Dock & Piling Cleaning in Miami Beach, FL

Indian Creek docks sit in calm water with steady oyster growth, and because the county's manatee plan treats the creek as a preferred transient-dock location, plenty of docks there see boats coming and going. On the islands, a floating dock or a lift on the bay side takes chop and grows barnacles on its wheels, and those barnacles scrape a jet ski every time it comes up the ramp.

Concrete pilings dominate the newer docks on the Sunset and Venetian Islands, while older docks in Normandy Isles, a historic district on the National Register, often still stand on wood. Concrete and seawall pilings should be cleaned annually; wooden pilings that show oyster damage can be wrapped in HDPE or sleeved with a Snap Jacket after the cleaning, with no barges or permits.

Indian Creek runs from the Dade Boulevard canal north past Allison Island to 71st Street, where it merges with the Normandy and Tatum waterways, and the county's manatee plan lists it as a preferred location for transient docks. That means creek docks host visiting boats as well as the owner's, and their pilings see constant use. La Gorce Island, built in the bay in 1924, and the Sunset Islands have docks that stand in shallow fill water, and a floating dock on the bay side of any of them takes chop that the creek docks never feel.

Miami Beach docks come in three kinds and we treat them differently. Marina slips at Miami Beach Marina are the marina's structures, so our work there is on the boat, not the pilings. Private docks on the Sunset, Venetian and La Gorce islands are the owner's, usually concrete on the newer lots, and get a yearly cleaning and multi-point inspection. Indian Creek and Normandy Isles docks are older, more often wood, and the ones where the inspection most often turns up shipworm holes. A floating jet ski dock on any of them gets its wheels cleared so the ski stops scraping.

Miami Beach docks stand on Biscayne Bay and Indian Creek, and in the Collins Canal, most of them behind homes on the Sunset Islands, the Venetian Islands and La Gorce Island, and in Normandy Isles. ZIP codes 33139, 33140 and 33141: 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