Seawall Repair

Water and moisture are no joke, and there are few structures out there that have to deal with these two more than seawalls. Over time it’s rather natural to start seeing some cracks and other signs of wear and tear showing up on a seawall. That doesn’t mean though that it wouldn’t be a good idea to repair the wall by at least filling in the cracks. The first step that we have to take when making the decision to repair a seawall is to evaluate the damage and see if what we’re looking at is normal wear and tear or if there’s structural damage involved.

Don’t Fix What Isn’t Broken

We’ve heard stories of people trying to “update” seawalls that have been around for a long time. Only to see the wall crumble a few years after their “update”. When the original seawall had stood for many years. The main reason for this is that bigger isn’t necessarily better. The first thing that we do with seawall is make sure that water isn’t able to get into the structure. Usually when these burst that’s the problem. It’s not that they get with one massive wave that just tears everything apart. It’s actually that they start having water filters into the structure and then it bursts from within. If the original structure works we usually like to keep it. While just fixing up some of the cracks.

How Long Should I Expect My Seawall To Last?  

That’s going to depend on the type of seawall that you’ve built. If we’re talking about steel seawalls, those are only going to be good for around 30 years or so. If you’re talking about a stone wall mixed with concrete and other elements, which by the way are the types of walls that we typically deal with. Those are going to be good for as long as you want them to be. Naturally regular maintenance is the key to keep them going strong.

Seawall Inspection

Even if you think that your seawall is holding up quite well it may not be the worst idea to get it checked out. If you can do this at least twice a year you’re going to be better off. It’s a good idea to get the structure checked out before we’re getting ready to deal with high tides and things of that nature. From there, giving the structure a look after these rough times is ideal. When we talk about twice a year that may not mean every 6 months.

Keeping The Look & Feel Of The Original Installation

One of the requests that we get constantly in these types of renovation or repair projects is that we take into account the original look and feel of the seawall. This is something that we usually do anyway. As we mentioned before, sometimes in trying to build a bigger structure during a renovation you make things worse. We’ll be sure to keep the look and feel of the original seawall if that’s what you’re looking for.