Capabilities · Construction Dewatering
Dewatering — The Florida Variable
In most of coastal Florida the groundwater sits a few feet below grade. Any excavation deeper than that is an excavation in water until something is done about it, and what gets done determines the program.
Send the geotechnical report and the site plan. You get a written read on the water, the excavation and the risk.
Self-perform
Dewatering and support of excavation, in house
Tidal
Deep foundations in tidal environments
Licensed
General contractor, licensed in the state of Florida
Water
The variable that decides the schedule in Florida
Why this is the critical path, not a line item
Dewatering is routinely priced as a subcontract line and then discovered to be the thing everything waits on. The system has to be running and the table drawn down before excavation starts, the discharge needs somewhere permitted to go, and in tidal ground the whole calculation changes twice a day. Treating it as a commodity is the most common way a Florida site program slips.
What actually drives the design
- Depth of excavation below the static water table.
- Soil permeability — Florida sand drains very differently from marl or muck.
- Tidal influence, which near the Intracoastal is a daily cycle rather than a season.
- Where the discharge can legally go, and what it must be treated for.
- Adjacent structures, because drawing water down can settle a neighbor.
How we handle it
- 01Read the geotechnical report before pricing anything.
- 02Model the drawdown required and the likely flow rate.
- 03Select the method — wellpoints, deep wells or sumps — for the soil, not for the yard.
- 04Establish the discharge route and the permit path early, because it is slow.
- 05Install, commission and draw the table down before excavation begins.
- 06Monitor adjacent structures where drawdown could settle them.
Wellpoints suit shallow, permeable sand and are quick to deploy. Deep wells suit greater drawdown and lower permeability. Sumps suit almost nothing on a real site and are what gets used when nobody planned. The selection follows the borings, and if there are no borings, that is the first conversation.
Said plainly
Where we stop
If the geotechnical report does not exist, we will not price the dewatering. A number produced without borings is a guess that becomes a change order, and we would rather delay the estimate than hand you one.
FAQ
Common questions
- Do I need a permit to discharge?
- Almost always, and it is frequently the longest lead item on the whole package. Start it before you need it.
- Can we just use sump pumps?
- On a small shallow excavation in the right soil, sometimes. On most Florida sites it means excavating in water and losing the subgrade.
- What does tidal influence change?
- The table moves twice a day. A system sized for the mean will fail on the flood tide, so it is sized for the high.
- Can dewatering damage neighboring buildings?
- It can. Drawing the table down can cause settlement, which is why adjacent structures get monitored where the risk is real.
Ground conditions
Saturated Sand
excavation in saturated sand florida
Read more →
Coquina & Cap Rock
coquina rock excavation florida
Read more →
Organic Muck & Peat
organic muck soil florida foundation
Read more →
Tidal & Waterfront Sites
tidal excavation waterfront foundation florida
Read more →
Karst & Sinkhole Risk
sinkhole risk foundation florida
Read more →
Uncontrolled Fill
uncontrolled fill foundation florida
Read more →
Next step
Find out what is actually wrong with it.
An inspection, photographs of what we found, and a written scope. If the honest answer is that it can wait another season, that is the answer you will get.