How To Repair Compacted Soil

Use Olshan'southward Toll-Effective Seawall & Bulkhead Repair System to Seal Cracks & Control Erosion

Is the ground around your seawall caving in? Are cracks starting to form? Are joints failing? If you find voids and sinkholes offset to appear near your property, it may be time to repair the seawall.

Bug with bulkheads deteriorating are mutual. Over time, the soil on the state side of the bulkhead will settle for a variety of reasons, leading to the erosion of soils at joints, cracks in panels or beneath the toe of the bulkhead. Once water finds its way through the bulkhead, the pressure of the water side volition pull water through to the state side as water levels rising, somewhen pushing information technology out once again as they drib, taking the soil abroad with it.

The good news is, Olshan offers a cost-effective method to repair bulkheads quickly.

Olshan's Seawall Repair System can be used to stabilize soil, seal leaks and repair damaged concrete using an eco-friendly cloth.

Bulkhead Repair – How it Works

Bulkhead repair is a dandy way to:

• Fills voids
• Seals cracks
• Stops erosion
• Seals failed articulation

The Definitive Guide to Bulkhead & Seawall Repair

Protecting coastal property – overview and how to utilize this guide.

Owning waterfront property is a special luxury that comes with a lot of attractive lifestyle benefits. Littoral living as well has obligations that become far beyond the initial buy price. On meridian of the regular upkeep concerns that affect every property owner, you also take to protect your investment from tides, wave action and other unique risks that go with life at the edge of a trunk of water.

This guide is a simple, complete and authoritative introduction to bulkheads for coastal property owners in the Texas gulf coast region. It covers all the nuts on bulkheads—what they are, how they work and what you should practice if you encounter signs of vesture or damage. The guide is organized in easy to follow sections and then you can skip around to the topics that apply best to your electric current situation.

Repairing or replacing bulkheads can be plush. This guide provides valuable tips on extending the life of bulkheads and saving thousands of dollars in preventable structure and remediation costs. If you're thinking nearly buying a waterfront home, or if you already own coastal property in the gulf declension region, this guide will help y'all make informed decisions nigh protecting your investment.

Coastal holding classifications in Texas

Bulkheads (oft referred to as "seawalls" by non-technical people) are the virtually common class of protection for littoral properties in Texas, but the best coastal defense methods may differ slightly depending on your location. Let's have a brief wait at some of the variations in holding types yous should enquire about before yous make whatever big decisions near bulkhead installation, replacement or repair.

The get-go and most simple difference between coastal property types is whether they sit down on a mainland shoreline, a bulwark island, or along some kind of inland waterway. The second large distinction is whether the configuration of the lot occurred naturally, or whether it resulted from homo evolution activeness. In adult areas, information technology's besides important to annotation how dense the evolution might exist (for case, a single home versus an unabridged planned community). A third factor to look into is whether your property is situated in an "overwash" area that could be exposed to big amounts of body of water water during tempest surge conditions. While protection methods might be similar in about of these cases (regardless of design, they all separate water and earth in some way), there may be local code or regulatory considerations that have an impact on the choices you make.

What are bulkheads?

The oldest known seawall was discovered at the site of a 7,000 year-old village on the coast of Israel. It was almost 330 feet long and congenital in a dog leg pattern from boulders that the builders hauled in from a nearby river. It seems that as long equally humans accept been living adjacent to bodies of h2o, they've been putting upwardly structures to protect their land from waves, tides, and encroaching h2o. Although some may appear more than mod than others, these protective waterfront structures take followed the same basic forms for centuries. Bulkheads are the most common type yous're likely to come across on residential properties in the Texas gulf declension region, but there are a few other variations that serve different purposes.

Retaining walls are generally the most bones form of soil stabilization. These are unproblematic rigid, reinforced structures, usually designed to hold soil at dissimilar levels on either side of the wall. Their main purpose is to prevent land motility.

Bulkheads are similar to retaining walls, but contain more engineered components for greater functionality and durability. The biggest difference betwixt bulkheads and common retaining walls is that bulkheads are designed primarily to dissever soil from water. The main purpose of a bulkhead is to forestall land motility resulting from erosion, tides, or wave action.

Seawalls are vertical protection structures similar bulkheads, and they're also meant to comprise and stabilize the soil backside the wall. Unlike bulkheads, withal, seawalls are besides designed to withstand sustained wave action and resist or minimize the effects of wave overtopping.

Riprap (also known in some regions as rip rap, rip-rap, rubble, rock armor or shot stone), is artificially placed rock or similar loose materials to reinforce shorelines, streambeds, bridge abutments, pilings and other shoreline structures against water currents, waves, tides or other natural forces leading to soil erosion. Riprap may also be used along the toe of a bulkhead to promote stability.

Revetments are structures used to stabilize soil on a slope. They might consist of random stones or concrete rubble, or they might exist built from interlocking geometric materials engineered for that purpose. They usually accept an armor layer and a filtration or drainage layer to draw water away from underlying soil. Larger and more complex seawall or bulkhead structures may comprise some course of intermediate revetment.

How bulkheads work

If you're merely becoming familiar with bulkheads, you might exist surprised to learn that they're non watertight. Their main task is to hold soil in identify, not to keep h2o out. In fact, bulkheads are intentionally designed to let water flow through and away from the soil they're meant to protect. The goal is to forbid loss of country mass on the protected property that may consequence from currents, waves and tides, and to maintain proper h2o depth on the other side for navigation and marine life. Bulkheads also serve to safely marker boundaries between private property and public waterways.

Another important thing to know about bulkheads is that they're not a single structure. Rather, they're a system of interlocked components that work together to protect the stability (and long term value) of waterfront property. Here is a quick summary of the principal parts of a bulkhead, starting from the lesser upwards:

Sitting on or just below the natural bottom of the body of water is the "toe" of the bulkhead, reinforced by a "berm" of world. The berm may exist reinforced on the h2o side with "riprap" to keep the toe of the bulkhead from slipping outward.

Rising from the toe is the "panel" or "slab" material of the bulkhead, which may exist made of concrete, vinyl, PVC or a combination of natural and constructed materials. The panels repeat as needed along the length of the property and interlock by means of overlapping or sealed joints.

Holding the panels in identify and in vertical alignment is a series of "soldier piles" or "wall piles" that may exist made of wood, steel or reinforced concrete.

Behind the panel on the soil side is engineered "sheathing" or "filter fabric" that serves to keep loose or granular soil from washing through the panels and into the waterway during storm surge, overwash, or runoff.

At the top of the console, and in dorsum on the soil side, is a 2' by 2' drainage trench known equally a "French drain." In some regions, this drainage feature is required by local building codes. The trench is filled with porous textile and lined with filter cloth similar to the sheathing on the backs of the panels. The French bleed allows water to menses efficiently away from the soil and preclude erosion.

But below the French drain on the water side of the panel are "weep holes" that are drilled to facilitate efficient drainage away from the protected soil. The weep holes assist to preclude the buildup of "hydrostatic pressure" that would otherwise outcome from nerveless water.

On the outer (water side) face of the panels are "wales" or "walers" spaced at regular intervals. These are horizontal braces that connect to tie rods for additional stabilization. The necktie rods are anchored separately to assist keep the bulkhead structure vertical and stable.

Farther back on the property and abroad from the water, "anchor piles" or "deadmen" are placed at an engineered angle and distance. The other ends of the tie rods connected to the wales are anchored here to provide the needed resistance.

Connecting the tops of all the finished panels, a reinforced concrete "cap" is placed to help ballast them together and hold unified structural alignment forth the entire length of the bulkhead.

How and why bulkheads neglect

From that early pile of 7,000 year-former boulders archeologists found off the coast of Israel, seawall construction methods and materials have improved a lot over the centuries. Still, even with the best technological and regulatory advances, our best feel tin't concord back the forces of nature forever, especially when the power of h2o is involved. Here are some of the mutual problems that arise with older bulkheads:

SLAB Joint (SEAM) SEPARATION: One of the most mutual causes of bulkhead articulation separation is the uneven force of hydrostatic pressure differentials on the panels, peculiarly during low tide. This tin too be acquired by failure to properly route storm h2o away from the bulkhead. Joint separation may also exist caused past tiedback failure. Typical signs you'll meet include accumulated rock or mounds of sediment on the water side of the affected joint. This is one of the most frequent bulkhead issues that littoral property owners come across, and there is at present new technology to efficiently and inexpensively seal seams and cracks.

TIEBACK FAILURE: Tieback rods can oxidize, corrode and weaken over time. Common signs of tieback failure include a deteriorating cap, cracks or spalling in the concrete at the top of the bulkhead, or settlement of the backfill on the upland side of the wall. In more severe cases, you may notice sagging or wavy panels, indicating that some of your tieback rods may be losing their holding power. In this case, it may be necessary to add together new tieback rods and walers to reinforce the weakened areas. Helical tiebacks are sometimes a successful and minimally invasive replacement.

SINKHOLES: These are minor areas of sunken earth on the upland side of the bulkhead. Sometimes, sinkhole erosion volition happen just beneath the surface, and the merely mode you'll be able to detect this is by the appearance of mounds of world in the h2o about the joints of the bulkhead, which may merely be visible at low tide. Sinkholes are most probable to happen later a period of heavy rain or unusual overwash events. In this instance, information technology may exist possible to correct the problem by cleaning out the cry holes to remove blockage, adding additional drainage paths, or by installing French drains (if they're non already in place) or by replenishing the filter media in the French drains.

TOE & BERM FAILURE: Over time the cumulative stress from speeding boats or excessive wave action tin cause the supporting berm on the water side of the toe of the bulkhead to deteriorate and give way, allowing the toe to skid outward. Signs of berm failure include visible twisting or rotation of the concrete cap, cracks in the concrete, or gaps that open upward between the bulkhead and a dock if yous have 1. Back up pilings may likewise appear tight against the panels, indicating excessive pressure level in that part of the structure. In minor cases this may exist corrected by edifice upwards the berm, adding riprap, or placing bags of dry physical mix to stabilize the bulkhead again if the toe move isn't as well astringent. In more extreme cases the panels may have to be pulled and reinserted if they're non too badly damaged.

WATERLINE FAILURE: Long term exposure on the water side of the panels can lead to rust marks and horizontal cracks. As these areas age and expand, the slabs can eventually break along these lines. These kinds of waterline breaks tin can also occur if the tiebacks are not providing evenly distributed support, and continuous hydrostatic pressure may also cause them to crack and split up. Modern crack repair may exist a very constructive and inexpensive manner to right this problem if the residual of the bulkhead construction is sound. It's also very important to ensure that you lot have proper drainage in place to relieve hydrostatic force per unit area.

CAP FAILURE: Cap failure is ane of the easier bulkhead problems to detect. Obvious symptoms include visible areas of rust, spalling, exposed rebar, and fractures where the cap may be starting to rotate or twist. This can exist caused by normal aging of the concrete, uneven hydrostatic pressure weakening parts of the structure, or tieback failure where the cap is having to support more than its designed structural load. The main remedy is full or partial cap replacement, but it's advisable to look for deeper bug that may be contributing to the cap failure, including berm failure and tieback failure.

Extending bulkhead life

All bulkheads have a express life, fifty-fifty if it'southward a long one. Whenever the forces of nature are involved, no construction tin can last forever without a petty help. Fortunately, there are several things you can practice every bit a property possessor to extend the life of your bulkhead:

If you lot don't already have one, install a French Drain as soon as possible. This volition help even out the pressure differential betwixt the state side and the water side of your bulkhead. This pressure differential is 1 of the most mutual and most manageable causes of bulkhead failure, and it tin can go specially severe during depression tides and unusual storm activity.

Redirect water from gutters, storm drains or sprinklers so that it does not pool near the bulkhead or run into your French drain.

Keep your bulkhead in mind when y'all're planning your landscape and prepare a 10' "buffer zone" along the length of the bulkhead. Heavy equipment traveling near the border of the bulkhead or large trees too close to any of the structural components tin can cause excessive pressure level that will lead to early failure.

Cheque and furnish the rock or gravel make full material in your French drain frequently and make certain that the weep holes on the exterior of the bulkhead remain clean and clear. Weep holes can hands become clogged with sand or soil, which restricts the h2o flow that prevents hydrostatic force per unit area buildup.

Accept a qualified installer check the perimeter of your bulkhead for potential failure points. Sometimes the installation of supplemental helical tiebacks or extra pilings in strategic spots can aid to keep panels in alignment and prevent premature deterioration or failure.

Talk openly with your neighbors and stay agile in the customs. If anybody follows the local idle speed rules when they're boating, this protects the berms that hold the toe of your bulkhead in place. Information technology's also critical for your neighbors to maintain their bulkheads properly and manage stormwater responsibly on adjacent properties. Failures next door tin rapidly pb to unintended (and expensive) consequences on your property.

Code, regulatory, and ecology considerations

There are some important obligations to consider that continue with waterside living. Keeping them in listen and doing your best to adhere to them volition not just help ensure the long-term enjoyment of your property, but also go a long way toward helping y'all protect your investment and that of your neighbors.

When you buy waterfront property, you're also taking on a mensurate of stewardship for the condition of the water and the creatures that may live in that location. The choices you lot make tin can have a big impact on the well-being of anybody that uses the water, likewise as on the wild animals in the region. Here are some tips you and your neighbors can follow to ensure lasting wellness and enjoyment for all:

• Establish a buffer zone of at to the lowest degree 10' along the shoreline and go along all fertilizers, pesticides, fuels or chemicals behind that boundary then that they can't find their way into the h2o. Be careful to go along these materials off of whatsoever paved surfaces where they tin be washed inside the buffer zone and over the bulkhead.
• Make sure that stormwater cannot run directly into waterways from your roof, rain gutters, driveways, pool equipment or other drainage systems on your belongings.Fix a policy with your landscaper that backyard clippings, leaves, tree trimmings, compost, or other forms of 1000 waste material are properly disposed of and are non swept or done into side by side waterways.
• If you have a dock, never store gas, diesel, oil or chemicals at that place, on whatever part of the bulkhead, or anywhere inside the x' buffer zone.
• If you own a boat, keep bilges and decks free of all fuels and chemicals in case of automatic bilge pump discharge. To maintain the boat or any personal watercraft, use only biodegradable soaps never household cleaners that can spill into the waterway.
• Talk with your neighbors most waterside practices and work collaboratively with them to make certain that no ecology threats outcome from use of docks, boats or personal watercraft apply or maintenance.
• If you come across any unusual spills, colorations, discharges, debris or potential navigation hazards, delight notify the appropriate local authorities immediately.

Bulkhead repair considerations

1. Over time, the soil on the land side of the bulkhead will settle for a variety of reasons. It could result from a number of drainage problems described earlier in this guide or from settlement of the soil confronting the bulkhead from non being compacted properly at the time of construction. This will pb to erosion of soils at joints, cracks in panels or beneath the toe of the bulkhead. In one case water finds its fashion through the bulkhead, the pressure level of the water side will pull water through to the country side as water levels rise and then pushing it out once again as they drop, taking the soil away with it.
2. When repairs become necessary, developed lots tin present existent (and costly) challenges to even the nearly experienced marine contractors. The presence of houses, trees, landscaping, sprinkler systems, docks, davits, underground utilities, outdoor living spaces and other miscellaneous site improvements (not to mention sensitive structures on neighboring backdrop) can all present complicated access issues for materials and equipment. The most desirable repair option is to carefully follow all the preventive measures in this guide to extend the useful life of your bulkhead.
3. In extreme cases, sections of an older bulkhead may need to be removed and replaced, simply this tin exist very cost prohibitive. Repairs like these tin can average in the tens of thousands of dollars, but there is a much less expensive (and far less invasive) filling and sealing method that can extends the useful life of almost bulkheads for a fraction of what it would toll to supercede them. These proprietary materials strengthen bulkheads at the seams and immediately halt soil movement and erosion. This is a very of import choice for coastal property owners to explore considering in many cases the bulkhead is withal in skillful overall structural condition. Professionally sealing a leaky articulation can brand a lot more sense than tearing it out and replacing it, and there is no excavation needed.

The Olshan Bulkhead Recovery Option

To speedily and inexpensively restore joints and seals in otherwise structurally sound bulkheads, Olshan uses environmentally safe products, that include polyurethane loftier density closed cell foam and other polymer resins that can exist injected directly into the problem areas of the bulkhead. They finer seal and fill areas where soils are being done out, stop the erosion, and restore the strength of the bulkhead panel. Nosotros can adjust the production mix depending on the location and extent of the problem.

As office of this innovative approach, we frequently recommend sealing each joint along the entire length of the bulkhead, to ensure that all trouble areas are sealed, but we can also accost one specific area if needed. Our foam materials react differently than the outdated "fix-all" solution. This ways that our products are able to penetrate more securely into affected areas of the bulkhead, helping to provide a more consummate and reliable seal.

When it comes to ecology stewardship, all of our products are NSF/ANSI 61 certified. Pregnant they are prophylactic to apply on all projects where they may come up into contact with water, including drinking water, so they are non harmful to marine life.

How to choose a bulkhead repair adept

Bulkhead repair can be a significant investment in the protection of your waterfront belongings. Utilize intendance when selecting a contractor, and talk with your neighbors and friends about the experiences they've had with different service providers. Here are some suggested things to practise and questions to inquire before you sign a bulkhead repair agreement:

• Check out your contractor'south history and credentials.
• Make sure they have the required licenses and insurance coverage.
• Find out how long they've been in concern and ask for references.
• Contact the references directly and ask well-nigh their customer feel.
• Look up their record with the local Better Business Bureau.
• Visit completed jobs and see if you can visit jobs in progress.
• Discover out if they offer warranty protection on their piece of work.
• Become a trustworthy estimate of the current condition of your bulkhead.
• Insist on a realistic upwards-front cost estimate.
• Enquire open up-ended questions to be sure they're offering the repair solution that'south right for your individual situation

Terms and definitions

1. Ballast Pile (see Deadman):
2. Berm: Ground or soil which supports the toe of the bulkhead at the bottom. May also include rip-rap.
3. Buffer Zone: ten pes perimeter to forestall backlog pressure level on the bulkhead from vehicles, backyard and construction equipment, and landscaping features like large trees.
4. Bulkhead: straight wall that separates a torso of water from side by side land
5. Cap: Physical (ordinarily reinforced) box structure which ties seawall together at superlative.
6. Deadman: Poured concrete block approximately 15′ dorsum in the yard which anchors panel and cap structure by means of steel tie-back rod.
7. Erosion: Soil from backside the wall escaping into the water. This may occur through defective seawall joints or cracked panels.
8. Fill up: rock or gravel used to line the interior of a French drain trench to promote water flow abroad from protected soil.
9. Filter Cloth: the porous cloth that lines the land side of the bulkhead panels and sometimes the interior of the French bleed trench. Also called sheathing.
10. French Drain: Usually a 2′ by 2′ trench dug out backside the seawall lined with filter fabric and filled with crushed stone.
11. Hydrostatic Pressure: Invisible but constant strength created from water on the landside of the seawall.
12. Overwash area: Overwash occurs when storm waters exceed the elevation of the adjacent land and the ocean water flows onshore. Hazards to onshore development are especially high in overwash areas.
13. Panel (or Slab): A reinforced physical rectangle, six″ thick and five′ to 8′ wide and x′ to 16′ long. These are placed vertically to form the wall. Alternatively, plastic (PVC) sheet piling, composite sheet piling, or metal sheet piling is used for this purpose.
14. Piling: Physical or woods poles placed at regular intervals outside of the panel perimeter in the h2o to reduce movement of the seawall.
15. Replenishing: periodically replacing filter media (stone, etc.) in the fill/French Drain area immediately behind your seawall.
16. Revetment: an engineered slope protected by stone, concrete or other mixed materials designed to protect areas of state from wave action and overwash.
17. Rip-Rap: Large stone or concrete rubble placed at the toe of a bulkhead to back up the berm, stabilize its position and prevent or reduce erosion.
18. Seam: the signal where wall panels join
19. Sheathing: another term for the filter fabric that lines the land side of the bulkhead, and sometimes the interior of a French bleed trench.
20. Sinkholes: Symptoms: Sinkholes upland of the wall, visible back-make full mounds in the water near seawall joints (most visible at low tide)
21. Soldier Pile: A vertical support chemical element, most oft made of forest or reinforced concrete, that stabilizes the water side of bulkhead panels.
22. Spalling: Spalling — sometimes incorrectly called spaulding or spalding — is the outcome of water inbound brick, concrete, or natural stone. Information technology forces the surface to peel, pop out, or bit off. Information technology'south also known every bit flaking, especially in limestone. Spalling happens in concrete because of wet in the concrete.
23. Necktie-Back or Rod: Steel bars connecting the seawall cap and the anchor.
24. Waler: A supporting structure installed about 2′ below the seawall summit placed on the outside of the panels which normally anchors a divide tie-back rod system to assist support the seawall.
25. Toe: The bottom of a bulkhead section that sits beneath the natural bottom of the trunk of h2o. The toe is reinforced past a h2o side berm, which may be supplemented by riprap for extra stability and durability.
26. H2o Line: normal water level at nominal tidal state
27. Water Line Failure: Horizontal cracks in bulkhead panel material caused past rust, corrosion, or other consequences of extended exposure at the nominal water line.
28. Water Pressure (also known as Hydrostatic Pressure): pressure differential on the structural components of a bulkhead caused by collected water. Tin exist corrected with proper drainage mensurate.
29. Wave Action: main crusade of berm failure – natural or speeding boats
30. Cry Holes: Drilled holes in seawall above the water line and below the French drain to facilitate drainage and reduce h2o pressure.

Source: https://www.olshanfoundation.com/services/concrete-repair/bulkhead-seawall-repair-sealing/

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