About FTA

We believe a foundation is a promise.

And promises matter most when no one’s looking.

A foundation is the one part of a build nobody sees once it’s finished. It’s also the part that, if it isn’t right, can’t be fixed without tearing everything else down. FTA exists to make sure the part that holds everything else up is genuinely sound, for the family in the home, the builder whose name is on the contract, and the developer whose project has to stand for decades.

Australia builds on concrete by default. Not because it’s always the right answer, but because it’s the familiar one. Building surveyors trust it, engineers default to it, and builders have always used it. In plenty of situations where a properly engineered screw pile would be faster, more accurate, more compliant and better for the environment, concrete still wins on inertia alone.

Our job is to make the right answer the easy one by doing the engineering properly, proving the case in evidence, and giving the industries we serve the foundations they actually deserve.

We engineer every job to the project, not the template.
In-house engineering, led by Travis Yap, means every foundation is designed for the actual loads, soil conditions and design life of the building it’s supporting. 100% compliance, 100% of the time. Not over-engineered — correctly engineered.

We invest in the best technology available.
Ten-plus installation machines. Advanced torque monitoring on every pile. Three complementary technologies — The Helical Pile, Radix and Shortek, [Retaining] and [Underpinning] — so the tool fits the job, not the other way round.

We solve the jobs others can’t.
Concrete-free retaining walls. Screw pile underpinning. Remote mobilisation. Culturally sensitive sites. This is where the value shows up — when something’s unexpected.

We walk a mile in our client’s shoes.
Absorbing unforeseen cost increases rather than passing them on. Leaving sites clean. Solving problems on the day, not after the invoice.

We work at any scale, on any site.
From a single home on a tight inner-city block to 10,000+ piles under the largest battery storage project in Australia, the same engineering discipline applies, regardless of scale.

We build the category, not just our business.
Engineer education. Technical papers. Building surveyor education. Raising the floor for the whole industry, because a market that understands compliance chooses it.

Steve Hassett — Founder & Managing Director

Steve started his career in structural steel, working across some of Australia’s largest organisations, including the Smorgon Steel Group and BHP, before being invited to run a screw piling business. He grew that business through a period of rapid expansion and came away from it with a clear view of how the industry should, and shouldn’t, operate.

Two of his clients at the time, Todd Devine Homes and Carlisle Homes, were the ones who convinced him to go out on his own. Both had assumed he was already starting a screw piling business before he’d said a word about it. That vote of confidence became FTA.

Steve’s approach to running the business is straightforward: know what you’re good at, and bring in people who are better than you at everything else. That’s shaped an FTA built around a genuine team, not a single founder, with Richard, Travis and the wider team each bringing a different strength to the table. Steve remains the founding voice and the person most likely to be found building relationships on site or in the boardroom, but he’s the first to say the business is bigger than any one person.

He’s passionate about the industry rather than consumed by it, and he’s just as likely to be talking Master Builders Victoria sponsorships as he is to be checking in on a family’s first home build. His guiding line for the business, and the one that sits behind everything FTA does: a foundation is a promise, and promises matter most when no one’s looking.

Richard Ryan — CEO

Richard brings a business background built on precision manufacturing, a period running his own business, and a business degree earned to back up years of hands-on experience. He steers FTA’s strategy and sales direction, mentors the state-based BDM team, and is known for a straightforward approach to problem-solving: get the job sorted on site first, and worry about everything else after. That relationship-first, solutions-first mindset runs through how FTA works with every client.

Travis Yap — Engineering Lead

Travis leads FTA’s in-house engineering and is the reason every foundation is designed to the actual site, loads and design life, not a generic template. Formally handed the baton by international screw pile authority Dr Howard Perko, Travis is regarded as one of the leading screw pile engineers in Australia, a member of the Footings and Foundation Society of Victoria, and one of only two engineers globally to be recognised in the Deep Foundations Institute’s design competition. His technical rigour is the foundation, literally, of FTA’s 100% compliance record.

Sally Bush — Office Manager

Sally keeps FTA’s day-to-day operations running, coordinating people, systems, schedules and communication so the rest of the team can stay focused on sites, clients and engineering. Her role spans onboarding, compliance administration, workflow management and the day-to-day support that keeps projects moving without friction. It’s the operational backbone that lets FTA’s engineers, project managers and installation crews concentrate on the work that clients actually see.