Whether you live on a beach, in a lake or in the mountains, a seawall is vital to your property’s safety and value. Taking care of a seawall early on can prevent costly and damaging issues from occurring later.
How to Know When Your Seawall Needs Repair
Small cracks, separation of panels or cap/wall leaning are common signs that your seawall is starting to fail. A good marine contractor should be able to spot these and repair them before they turn into larger problems that need expensive, time-consuming repairs or replacement.
Erosion Voids
If changing tides, boat wakes, storm surges, wave action or other water movement create erosion voids behind your seawall it can lead to structural collapse. Backfilling these voids with concrete does little to help the situation.
Tie Backs
A tie back is a metal rod/cable that’s buried in your yard and tethered to your seawall. These tie backs keep your seawall from leaning forward toward the water and are crucial to your structure’s integrity.
Closed Cell Foam Installement
If you have erosion voids behind your seawall it may be possible to fill them with special closed cell foam material that hardens when it contacts water. This foam is much stronger and longer lasting than conventional backfill.
Polyurethane Resin Injection
One of the simplest and most cost-effective methods to repair erosion voids is to inject a permeating, hydrophobic, polyurethane soil permeation and support resin deep into these voids. This resin fortifies, bonds with and strengthens the voids and seals the seawall seams or cracks so that erosion stops.