Seawall Repair in Florida

What Seawall Repair Involves

Seawall repair restores strength and soil retention to an existing wall that takes wave, wake, current or surge exposure. Compared with a sheltered canal bulkhead, damage tends to concentrate in three places. The splash zone, where salt water wets and dries concrete and steel with every tide, is where corrosion starts. The toe, where waves and currents scour the bottom, is where support is lost. The cap and anchors take the load when water overtops or the wall begins to rotate.

Fort Lauderdale's seawall master plan, written for city-owned walls, describes many of the repair methods used on Florida seawalls. Which ones fit a private wall depends on its type, its exposure and how far the damage has gone.

Common Seawall Repairs and What They Address

Key Colony Beach's seawall owner's manual adds the owner's-eye view: rust on the cap is a major sign of trouble ahead, and on many older walls a reinforced concrete waler with new tie-backs has been used to take over from a failed tie-back system. For specific symptoms, see Concrete Spalling, Cracked Cap and Seawall Cap Repair.

After a Storm: Triage Before Repair

1. Stay off the cap and away from the edge if the wall moved or cracked, or if the ground behind it dropped.
2. Photograph the full length from land and, if safe, from the water, including the toe at low tide, before anything is moved.
3. Note where water came over the wall and where fill washed out. NOAA's National Hurricane Center points out that waves on top of storm surge can add feet to the water level.
4. Keep vehicles, equipment and stored boats off the area behind the wall.
5. Tell your insurer what happened and ask what documentation it needs; coverage varies by policy.
6. Get a professional assessment. Timing can matter: one way a restoration qualifies under Rule 62-330.051(12)(b) is damage from a discrete event, such as a storm, within the last year.

See Storm Damage for what different kinds of storm damage can indicate.

Is Repair Still the Right Call?

Repair is usually reasonable when damage is localized, the wall is still plumb and stable, embedment at the toe is adequate, and the cause can be addressed. Fort Lauderdale's plan notes that cathodic protection offers the option of rehabilitating rather than replacing a corrosion-damaged structure, and that the goal of repair is to extend service life.

Replacement, or a new wall built in front of the old one where permitted, tends to be considered when corrosion and section loss run through many panels or piles, when the toe lacks embedment along long stretches, when the wall is too low and overtops repeatedly, or when repairs keep recurring. Nobody can promise how long a repair on an aging, exposed wall will hold. See Seawall Replacement and Repair vs. Replacement.

How a Seawall Is Inspected for Repair

Fort Lauderdale's study shows what a thorough inspection involves: above-water inspection from both the water and the land, sounding the concrete with a hammer to find hollow or delaminated areas, a diver's underwater inspection to confirm embedment, scour, voids and loss of fill, soundings of the bottom extending out from the face, and top-of-wall elevations in NAVD 88. Each component was then rated on a simple condition scale.

A private repair assessment is usually lighter, but the same logic applies. Expect a contractor to look at the face, cap, joints and toe at low tide, sound suspect concrete, probe for voids behind the wall and recommend a diver or engineer where the condition below water is unknown. Key Colony Beach's manual notes a diver's inspection often uncovers hidden problems. Learn more on Seawall Inspections.

Permits for Seawall Repair

• Local building permit. Commonly required for structural repairs, sometimes with a plan from a Florida-licensed engineer.
• State exemptions. Section 403.813(1)(e) and Rule 62-330.051(12)(b) cover restoring a seawall in place or up to 18 inches waterward, with conditions. Rule 62-330.051(12)(d) separately exempts batter piles, king piles or a seawall cap used only to stabilize and repair a seawall, if they do not impede navigation.
• Riprap at the toe. Rule 62-330.431 grants a general permit for riprap at the toe of an existing vertical seawall when its slope is no steeper than two horizontal to one vertical and it reaches no more than 10 feet from the toe, using natural boulders or clean concrete rubble one to three feet across, among other conditions such as no filling of seagrass beds or coral communities.
• Riprap facing. Section 373.414(5), which states an intent to protect estuaries and lagoons from vertical seawalls, says in paragraph (c) that when considering a permit to repair or replace an existing vertical seawall, the agency shall generally require riprap facing or replacement with riprap, unless a listed condition exists, such as an existing man-made canal already lined in whole or part with vertical seawalls.
• Other layers. State-owned submerged lands authorization, coastal permits seaward of the Coastal Construction Control Line, and federal review can also apply.

See the Florida seawall permits overview, and confirm with the agencies before work begins.

Preparing for a Repair Assessment

Questions to Ask

• What is causing the damage, and which repair method addresses that cause?
• Does any part of the work happen below water, and who does it?
• Will corrosion keep progressing in areas not being repaired, and how should they be monitored?
• Which permits or exemption verifications are needed, and who handles them?
• Is toe protection part of the scope, and does it fit the riprap general permit limits?
• Is your Florida license active? Check it on the DBPR license search (opens in a new tab).

Seawall Repair in Northeast Florida and Beyond

In Duval, St. Johns, Nassau, Clay, Flagler and Putnam counties, Barefoot Marine Construction, the owner and operator of Florida Bulk Head, handles seawall repair requests directly. Water chemistry changes a lot within that area. FWC's Northeast Florida oyster mapping chapter describes the lower St. Johns River in three zones: brackish and actively tidal from Mayport to downtown Jacksonville, much less salty from downtown to Doctors Lake, and essentially fresh with weak tides from Doctors Lake to Lake George. Saltier, more tidal reaches are generally harder on steel and reinforcing, which affects which repairs make sense. See Northeast Florida.

Elsewhere in Florida, repair requests are accepted through the partner network Florida Bulk Head is building. Matching is subject to contractor availability, and no partner contractor is confirmed yet. Use Find a Contractor to see how your area is handled.