Seawall Inspection & Repair in Miami Beach, FL

The ordinance, adopted in January 2021 and amended in July 2025, sets new walls at 5.7 feet NAVD (or 4 feet if designed to be raised later) and gives owners of a cited wall 730 days to fix it. We are not the ones who raise a wall to a new height. What we do is the part that comes first: clean the oysters and barnacles off, inspect the wall, document its condition, and fill any crack that is letting sediment out from under the yard.

On the Sunset, Venetian and La Gorce islands the wall is literally what holds the lot together, because the land behind it was dredged out of the bay. A crack there shows up as a sinking patio or a hollow under the lawn. Along Indian Creek the water is calmer, but the walls are older, and lenders ask for the documentation on almost every waterfront sale in 33139, 33140 and 33141.

Of the city's roughly 55 miles of seawall, about 5 miles are public and the rest is private, which is why the ordinance leans on owners. The 5.7-foot standard has been in effect since a May 2016 resolution, and the January 2021 ordinance, amended in July 2025, gave it teeth: a wall that is in disrepair or causing flooding must be fixed within 730 days of notice. Our part is the condition side of that timeline. A wall on the Venetian Islands or on Indian Creek that has been cleaned, inspected and documented is a wall whose owner knows whether a repair, not a rebuild, is what the notice is really asking for.

A Miami Beach owner who receives a notice has 730 days, and the first 30 of them are best spent finding out what the wall actually needs. The $250 inspection gives a written condition after the growth is off, which separates two very different situations: a sound wall with a crack that cement tubes can fill, and a wall that is failing or below the 5.7-foot standard and needs a permitted rebuild. We do the first and tell you plainly when it is the second. Lenders on Venetian Islands and Sunset Islands sales ask for the same document, so an inspection done for a notice also serves a later closing.

Miami Beach seawalls face Biscayne Bay, Indian Creek and the Collins Canal. The Sunset Islands, the Venetian Islands, La Gorce Island, Normandy Isles and the rest of ZIP codes 33139, 33140 and 33141: cleaned first, then inspected and documented.

The written report covers the wall's condition, which is what buyers, agents and many lenders want before closing on a waterfront home.

• Overall condition once the growth is off.
• Cracks letting sediment out from behind the wall: the cause of a sinking yard, deck or patio.
• Growth that was eating the wall or hiding damage.
• The recommended repair, with a free in-person quote.

How often a seawall should be looked at. Every 1–2 years, cleaned and inspected together, and after any named storm; seawalls get installed and forgotten until the yard loses sediment, and thick growth covers the crack that started it.

Full seawall inspection and repair guide