy equipment — get dedicated screws or tighter spacing.
Timber & steel subframes
Screw heads are levelled and finished with fixings to suit the subframe: timber ring beams and joist grids for most garden buildings, or galvanised steel subframes where spans, loads or ground clearance demand it.
Screw spacing & setting out
Screws are set out from the structure's drawings, not by eye — typically at 1.2–2m centres depending on load and subframe design, positioned under bearing lines so the frame above lands exactly where it should.
Real Installation Photography
Everything on this page is from genuine Helps & Co and First Base installations — no stock imagery.
Trade Clients We Support
Builders & contractors
Extension and annexe subframes, outbuilding bases and awkward-access plots where concrete would blow the programme.
Landscapers
Decking, pergolas, raised platforms and structures over ground you'd rather not excavate — installed cleanly around finished landscaping.
Garden room companies
A dependable foundation subcontractor for your installs — screw grid in, levelled and signed off before your delivery arrives. UK-wide for suitable projects, or commercial rollouts.
Trade Ground Screws — FAQs
Do you offer trade pricing on ground screw installation?
Yes. Trade pricing is available for repeat and multi-site work — builders, landscapers, garden room companies and developers who bring us regular foundation packages.
Can you install to our engineer's screw specification?
Yes. We install to engineers' screw schedules and setting-out drawings as standard, and can also design the screw layout from your architectural drawings where no schedule exists.
How quickly can you turn a trade foundation around?
Most domestic-scale foundations are installed in a single day. Because there is no curing time, your frame or subframe can land the same day — keeping your programme tight and avoiding a second mobilisation.
Do you travel for trade projects outside Surrey?
Yes — we undertake suitable trade projects throughout the UK. Travel is priced as Mobilisation & Equipment Setup, minimum £250 + VAT, banded by distance (see the table above). Selected international projects are considered individually. Where overnight accommodation is required it is priced according to suitable availability on the project dates and agreed before the work is booked.
What screw sizes can you supply and install?
From 800mm to 3,000mm (3m). Final screw selection depends on the loads, ground conditions and engineering requirements of each project.
Can you handle the subframe as well as the screws?
Yes. We can supply and install timber or steel subframes on the screw grid, levelled and ready for your build — or hand over levelled screw heads for your own team to frame from.
Got a foundation package to price?
Send your drawings or engineer's schedule and we'll come back with a fixed installation price and lead time. Repeat and multi-site clients get trade rates from the first conversation.