Sheet Piling

Sheet piling is a retaining wall built by driving interlocking sections, most often rolled steel but sometimes vinyl, aluminum, fiberglass or wooden planks, directly into the ground to hold back soil between two different ground levels, particularly in soft soil or tight urban sites where a conventional excavated foundation wall is impractical. A common rule of thumb drives about a third of each sheet length above the finished ground level and the remaining two thirds below it, though the exact proportion depends on soil conditions, and a wall taller than a modest height needs a tie-back anchor, sometimes called a deadman, buried in the soil some distance behind the wall face to keep it from tipping. Interlocking steel sheet pile sections, developed and marketed under names such as Larssen sheet piling, made the technique fast enough to use for cofferdams, quay walls, and temporary excavation support across twentieth century civil engineering.