Bulkhead Protection: Stop Erosion and Structural Failure Before They Happen
Your bulkhead is your waterfront property's first line of defense against erosion and flood. Deep South Marine Restoration repairs, wraps, and reinforces bulkheads to keep your land in place and your property protected.
Does your bulkhead need to be installed, repaired, or replaced?
Bulkheads and seawalls protect your property from damage caused by age, weather, and those destroying marine borers.
Since bulkheads should be both protective and beautiful, we offer a variety of materials based on client preferences. Our highly skilled team will design and construct the bulkhead necessary to protect your Louisiana property for years to come.
The Role of a Healthy Bulkhead
A structurally sound bulkhead holds back soil, prevents erosion, and protects waterfront property from wave action and storm surge. When a bulkhead begins to fail — bowing, cracking, or allowing water to seep through — it's not just a cosmetic issue. It's a structural crisis that can result in significant land loss, property damage, and safety hazards.
Common Bulkhead Problems We Address
- Bowing and leaning: Lateral pressure or failing tie-back systems push the bulkhead face toward the water.
- Wood rot and boring: Teredo worms and biological decay attack timber bulkhead components in the splash zone.
- Hardware failure: Tie-rods, deadmen, and fasteners corrode and lose tensile strength.
- Drainage failure: Blocked weepholes cause hydrostatic pressure buildup that can topple a bulkhead.
- Erosion at the toe: Wave scour at the base undermines the bulkhead from below.
Our Bulkhead Protection Services
Deep South Marine Restoration provides comprehensive bulkhead assessment and repair across a wide range of materials — wood, concrete, steel, vinyl sheet pile, and composite. We work with the full variety of bulkhead construction types found along the Gulf Coast, from older timber bulkheads in Louisiana bayou communities to modern vinyl systems on Alabama and Florida waterfront properties.
Services include protective wrapping of wood components, concrete reinforcement, hardware replacement, drainage restoration, and erosion control measures at the base. Every project begins with a free on-site inspection.
Cities Where We Provide Bulkhead Protection
We serve waterfront property owners throughout the Gulf Coast, including Slidell, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mandeville, Houma, Grand Isle, Biloxi, Gulfport, Gulf Shores, Destin and across the Gulf Coast! Contact us to schedule your free inspection.
Ready to Stop the Damage Before It Gets Worse?
Our team is standing by for free on-site inspections across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, and Texas.
Frequently Asked Questions
Get answers to common questions about dock piling repair, protection, and restoration.
A bulkhead (also called a seawall or retaining wall) is a vertical structure at the waterfront that retains soil on one side and faces open water on the other. Bulkheads face erosion from wave action and current, hydrostatic pressure from groundwater, biological attack from marine organisms on wood components, saltwater corrosion of metal hardware, and impact from storm surge and boat wakes.
Wood bulkhead components — sheet piling, deadmen, and tie-rods — can be treated with protective wraps and coatings. For timber bulkheads showing biological damage, our encapsulation approach can seal and reinforce the wood members. We also address failing hardware, erosion at the base, and drainage issues that accelerate deterioration.
Warning signs include bowing or leaning of the bulkhead face toward the water, cracks in concrete components, weeping or seeping through the wall face (indicating failing drainage), soil subsidence or sinkholes on the land side, exposed tie-rods or deadmen, and visible rot or boring in wood components. Any of these warrant an urgent inspection.
In most cases, yes — significantly so. Full bulkhead replacement requires engineering, permits, extensive excavation, and a large material and labor investment. Timely repair and protection of a bulkhead before failure is almost always far more economical than waiting for complete structural failure. Don't wait — call for a free inspection as soon as you notice any warning signs.
Yes. Erosion on the land side is often a sign of water infiltration through a failing bulkhead or inadequate drainage. We assess drainage and soil stability as part of our bulkhead inspection and can recommend solutions to stop erosion from undermining your bulkhead from behind.
Have More Questions? We're Here to Help.
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