Every waterfront property in Northeast Florida is in a slow argument with the water. A bulkhead is how you win it. It is the vertical structure at the back of your shoreline that holds your soil in place, keeps your lawn from migrating into the river, and gives you a defined, usable edge to your property.
Barefoot Marine Construction has been building and repairing those structures across the First Coast since 2009. We are a Certified General Contractor (#1533461), locally owned in Jacksonville, and insured well beyond what most land-based contractors carry — including Workers’ Compensation and USL&H (Longshore & Harbor Workers’) coverage — federally required for maritime work that falls outside state workers’ compensation, and the insurance that actually applies when crews work over water.
What we do with bulkheads
Bulkhead work splits into a small number of jobs, and most property owners need to figure out which one they are facing before they can do anything else.
- New bulkhead construction — a wall where there was not one before, or a complete rebuild on a new alignment. Starts with survey and soils, ends with backfill and a finished cap.
- Bulkhead repair — targeted work on a wall that is structurally sound but losing ground: cap cracking, panel joints opening, soil disappearing behind the wall.
- Bulkhead replacement — when the structural elements are past repair and the economical move is a new wall.
- Storm damage repair — assessment and stabilization after a named storm or a hard surge event.
Choosing a material
The material decision drives cost, service life, and what the wall looks like from your back door. We build in all three of the materials used on the First Coast and we do not have a house favorite — the right answer depends on your exposure, your soils, your budget, and how long you plan to own the property.
| Material | Where it fits | What to know |
|---|---|---|
| Concrete | Long service life, heavier structural demand, properties where the wall is also the finished edge | Highest up-front cost of the three; cap and panel repair is well understood |
| Vinyl | Most residential shorelines; good corrosion behaviour in brackish and salt water | Will not rot or corrode; UV-stable formulations; relies on proper tieback design |
| Wood | Lower initial cost, matching an existing timber structure, sheltered locations | Treated timber in a marine environment has a finite life; inspect fasteners and tiebacks |
If you want the comparison in dollars rather than in adjectives, the bulkhead cost page walks through what actually drives the number on an estimate.
How a bulkhead actually fails
Understanding the failure modes is the fastest way to understand what your wall needs. A bulkhead is not just the face you see. It is a system: sheet piles driven into the ground, a cap that ties the tops together, and tiebacks running back to anchors buried in your yard.
- Soil loss through the joints. Water moving in and out through panel joints carries fine soil with it. You see it as sinkholes, depressions, or a lawn that keeps needing fill. The wall looks fine. It is not fine — it is emptying your yard into the river one tide at a time. This is where void filling and soil stabilization and chemical grout injection earn their keep.
- Tieback failure. The tiebacks and their anchors take the horizontal load from the retained soil. When they corrode through or the anchors lose their grip, the top of the wall starts to lean waterward. A wall that is out of plumb is telling you something specific.
- Cap deterioration. The concrete cap takes weather, impact and, in older walls, chloride attack on the embedded steel. Spalling and cracking are repairable — see concrete cap and wall repair — but a cap that has broken its connection to the piles is doing nothing structurally.
- Toe scour. Water accelerating past the base of the wall pulls material out from the toe, reducing the embedment the wall depends on. It is invisible from the top and it is one of the more serious findings in an inspection.
Most failing bulkheads show more than one of these at once, because they feed each other. That is why a marine inspection is worth more than a photo and a guess.
Permitting is part of the job
Bulkhead work in Northeast Florida sits inside a regulatory stack. Depending on the waterbody, the scope, and whether you are repairing in place or changing the alignment, review can involve:
- the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP)
- the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
- the St. Johns River Water Management District
- your county or municipal building department (Duval, Clay, St. Johns or Nassau)
Which of those apply, and what each one wants to see, depends on your specific site — and the rules are revised periodically. Treat anything you read online, here included, as orientation rather than as current requirements, and confirm with the reviewing agency. We handle permitting as part of the projects we build, which is usually the reason owners stop trying to do it themselves.
Working with us
We give free estimates. When we come out, we will tell you what we actually see — including when the answer is that your wall has years left in it and does not need our help yet. We would rather be the contractor you call in four years than the one who sold you a wall you did not need.
Start with the contact page or call (904) 327-3931. If you already know which part of the job you are dealing with, go straight to construction, repair, or replacement.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between a bulkhead and a seawall?
How do I know whether my bulkhead needs repair or replacement?
Do I need a permit to repair or replace a bulkhead in Jacksonville?
How long does a bulkhead project take?
Do you work on commercial and municipal bulkheads?
Last reviewed October 2026 by Barefoot Marine Construction. Permit requirements and agency rules change — confirm current requirements with the reviewing agency before you plan work.