Dock & Piling Cleaning in North Miami, FL

A Keystone Point dock sits in a gated, no-wake canal, which is ideal for the boat and ideal for the oysters. They coat wooden pilings, eat them and hide the damage.

The Biscayne Canal was dug in 1924 to drain farmland around Arch Creek, and its flood gate (S-28) is now one of the county's most frequent manatee gathering spots and a warm-water basin when the weather turns cold. Docks on the canal side of Keystone Point are in ZIP 33181, and the city lists the neighborhood as Keystone Point / Amber Creek East. Sans Souci Estates is gated and bayfront with deep-water canals, so its docks carry bigger boats and heavier lifts than the canal-only lots, and its pilings carry them in water that mixes Oleta fresh water with bay salt.

Keystone Point's peninsulas mean many lots have dock on more than one side, and Sans Souci's deep-water canals mean the boats and lifts on them are big. Both neighborhoods are still, gated canal water where oysters coat a piling undisturbed and the Oleta's fresh water does nothing to slow shipworms. With the gate arranged, the diver cleans each piling and the lift, and inspects them while they are bare; if a wooden piling is hollow, it is wrapped if it can be or sleeved with a Snap Jacket if it can't, without touching the dock above. The Biscayne Canal's flood gate is a known manatee spot, and the low-pressure cavitation unit is the right tool next to it.

Sans Souci docks are booked the same way. The Biscayne Canal's flood gate is close enough that the diver keeps the cavitation unit low and slow around it, and the Oleta's fresh water at the north end means a dock there carries softer growth than one facing the open bay by the FIU campus.

North Miami docks stand on Biscayne Bay, the Oleta River and Arch Creek, and in the Biscayne Canal, most of them behind homes in Keystone Point and Sans Souci. ZIP codes 33161 and 33181: 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