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Massachusetts  ·  Rhode Island  ·  Connecticut  ·  New Hampshire  ·  Maine

Seawalls and shore protection.

Seawalls, revetments, bulkheads and riprap, on ground that takes breaking water.

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What decides whether it lasts

The water takes the ground out from under it first

A coastal wall rarely fails at the face. It fails when water pulls the material out from behind and below it, and the face comes after. What you can see from the lawn is the last part to go.

Toe protection, because that is where it starts

Scour at the base undermines everything above. Armour sized for the energy that actually arrives at that spot, set into the bed rather than laid on it.

Backfill that drains, and a wall that lets it

Water that gets behind a seawall has to get out, or it pushes. Weeps, filter fabric and graded stone behind the face — a solid wall with nowhere to relieve pressure is a wall loading itself every tide.

Permitting is part of the work here

Building below the historic high water line is licensed work, and in Massachusetts that means Chapter 91 and an Order of Conditions from the Conservation Commission before anything is built. Knowing which approvals a wall needs, and roughly how long they take, is part of quoting it honestly.

The five things every failure comes back to

Every wall and patio we have taken apart failed for one of these five reasons. They are most of what separates a job that looks right at twenty years from one that does not make five.

  1. A base that was built, not just levelled

    Compacted gravel, deep enough for the ground it sits in. Every course above copies the first one, and so does every mistake in it.

  2. Below the frost line

    New England ground moves in winter. A footing poured above the frost line lifts with it, and the wall on top of it cracks — not that winter, usually the third one.

  3. Somewhere for the water to go

    Saturated soil expands about nine percent when it freezes, against something that cannot move. Clean stone, fabric, and a pipe run out to daylight.

  4. Joints shaped, not just filled

    A tooled joint sheds water off the face of the stone. A joint struck flush holds it there, and held water is what freezes.

  5. A cap that sheds

    The top takes the weather and everything anyone sets on it. Pitched away, set solid, joints tight.

One-year workmanship warranty

If something we built moves, cracks or fails in the first year because of how it was built, we come back and fix it. No argument, no invoice.

A number before anyone visits.

Trace the job on a satellite view of your own property, or send a photograph, and the page prices it. The on-site visit is free and it is what makes it exact.

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