The Complete Guide to Seawall Repair

1. Seawall Inspection With Bay Area Underpinning
2. Seawall Repair Solutions
3. How Our Seawall Repair Foams Help
4. Proper Maintenance Can Help Prevent Seawall Damage
5. Advanced Seawall Repair Methods – Seawall Stabilization

A seawall protects your waterfront property – residential or business – from flooding and erosion. The problem is you might not notice seawall erosion is happening at first. Even though the erosion isn’t visible, it still carries away sand and soil supporting the seawall. Heavy rain exacerbates the problem, and eventually, voids form, and the seawall’s structural integrity is compromised. Our seawall professionals at Bay Area Underpinning will properly inspect your seawall for eroded soil and ensure all seawall elements are undamaged and safe.

Seawall Inspection With Bay Area Underpinning

Because seawall structural integrity is critical, we’ll inspect your seawall to see if it’s failing and needs repair. We’ll look for cracks, corrosion, rotation, upland settlement, and soil loss. While hairline cracks caused by seasonal temperature and moisture fluctuations are pretty normal, cracks that are deep and wide indicate a possible problem. We’ll also examine the seawall cap because this protects your waterfront property from weather and wave conditions.

Seawall Repair Solutions

SW-RP1 and SW-RP6 are semi-rigid hydrophobic polyurethane foams that react with water or moisture in the soil and expand to fill voids while permeating sandy soil to form a solid, strong, watertight mass. These polymers are used extensively in seawall applications to stabilize the soil and seal cracks, voids, and other defects.

How Our Seawall Repair Foams Help

Seawall repair foams can be injected along the wall where settling occurs. They offer multiple benefits, including:

They seal all leaks along the wall.
They fill all voids.
They mix with the soil to form a solid, impermeable mass.

Combined with proper drainage, seawall repair foams can extend the life of your seawall.

Proper Maintenance Can Help Prevent Seawall Damage

Proper maintenance will help prevent damage to your seawall. Regular seawall maintenance includes eliminating vegetation or plant growth, cleaning clogged weep holes, and regular visual inspections.

Yard and Plant Maintenance

In their search for moisture, the roots of plants and trees can spread behind and throughout your seawall, causing cracks. These cracks weaken the seawall creating an unsafe situation whenever waves hit the wall.

Cleaning Your Weep Holes

Seawall weep holes act as pressure relief valves. Water needs to be able to move freely through weep holes if the seawall is to function correctly. However, dirt, leaves, and other debris can clog your seawall’s weep holes. Cleaning and unclogging seawall weep holes regularly should be part of every seawall maintenance plan.

Routine Inspection

Your seawall should be visually inspected to ensure it’s safe and undamaged. Cracks in the concrete or vinyl could signal that the seawall is starting to deteriorate. If you have a wooden seawall, you should inspect it for termite damage, splits, and wood rot. A routine seawall inspection will help you spot problems early before they become critical.

Advantages of Seawall Concrete Preservation

Concrete deteriorates over time when exposed to water, soil, and weather pollution. Even the steel reinforcement embedded in the concrete can corrode over time, and when it does, this causes the concrete surrounding the steel to deteriorate.

Concrete seawall preservation is always preferable to concrete seawall replacement, and at Bay Area Underpinning, we use a system designed to preserve and restore concrete seawalls. Preserving a concrete seawall is minimally invasive and costs less than replacing the concrete. The materials we use are safe and designed for marine environments.

Advanced Seawall Repair Methods – Seawall Stabilization

Seawall Repair Material

The extremely strong, environmentally-friendly seawall repair material we use at Bay Area Underpinning fixes seawall cracks, stabilizes and strengthens the soil, and prevents erosion.

Hydrostatic Pressure Control

Hydrostatic pressure behind a seawall can lead to cracks. Our seawall repair method prevents hydrostatic pressure from building up behind your seawall.

Seawall Cap Repair

We can quickly restore your seawall cap’s integrity using concrete and high-strength epoxy.

Seawall Anchoring System

High-risk areas of your seawall can be strengthened using heavy-duty steel tie-backs. Steel tie-backs firmly anchor the seawall to load-bearing soil and prevent future movement.

Bay Area Underpinning is proud to be a part of the Seawall Repair Network. The Seawall Repair Network is the only national, all-inclusive seawall repair and preservation network of highly trained and qualified Preferred Marine Contractors.

Serving Northern California and the Bay Area for all seawall repairs, our team is committed to providing the best service and solutions for repairing seawalls. Contact us today to learn more and schedule a free inspection and estimate!

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Ted Dryce

Content Writer

Ted is an SEO Content Writer who has been with Groundworks since 2021. He’s covered home repair topics ranging from crawl space encapsulation to regional soil conditions. When he’s not working, Ted is performing improv comedy and working on his own creative projects.