Dock & Piling Cleaning in Palm Beach, FL

Everglades Island's docks sit in a gated, slow-zone corner of the lagoon, and Estate Section docks line the same shore.

Everglades Island is about 55 homes in the Estate Section, gated, on the lagoon, and reached by the Island Road bridge; the Estate Section itself runs south from Worth Avenue. The island is only about 500 feet wide at its narrowest, so a lagoon-side dock is never far from the ocean side, and the highest ground in town is about 30 feet, on the country club golf course. Everything else is close to the water, which is why the docks and lifts behind these homes carry real boats and take real care.

An Everglades Island or Estate Section dock sits in brackish, slow-zone water on the lagoon side of a very narrow island, and it usually carries a real boat and a real lift. The town marina's pilings are the town's, so our work there is on the yachts; the private docks behind the homes are the owners'.

On Everglades Island the practical detail is the Island Road bridge: the divers call ahead and text you right before the visit so the gate and the bridge are expecting them, and nobody needs to be home. In the Estate Section south of Worth Avenue the lots are long and the dock is often a walk from the house, so nobody needs to be home and nobody usually is. What we ask for when booking is a piling count, a note on whether the lift is a cradle or a hydro-hoist, and a phone photo from the seawall. Yachts at the town marina are cleaned in their slips; the marina's own pilings on the Brazilian, Australian, Peruvian and Royal Palm docks are the town's responsibility and stay that way. The Lake Worth Inlet at the island's north end is the Port of Palm Beach's shipping channel, and Peanut Island's county slips sit beside it in Riviera Beach; Palm Beach's own private docks are all south of that on the lagoon side, in idle-speed water within 300 feet of shore.

Palm Beach docks stand on the Lake Worth Lagoon and the Intracoastal Waterway, most of them behind homes in the Estate Section and on Everglades Island. ZIP code 33480: 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