Dock & Piling Cleaning in Jupiter, FL

Admirals Cove docks sit in slow backwaters off Lake Worth Creek, and Loxahatchee docks sit in a 300-foot shoreline slow zone on a brackish river.

Admirals Cove is about 975 acres with roughly 6 miles of waterways and more than 500 private docks, west of the Intracoastal, and the manatee rule names it, Jonathan's Landing and Frenchman's Creek as slow-speed waters off Lake Worth Creek. Jupiter Harbour, a gated marina community on North US-1, sits where the inlet meets the Intracoastal, and its docks take the idle-speed traffic funneling toward the ocean. The Indian River Lagoon, the Loxahatchee and the Atlantic all meet at the inlet, so a Jupiter Harbour piling sees three kinds of water in a day.

An Admirals Cove dock is one of more than 500 on about 6 miles of slow-speed backwater, and a Loxahatchee dock sits in a 300-foot shoreline slow zone on a brackish river; both are quiet enough for oysters to coat every piling, and the river's shipworms bore through wood and concrete regardless of salinity. Jupiter Harbour docks at the inlet take the idle-speed traffic and 2-to-3-foot tides on top of the growth.

An Admirals Cove dock is booked with the street inside the community; for the gate, the divers call ahead and text you right before each visit. A Loxahatchee dock is booked with roughly how far upriver it sits, because a Northwest Fork dock in nearly fresh water carries different growth than one near the inlet, and the diver plans the visit around the river's seasonal slow speed. Jupiter Harbour docks at the inlet are timed to the 2-to-3-foot tides. Burt Reynolds Park's ramps and day slips are the county's, and a boat there is cleaned without touching the park's pilings.

Jupiter docks stand on the Loxahatchee River, the Intracoastal Waterway and Lake Worth Creek, most of them behind homes in Admirals Cove and Jupiter Harbour. ZIP codes 33458, 33469 and 33477: no pickaxes, no chisels, inspection included.

Growth hides damage, so the inspection follows the cleaning, while the diver can see the structure.

• Shipworm holes in wood and concrete pilings: enough of them and a piling snaps.
• Oyster damage on wooden pilings, which eats the wood while hiding it.
• Floating-dock wheels and hydro-hoist hydraulic lines, where barnacles cut and jam.
• Whether a wrap or a Snap Jacket sleeve would extend the piling's life.

How often docks and pilings need it. Seawalls and concrete pilings: cleaned annually. In our experience, unwrapped wooden pilings on South Florida canals often need help after 10 to 15 years; a wrap from the mud to 2 ft above high tide adds at least 20 years.

Full dock and piling cleaning guide