Concrete piles are a type of building foundation system often designed and specified when the sub-grade soils required to support a structure are located too deep below the project’s grade elevation for less expensive foundation designs to be considered. The final tip elevation of concrete pile foundations are generally installed many times deeper than the bottoms of traditional concrete footings. Piles of all material construction, lengths and cross-sections are considered either to be friction piles or end-bearing piles. Friction piles, as their name implies, get most of their support strength through the frictional force that develops between the surface area of each pile face and the sub-grade soils that the pile is placed in.