Piling where almost no one else can

New company name, trusted knowledge and expertise

Piles for the basement of a large mansion on piles in Amsterdam, piles for a bridge, low-vibration but also vibration-free piling in places which are difficult to reach. In short, piling where not everybody can, that's what Ras Heiwerken stands for. And if you don't know this name; the company used to be called Ten Napel Heiwerken and exists for over thirty years. Owner Klaas Ras: "I've been working in this company since I was fifteen."

Ten Napel Heiwerken is a household name in compact foundation engineering. Klaas Ras did an internship there, kept working there and became co-owner eight years ago. In 2024 he also took the final step and became full owner of the Urk-based company that now bears his name: Ras Heiwerken. "It went like a natural process," Klaas says. "I've been working there for more than 20 years."

Klaas is still working with the same, experienced team, although it has now been expanded by a few people. "We want to grow a bit and focus completely on piling and the screw injection piles. In recent years, vibration-free pile driving with screw injection piles has risen sharply and sometimes large contracts have resulted from that. Vibration-free work is very important for old buildings. The team now consists of about 15 people and it doesn't need to get much bigger."
By choosing a compact team, Klaas guards the short lines within the company and with customers. "If there are acute works, we can always switch quickly," he explains. "We have five compact piling rigs and two compact drilling rigs. There is always a machine that is not working." Most employees work there for more than 15 years and have a lot of experience. New colleagues are trained internally. 

Ras Heiwerken works "from Texel to Maastricht" and is specialized in working in tight work spaces thanks to their compact machines. As a result, you find Ras Heiwerken a lot in foundation repair work in Amsterdam where houses are built on piles. "Where large, traditional piling rigs can't reach, that's where we come in. But also in dike areas, for example, where heavy equipment is not allowed. We always get excited about a challenging project."

Special work

One such project came along in Amsterdam, Klaas says. "A large mansion was extended at the back. A double basement 8 meters deep was built under the entire house as well as under the garden of about 50 by 50 meters. With our compact machines, that was quite a challenge. The basement builder called us in and then we started working on the construction drawing. In this basement, we made a large number of piles under a townhouse, with a large diameter. That's actually not normal for the small machines we have, and they were the largest piles that can be made for a compact drilling rig." The wooden ground floor was taken out after which Ras stood with the machines in the crawl space. Thus, they created the minimum height of 2.30 meters needed to make the piles. Ras made 56 screw injection piles there with a pipe diameter of 219 mm and a pile base of 550 mm. The piles went 28 meters deep into the ground.

"At Urk, we have a mentality of down-to-earth thinking. The guys like to tackle and find this a fun and exciting challenge. Right now the basement is being built and then we too will see how big a space like this becomes."

Steel tube piles

Ras Heiwerken also comes for piling work with tubular steel piles. For the extension of an existing house or the construction of a garden wall, the company has a compact piling rig. For installing piles for noise barriers along the highway or for a bridge in a residential area, the company has a somewhat larger piling rig for piles with a larger diameter. As mentioned above this article; the name is new, the knowledge and expertise familiar.