Boathouse Orlando with difficult soils but great results!

Fender Marine Construction Started a new boathouse in the Isle of Catalina Orlando on a canal that leads to Clear Lake. The soil was very hard and the piles could not be jetted into place. We used our auger to drill the pile holes to a 6' depth.

Here on the Isle of Catalina boathouse you can see the piles set into position and at the required depth. It took a long time to get the piling right, but "you have to build upon a good foundation"!

This is a photo of the Johnson boathouse almost finished. Here we are working on the installation of the aluminum boat cradle.

Just got this photo of the Johnson boathouse- Giant 30' long for the hugh 28' float boat. We upgraded the lift system to 6,000 lb capacity boat cradle, lift motor and gear assembly. Great marine construction project for really wonderful customers!

Cloud 9 Services, Inc. forms dba Fender Marine Construction

Fender Marine Construction We appeared before the Florida Construction Industry Licensing Board 2 weeks ago to get the subsiiary of Cloud 9 Services, Inc., Fender Marine Construction approved as a Florida State Certified Marine Contractor. We were approved unanimously. See the new logo!

Florida Marine Contractor's Association Uninsured Enforcement Success

We are pleased to report that after months of discussion, break through changes were confirmed on a conference call this past Friday that will positively affect the Marine Industry. Below is a summary of the conference call for your review.

Until recently, uninsured marine contractors were able to build docks and seawalls on “non-navigable” waterways with no repercussions from the State of Florida’s Division of Workers Compensation if that contractor had no Workers Compensation coverage (code 6006F) in force. Past case law prohibited the State from pursuing violators and issuing “Stop Work Orders” because of a loop hole concerning enforcement jurisdiction of State Act coverage (regulated by the State of Florida’s Division of Workers Compensation) and United States Longshoreman and Harbor Worker's Act (USL&H) (regulated by the Department of Labor).

Bottom line, marine contractors who have been losing work due to the under priced estimates of uninsured contractors can now seek assistance from the State to issue “Stop Work Orders” at jobs that are on “non-navigable” waterways.

This is a huge step forward for the marine industry in getting the State to step up to assist on this matter, because up until now, they would only refer frustrated inquiries to the Department of Labor. As many of you know, due to funding and government cutbacks, the Department of Labor does not proactively enforce the need for USL&H coverage for “jobs in progress”.

At an upcoming FMCA Central Florida Chapter meeting being held on Wednesday, October 14th, we hope to address enforcement of USL&H with the Department of Labor of uninsured contractors working on “navigable” waterways.

In the meantime, violators can be reported via the web by going to: www.myfloridacfo.com/wc Go to the area located on the center right of the web page entitled: Report Suspected Workers’ Comp Non-Compliance. People can check their local phone listings to their local representatives. In Central Florida, Terence Phillips can be reached at 407-835-4467. In Tallahassee, William Dorney can be reached at 850-413-1825.

FMCA continues to work hard to benefit its members and looks forward to pressing forward on the challenges the marine industry faces.

Respectfully submitted,

Rick Dalrymple, CPIA, CMIPFMCA Chapter Director, Central Florida(407)998-4108 Fax: (407) 788-7933Email: Rick.Dalrymple@IOAUSA.comWeb: http://www.ioausa.com/

For the finest in Marine Construction in Florida, call Rick Fender @ Cloud 9 Services, Inc. 407-481-8383

Seawall and retaining Wall Repair Solutions

Seawall and retaining wall problems in Central Florida.

Following the hurricanes back in 2003 and 2005, there was a flurry of dock and seawall reconstruction in Central Florida. When there is so much opportunity for work, every guy with a pickup truck becomes a marine contractor. The problems with hiring an inexperienced licensed contractor to perform marine construction such as docks, seawalls, retaining walls, boardwalks, boathouses, channel markers, mooring piles and marinas. There are special skills and techniques as well as specialized equipment required for marine construction repair and new construction projects to be successful.

Today I met with a customer in Phillips Landing on Sand Lake. She had a non-marine contractor install a 5’ high and 250’ long aluminum seawall after the hurricanes. She called me because the wall was falling over into the lake. Not only is the damaged seawall dangerous to walk around but the beautifully landscaped yard is about to be destroyed. This wall needs to be repaired immediately.

It appears that the seawall or retaining wall failure was a result of a combination of mistakes made by the contractor. The wall did not have any ports in the face of the wall to allow water to flow from behind the wall. This causes the seawall to fail as a result of the hydrostatic pressure building behind the wall.

The homeowner did the right thing by requiring the contractor to be licensed and to procure a building permit. However, the contractor was fly-by-night and is now out of business. There is no company left to stand behind the wall construction. The customer did not require that the seawall contractor be a member of the Florida Marine Contractor's Association which requires its members to not only be appropriatley licensed but also carry the required United States Longshoreman's Insurance.

The solution we suggest is costly but effective. We would remove the soil from behind the wall where the wall has begun to lean and bow. We would then install new deadmen and tiebacks between the old tiebacks. We would then use a mini-excavator to pull the wall back into a vertical position. We would replace portions of the seawall cap where it cannot be reused. After the wall is straight, the original deadmen and tiebacks will be adjusted to pick up a portion of the load exerted on the wall by the soil. After the deadmen and tiebacks are right, we would carefully backfill against the wall. Once the wall is backfilled, the tiebacks are adjusted again and the yard is cleaned up and sodded.

We would install vents in the seawall face to allow water to pass from behind the wall into the lake through the wall. This will limit the hydrostatic pressure building up behind the wall during the wet season here in Florida.

There are other solutions available that do not require digging up the yard to install deadmen. We will go into that system in another entry to my marine construction blog.

If you need help with marine construction anywhere in Florida, feel free to contact Cloud 9 Services, Inc. We are State Certified Marine Contractors. 407-481-2750.

Unlicensed and underinsured contractors

The Department of Business and Professional Regulation writes a lot about their efforts to stop unlicensed activity. I appreciate their efforts although they are severely limited by a lack of funding which results in less of an ability to enforce the law. When they write about unlicensed activity and what consumers can do to protect themselves, they mention checking the contractor’s license of the person performing the work. They should also inform you that consumers should make sure that the company or person that they are entering into a contract with is the same person or company listed on the license. This is because some unlicensed contractors use another contractor’s license to pull the permit. This is illegal and is called aiding and abetting an unlicensed contractor. The DBPR should also educate the consumer and the local building departments that they should never pull a permit for anyone to do work on their home. The exception which never happens is if the consumer follows the law and covers that unlicensed worker as an employee with workers compensation and withholds payroll taxes.

If the consumer knows that that is the requirement, homeowners would never pull the permit. This can best be stopped at the building department level. The other day I was attempting to procure a permit for an extensive dock repair with one of my customers. He and his engineer had prepared the plans for the permitting. I took my customer who is over 80 years old with me to get the permit in case the plans examiners had questions for him. When we appeared at the permit intake desk, the lady assumed that I was an unlicensed contractor helping the owner to pull the permit so that I could illegally repair his dock. She directed us to fill out the Homeowner’s Affidavit form that the building departments supply that basically states that the owner is going to perform the work himself or with family or with insured employees withholding payroll taxes. It was apparent that there was no way that the owner was capable of installing the piling for the dock as was required in the permit and the permit intake lady knew that. But she sent us over to fill out the form fraudulently. When I advised her that I am a Florida State Certified Marine Contractor, then of course the form was not needed. But had I not indicated that I was a licensee, we would have gotten the permit and if I were unlicensed and uninsured and performed the work, the project would have been performed illegally exposing the customer to great risk.

If the DBPR educates the building/permitting departments and gets their cooperation on this, we would cut unlicensed activity in the State by at least 70%. This would mean a lot less ripped off consumers. There would be significantly less docks and seawalls being built over neighbor’s property lines, built incorrectly and a lot less pain and suffering associated with such things.

Another way to view this issue is to consider an unlicensed doctor. By being unlicensed, he is showing that he lacks the ability to become licensed and exposes the consumers to great harm. Unlicensed doctors go to jail. In fact all the licensed doctors who went to school, passed their tests, performed their internship and became a part of the medical establishment would be up in arms if they knew of an unlicensed doctor seeing patients and performing operations. What of the consumer? If he did not know that the doctor was unlicensed and perhaps there were forged documents on the wall or websites showing the doctors fine work, well then the poor consumer has been duped and could suffer greatly. But what about the consumer that goes to the doctor knowing that the doctor is unlicensed and breaking the law? For the illusion of saving money, they are willing to help the doctor break the law that was designed to protect the consumer?
I don’t feel that the consumer deserves the bad workmanship or lack of exposure to loss without recourse that they receive working with the unlicensed doctor. They may have not been educated on the serious ramifications of dealing with an unlicensed professional.

For marine construction, United States Longshoreman and Harborworker’s Act insurance is required. Through our work at the Florida Marine Contractor’s Association, we have gotten the cost of the coverage reduced significantly. It is now an additional rider on top of the normal worker’s compensation insurance. Our code for Workers Comp for dock and seawall building is 6006F. While we are training the building/permitting departments about the unlicensed activity, we hope to also train them to reject contractors from permitting docks or seawalls if on or adjacent to any water body unless they have the 6006F on their policy. This further protects the consumer in case one of the workers is injured. Learn more about worker's compensation fraud.
If we can stop unlicensed contractor activity, the consumer will be better off, the economy will be better off and the contractors who have paid their dues by procuring the experience, the licensing and the insurance to work as professionals for the public will be better off. Everyone wins except the criminals who should not win. Crime should not pay, but until we can stop unlicensed and uninsured and underinsured contractor activity, crime does pay.

For a licensed marine contractor with the appropriate insurance to protech thier employees and customers, contact Cloud 9 Services, Inc. at 407-466-9952

Dock and boathouse amenities

After the last Board of Director’s Meeting of the Florida Marine Contractor’s Association this past July, my wife Lucy and I hosted a small party at our home for the meeting attendees. The purpose of the party was to entertain my fellow Board Members and their families and enjoy their company. I also wanted to show off some of the amenities that I sell with the docks I build. I try to get my prospective customers to come to my house and check out the work so that they can get an idea of the craftsmanship, design and possible amenities they could enjoy by working with Cloud 9 Service, Inc.

At the party, I discovered that most of my coastal brother and sister marine contractors do not have the ability to build covered decks or boat houses in their area. For those of you who are able to build covered activity decks and are not as limited on the maximum square footage allowed, I offer these design and amenity tips.

When designing your access walkway and you say have a stand of trees and you could just draw a straight line to get to the terminal platform or you could meander the walkway through the trees, choose to meander. I tell my customers that getting to the terminal platform is a major portion of the enjoyment of having and dock. It costs more money for the added walkway, but it is worth it.

When adding lighting to the dock or walkway, we use trim boards to conceal the wiring and we use lights that shine down onto the deck as opposed that shine out and cause light pollution. I am considering adding rope lighting to the sides of the terminal platform and walkway, but if I do, it will be behind a skirt so that the light shines down into the water as opposed to shining out across the lake.

In Central Florida, we are permitted to have covered activity decks. Cloud 9’s header system for the roof is comprised of (2) 2x10s sandwiching the 6x6 piling with a 2x6 at the bottom forming a trough beam. This trough beam allows us to add recessed can lighting in various colors and attached to a dimmer, it can be very beautiful. For my activity deck I also added LCD TVs driven by a DVD player with speakers hidden in an enclosed box in the ceiling. Sometimes we play movies but we mainly play music videos when we are entertaining. Then for the real parties we added a disco light that simulates waves of light across the deck, water and ceiling.

The summers are so hot here that we really can’t sit out on the covered activity deck without over heating or being eaten by mosquitoes. Those problems were solved by the addition of a water mist system to the box beam header system over the covered activity deck portion of the terminal platform area. The mist can reduce the ambient air temperature by up to 30 degrees depending on the relative humidity of the air. When you add the black lights, disco lights, blue recessed can down lights to the mist, it is a party on the water.

Since we planned the covered activity deck as a separate entertainment area, we finished it off with a granite table(wind stable) and chairs, a small drink frig and a waste and recycle bin area.

I know many of you have your own great ideas of amenity packages and I encourage you to write about them in an article like this and send to the Editor(Steven Webster) for publication of the FMCA. In this way, all of our fellow members and our customers across the State and Country can share our ideas that could help our businesses and make our lives more enjoyable. Rick Fender Cloud 9 Services, Inc. 407-481-2750

Decking Options for docks, decks and walkways

There are many decking options available to dock and deck owners here in Central Florida. In this article I will try to touch on a few of the wood decking materials I use with the benefits and challenges associated with each one.

The natural wood decking materials can be the domestic Southern Yellow Pine or Cypress or the imports such as the Brazilian Hardwoods. The Southern Yellow Pine decking normally offered on the standard deck or dock is pressure treated to .40 ACQ or CA. These treatment chemicals are now in use since the EPA ruling making the use of CCA pressure treated wood illegal for all marine uses except for structural timbers. The #1 grade of Southern Yellow Pine should be used as a minimum if you choose to go with a Pine deck. I recommend the use of 2”x6” boards for the decking without a gap being placed between the boards. As the deck boards dry out, they will develop their own gap of approximately 1/4".

The 2”x6” Pine decking will allow you to have your joists spaced 24” on center whereas if you use the less expensive 5/4”x6” Pine decking I would space the joists 16” O.C.

If you are on a tight budget, the 2”x6” #1 pressure treated Southern Yellow Pine is the way to save money in the short term. However, in order to keep the wood surface looking good for years to come, you will need to perform periodic maintenance on the decking. This includes lightly pressure cleaning and sealing every 12 to 24 months for the life of the deck. There are several types of stains and paints that are made specifically for use on pressure treated Pine decking. The one I recommend most is Spa-n-deck from The Flood Company. The best price I have found for this ultra-violet wood protectant and stain is from Decks & Docks Lumber at 4801 95th St, N St. Petersburg, FL 33708. Contact: Mr. Dan Gileo phone: 727-399-9663 fax: 727-399-8453 email: decksanddocks@tampabay.rr.com website: http://www.decks-docks.com/.

Of course the #1 Pressure treated Southern Pine decking is available from several lumber yards around town. I deal with Southern Pine on Hansel Avenue in Pine Castle. They deliver in a timely manner and the quality of the decking is good. Their phone number is 407-251-1900.

Another type of Southern Yellow Pine decking that I recommend is the “UltraWood” 2”x6” decking. This Pine is a grade above the basic #1. It is a #1 dense or better grade which means the wood grain is tighter, the knots are smaller and because the edges are rounded(eased), there is very little wane. This means almost every piece of the wood is good for decking and requires very little culling. Another reason and I feel the most important reason to buy this “UltraWood” is that during the pressure treatment process, it is also treated with a water repellent. This means that the normal hydration and dehydration which occurs to the decking when it rains and dries out does not occur with the “UltraWood” to the extent that it does with normal #1 Pine decking. This constant expanding of the wood when it gets wet and then shrinking again when it dries out causes the wood to splinter and crack prematurely. Certainly painting and applications of the “ultra-violet wood protectant” to the normal #1 will help slow this natural weathering and inevitable aging of the wood, starting with the “UltraWood” decking is a great way to make sure you deck will have a long life. The “UltraWood” can also be stained and treated with the ultra-violet wood protectant.

The most beautiful of the wood decking products that I have found are the Brazilian hardwoods. This material is sometimes called “Ironwood” and there are several different types with different colors and grains. It is the same decking used by Disney World on most of their wood deck area. It is very good for not splintering since the fibers of the wood are very dense and almost hair like when they are cut. There are three ways you can go with the maintenance of this wood. You can choose to simply do nothing to it and it will dry and weather to a silver gray. You could also choose to apply a nut oil called “Penofin” to the Ipe to get a very rich Mahogany brown color and deep luster to the wood. The challenge with the Penofin is that it must be applied several times over the next few years. The Penofin oil tends to build up after every application so that the frequency the application is required decreases over the years. The Penofin is available from 84 Lumber in Tavares at 352-742-8500 or Ace Hardware in Cape Canaveral at 321-784-1528. The final treatment I have found for the Brazilian Hardwoods is Floodpro Supreme Performance available from Decks & Docks Lumber as listed above. This coating is water based and carries a 3 year warranty on decks.
The Brazilian Hardwoods are very dense and pre-drilling and counter sinking of the screws is required. You must use carbide blades for sawing and carbide drill bits for drilling. A 5/4”x6” deck board can span up to 36” but I always use it with 24” O.C. joists. Lumber dealers carry the Ipe in a 1” nominally thick deck board which is reported to span up to 24” but I have not tried it as I use the 5/4” thick board. Even though there is some periodic maintenance required for the mahogany look of the Ipe to be maintained, I think as it is the most beautiful natural wood decking, it is worth it.

Next article I will write about the composite and plastic decking that is setting the market on fire.

Cloud 9 Services, Inc. is a Central Florida Marine Contractor. We build boat docks, boathouses, decks, boardwalks, gazebos, pergolas, seawalls, retaining walls- both commercial and residential. Our State Certified General Contractor's License number is CG C026854. Our website is http://www.cloud9services.com/. We can be reached by email at rick@cloud9services.com. Our phone number is 407-481-2750. We are members of the Florida Marine Contractor's Association whose website is http://www.fmca.us/.