sea wall material experience ?

pine island fred · Apr 13, 2005

Might not be the correct forum but its in the water and you throw money at it. Age and the last 4 storms wiped out my sea wall. Since I just had a new one installed, the whole neighborhood thinks i am an expert ( I just paid for it). Am curious as to others experiences,likes and dislikes on your wall construction. Currigated aluminum, wood, industrial large currigated steel, fiberglass,concrete ( pored,slab) blocks that look like they were bags of concrete at one time. My old one and replacement are precast concrete slabs 5 wide, 10 deep, 6 ins. thick. hope for it to last 25 to 30 yrs. Whats your experiece? thank you for your time. fred

mattttt25 · Apr 13, 2005

Re: sea wall material experience ?

man, i actually graduated with a degree in ocean engineering, coastal track. but feels like such a long time ago. it really depends on your situation- water depth, slope of beach, wave period, wind fetch, etc. sea walls are really the last defense and really take a beating. precast blocks if installed properly should last, but again depends on the stuff above. you can add a breakwater- easiest is simply stone/rocks in front of the wall (can be below water line), but again, need it properly designed to be effective. i have all this stuff coming to my head, but just can't put it all together.... getting old...

BillP · Apr 14, 2005

Re: sea wall material experience ?

I grew up on the water here in Fl, first on canals and then riverfront. Along canals the old wood seawalls wasted away quickly. The ones that are still around after 50 yrs are the corrugated or plain concrete panels with concrete caps. They set dead mans 10' back to keep them from falling if a washout happens. Along the shoreline everyone is doing coquina now. 6-7 yrs ago a hurricane took out approx 25' of our riverfront and we replaced the natural shore with coquina. It survived the last hurricanes pretty good. Here's a pic. Look closly and you can see where the new grass meets old. We are adding more rock soon to bring the height up another 2'. The last hurricanes washed a foot over the dock.

pine island fred · Apr 14, 2005

Re: sea wall material experience ?

Thanks for your reply. BillP,I like that boat house! I guess that rock is coquina, always thought that was a sea shell. Here in lee county, people are not allowed to install a wall on there canal. You can still put up a dock but the shore has got to be rubble and mangrove. I am suspicious that its part of the save the manatee, anti boating movement but thats another subject. People would install sea walls if allowed. Thanks again. fred

Realgun · Apr 14, 2005

Re: sea wall material experience ?

BillP where did you get the antigravity levitator for the Toon?