Do you know what a seawall is and do you know if you need one? If you live along a shoreline of an ocean or sea, you may need one. A seawall is a man made barrier that is used to stop the shoreline from eroding from the constant wash of the water and also helps break up waves to keep their damage at a minimum when they come ashore.
Building a seawall can help save your home and land from the erosive effects of water as well as increase the value of your property. The down side is that seawall construction is not cheap. Depending on what type of one you need and the material you have available to construct one, you can easily sink tens of thousands of dollars into the construction. There are two types of construction; vertical and curved or stepped. A vertical wall is straight up and down while a curved or stepped wall is just what it sounds like. The curved version reduces the energy of the water or wave gradually while the vertical one just tries to stop it all at once. You must realize just how much force water and waves create to understand that any sea wall must be solid and constructed in a way that it can stand up to the abuse it will receive.
The most common materials used to construct these walls are steel, large rocks and boulders and concrete that has been reinforced with metal, often called rebar. Other materials that are also sometimes used include fiberglass, aluminum, vinyl and wood. Before the widespread use of some of these materials, people located along a coast used whatever they had available. This included man made mounds of dirt and rock, trees and whatever else they could find.
There are many professionals and contractors around mot highly populated coast towns and cities that specialize in seawall construction. Even if you think you can build one by yourself, it may be a good idea to talk to a couple professionals to make sure there isn't something you are missing or forgetting. The odds are that if you are in need of one of these walls that your neighbors are as well, or you may even have neighbors that already have one. Talk with them to see what you can learn. If there is a large group of you that need them in a community, it may also be worth your time to talk to your local government agencies to see if there is any grants or other assistance available.
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