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Seawall and bank repair for waterfront homeowners
“The seawall is cracking.” “The bank is collapsing.” Two questions come next: what will it cost, and is it legal? This page answers both as far as they can be answered before a site visit.
1The problem
“The seawall is cracking.”
Or: “I need a new seawall.” Or: “The bank is collapsing.” The first step is the same for all three.
We start with a site visit. We look at the wall or the bank before we quote anything, and we do not recommend a method from a photo.
On a bank we look first at the drop-off at the water, and at whether there is a shelf, a flat ledge, under it. Where there is no shelf and the drop-off runs past five or six feet, that is sheet-pile work, and we will quote it that way.
The seawalls we build are mostly vinyl: a vinyl sheet-pile wall with a concrete cap.
A wall is the right answer on canals and Intracoastal frontage with a drop of about four to five feet, where sloping the bank would narrow a channel that has to stay open.
For about six inches of erosion on a lake bank, a seawall is the wrong answer.
On a wall we look at four things: lean or bulge, gaps, missing soil behind the wall, and cracks.
Not ready for a visit? Ask for an online estimate. Within 24 hours you get a price range: a range, not a quote.
2Permits
Is it legal? What a single lot has to clear
Assume a permit. The state, the county, the city and, in some places, a drainage district each issue their own, and which of them apply depends on your address. Three published examples follow, each from the authority named. Our own part is the last line.
- A drainage district. Inside the boundaries of the South Broward Drainage District, a district permit is required for erosion restoration work in all cases. The district’s application asks for a sealed property survey, the recorded warranty deed, an authorization letter from the homeowners’ association where one applies, and the fee. That is one district’s rule, not a county or a state rule.
- A city. The City of Miramar runs its own program that installs geotubes, sand-filled geotextile tubes, on single-family residential lots in Miramar. The city states that geotubes “normally last upwards of twenty (20) years if properly maintained”. Its residents must keep the tube covered with grass, must not cut it, and must not plant hedges or trees on it.
- The state. One state rule exempts the restoration of a seawall or riprap no more than 18 inches waterward of its previous location, where the wall was damaged by a discrete event within the last year or the work involves only minimal backfilling, and where any permits required under Chapter 161, Florida Statutes, are obtained (Rule 62-330.051(12)(b), Florida Administrative Code). It is an exemption from the state permit only. District, county and city permits are separate.
Our part. We prepare and file the paperwork and put the timeline in the proposal. Where an authority asks for drawings sealed by an engineer, the proposal says who supplies them.
3Estimate
Get your free online estimate
Takes about 20 seconds. Your price range arrives by email within 24 hours.
Rather talk? Call (954) 284-0812.
What happens after you write
We call back
Within 2 hours on business days (usually sooner).
Free site visit
For one lake, within 7 days (usually sooner). The method is settled on site.
Written proposal
With a price range, within 2 days of the site visit.
If you ask for an online estimate instead, you get a price range within 24 hours. It is a range, not a quote, and it never names a method.
4Answers
Questions and answers
What does the online estimate tell me?
A price range, within 24 hours. It is a range, not a quote.
It does not name a method. Photos help us prepare, but the site visit decides the method: we do not recommend one from a photo or from a calculator.
What is free, and what is paid?
The site visit for one lake is free, and we come within 7 days (usually sooner). The drone and sonar shoreline survey is a paid service, sold on its own.
Several lakes, or a whole community? Then we quote the paid survey instead of the free visit.