Dock & Piling Cleaning in Key Biscayne, FL

A Hurricane Harbor dock sits in quiet water where oysters build up on the pilings undisturbed, and a bayfront dock takes chop off Biscayne Bay on top of the growth. Both are salt water, both get barnacles on lift wheels and hydro-hoist lines, and both should be cleaned every year so the multi-point inspection can see what is under the growth.

Because the village is in Evacuation Zone A and gets hit first when weather comes, a dock's pilings matter more here than in a sheltered canal. After the cleaning, wooden pilings that show shipworm holes or oyster damage can be wrapped from the mud to 2 feet above high tide or fitted with a Snap Jacket concrete sleeve, and we offer 24/7 emergency service for a dock check after a storm.

Key Biscayne Yacht Club on Harbor Drive was founded in 1955, so some of the oldest dock structure in the village is inside its basin, and Mashta Island's private docks sit next to Hurricane Harbor in the same still water. A village this small, about 1.25 square miles with no official neighborhood list, means the diver can cover most of its docks in a couple of days, and every one of them shares the same salt water and the same oysters. No Name Harbor at the south end is anchoring, not docks, with a free pump-out for the boats that overnight there.

Key Biscayne is in Evacuation Zone A, so the practical question for a dock owner is what the dock will do in a storm, and that depends on the pilings more than the decking. The multi-point inspection after cleaning looks at each piling for shipworm bores and soft wood, at the lift hardware for barnacle jamming, and at. A Hurricane Harbor dock in the no-wake zone is easy to work from; a bayfront dock on Mashta Island may need the diver to time the visit around chop. After weather we come out on the 24/7 emergency line to check what the storm did.

Key Biscayne docks stand on Biscayne Bay and in Hurricane Harbor, most of them behind homes on Mashta Island. ZIP code 33149: 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