Seawall Repair in Gainesville, FL

Coastal seawalls face a tide twice a day. Lake walls near Gainesville face something slower: water levels that rise and fall with the seasons. Newnans Lake, about two miles east of the city on Highway 20, covers about 5,800 acres. The state wildlife agency has reported its levels falling so far in dry spells that both public boat ramps closed. Orange Lake, to the south, ranges from about 5,000 to more than 14,000 acres depending on rainfall. Gainesville is the farthest inland town covered by our Jacksonville seawall repair team, which handles scheduling and engineering for these lake jobs.

Which Gainesville-Area Lakes Have Walls?

Most of Gainesville's open water lies outside the city limits:

• Newnans Lake is east of town and is a state Fish Management Area. Cypress swamp lines much of its edge. The St. Johns River Water Management District owns the Newnans Lake Conservation Area on its north shore.
• Orange Lake sits south of town and drains through sinkholes in its southwest corner. At high water, it also drains out through Orange Creek.
• Lake Santa Fe is to the northeast. Alachua County's dock rules cover it even where the shoreline belongs to a neighboring county.

How Do Lake Walls Fail?

Lake walls don't suffer from salt, but they have their own problems:

• Long drawdowns. Newnans Lake has had a spillway controlling its level since 1967. Even so, a 2000 drought dropped it low enough to expose 55 ancient dugout canoes. When the water falls away from a wall for months, the soil behind it dries, shrinks and settles.
• Refilling. When the rains return, water soaks back into the backfill and pushes on the wall from behind. Repeated swings open seams.
• Soft lake-bottom soil. Where the bottom is soft, the toe of a wall can shift.

Signs include a gap opening between the cap and your lawn, tilted cap sections, or a dock landing that has sunk.

What's the Fix for a Settling Lake Wall?

If the wall is still upright, we fill the voids. NCFI polyurethane is injected behind and under the wall, where it expands to fill gaps and binds the loose soil. There's no digging into the lakebed. See polyurethane injection for void repair.

Cracks, failed joints and cap repairs follow the same methods as our bulkhead repair service in Northeast Florida. If the wall is leaning toward the lake, anchoring a wall with helical tiebacks gives it back the support the soil lost.

What Does Alachua County Require?

Alachua County's Environmental Protection Department publishes a dock fact sheet covering unincorporated Alachua County, Lake Santa Fe and Orange Lake. It requires a county building permit for dock work worth $500 or more, plus engineered plans and a Florida-licensed contractor. It may also require a $100 flood-prone area permit. The county tells owners to check with Florida DEP about state permits. Its dock standards also state that "walls are prohibited," so ask county staff before planning any new hardened structure at the shoreline.

The county also restricts digging, filling and clearing in surface waters, wetlands and their buffers without approval. That's one more reason repair from behind the wall makes sense here.

How Does Gainesville Compare With Other Inland Lake Towns?

Our other inland pages deal with the same lake issues on a bigger scale. Central Florida's chains of lakes are covered by Orlando lakefront seawall repair, seawalls in Kissimmee, and Lakeland seawall repair for that city's many lakes.

Is the Trip From Jacksonville Worth It for a Small Job?

Yes. Seawall Repairs by Solid Foundations has served Florida, Georgia and South Carolina since 1996. We hold Florida license CBC1267322 and are NCFI-certified polyurethane installers. The inspection is free, and we'll be straight with you if your wall doesn't need work. Schedule a lake wall inspection or call 866-398-9323.