Safe Piling

These timber piles are supposed to support a house, will you feel safe to live in this house?

Some Engineers/Contractors/Owners thought that by hitting as hard as possible on the piles into the ground using heavy pile driving hammer, the piles would be able to carry more loads. They used very low set such as 1 inch or less per ten blows, in according to the design formula as their final piling criterion. The also did not protect the head using cushion and casing. 

The aftermath is the crushing of the pile heads. This also happened to concrete and steel piles. If this failure occurred on the top, it might happen at the bottom too.
Over driving, therefore should be avoided!