7 Things to Consider Before Starting Your Marine Construction Project

Construction projects require planning and forethought. Building near, on, or in the water increases the various issues you may face substantially by adding a corrosive and dynamic substance into the engineering mix. Great engineering drawings will account for a region’s weather and water behavior when planning a construction project, and a good marine engineering team will help you address the many issues your project may face.

Good engineering accounts for a project’s purpose, foundations, weatherproofing, roofing, maintenance schedule, and more. When you are looking at planning a marine construction project, it is important to look at each of these aspects of your project before choosing an engineering team and finalizing plans.

Floating vs Fixed

From the foundation to the roof, the question of whether your construction project is going to be floating or fixed in relation to the water determines everything that follows. While not very common, there are even building projects, like Missouri river casinos, that even have both floating and fixed portions. The building materials, the foundations, and utilities design will all change depending on this question.

Floating projects include docks and piers, berthing structures, boats and ships, house boats, and many beach-side and riverfront locations. Fixed foundations included many docks and piers, most beachfront buildings, dams, and more. When considering your construction project, understanding the local water system is important in deciding whether something will have some give by floating on water as the water levels rise and descend. For example, many building projects over areas affected by tides need either enough height to be consistently above water or the responsive capability of a floating foundation.

Foundations

“The wise man built his house upon a rock,” begins a popular parable which underscores the importance of a foundation to any building or construction project. A marine construction project’s foundations are rarely as simple as being put on a rock. From driving piles to creating islands or floating docks, a marine construction project incorporates diverse and unique foundation systems.

In planning out marine architecture, the foundations you use are incredibly important. Whether using floats, moorings, or full retaining walls, the superstructure you build has to be on a proper foundation. An engineering team needs to consider the normal foundation questions (slab vs crawlspace, foundation vs basement, etc) along with the additional questions a builder must ask near water (does it need to be on pilings? Does it need to float?).

Weatherproofing

Marine construction faces unique issues in weatherproofing that needs to be included in any design plans for your building. From the paint and siding used on building construction projects to the location and type of concrete, weatherproofing needs to take into account the likelihood of hurricane strength storms, beach erosion, and earthquakes.

Although many cultures make peace with the vast power of the oceans and other waterways on earth by building and rebuilding temporary shelters near the oceans, any modern construction project needs to plan on surviving the majority of an area’s worst weather. Design drawings therefore need to be engineered with weather in mind, from the foundations up. Including hurricane or earthquake planning in a building is difficult but essential to good project planning.

Electrical

Good electrical planning can determine the quality of any construction project, but marine construction has additional issues when considering electrical issues. Does your building or resource need its own power source. Does a floating project need to be able to plug into a grid while also providing long periods of independent power, like a houseboat? An engineering team will need to consider all the various aspects of a project’s electrical systems before delivering finalized drawings.

Plumbing

Plumbing, the wonder of modern civilizations, is the bane of marine construction planning. Where does water come into a marine construction project, where does it leave? Do you have one system for handling all waste, or one for gray and one for black water? Does your project require water storage for prolonged periods of time?

Before you start planning and engineering your project, you must address plumbing. Access to water mains and other shutoff valves is standard for any engineering project, as is planning the different types of piping, the fixtures and more that they will use. Additionally, will the plumbing play any part of the heating or cooling systems on the new construction? Heating and cooling systems often integrate with a building’s plumbing and on ships or houseboats plumbing plays an even more important role.

Roofing

Finally, the covering your project will use needs to be integrated into the construction design and drawings. While many modern buildings’ roofing is standardized, there are special situations that may arise when you are integrating construction with marine locations.

As we discussed earlier, weatherproofing plays an important part in planning out your roofing. Depending upon the amount of rainfall, the type and amount of storms on average, and the behavior of waves nearby, the type of roofing and the slope of roof can change dramatically.

Drawings need to take into account the planned removal of water during storms and other active water situations. If the roof sheds water in every storm to only have it come in the doors or windows because of flooding, this is a poor design and something to consider. Many buildings with bay windows are perfect for viewing the beautiful water, but without adequate planning in the roof, those bay windows can become a major flooding liability. Good engineering accounts for how water will be moved from the roof and away from the house in normal weather, as well as planning ahead for major storms.

Repairs

Planning for your building needs to include the need for regular and long-term maintenance and repairs systems. Any project which has a foundation or an attic will need to plan access spaces to it, and the type of materials you engineer into your building will determine maintenance schedules for years to come. Depending on the size of your construction project, maintenance access could include larger questions like rooftop access, independent plumbing access and utility rooms, and moving heavy machinery into or out of your site for replacing power sources or other integrated machines.

Also, you should plan for the reduced lifetime of many building materials when you select your materials, plan you building costs, and engineer structures in your project. Asking the questions about maintenance, repairs, and replacement for your building before you construct it is essential to saving money and creating a high-quality project.

As you can see, there are many issues to consider before starting any project and those issues only grow when you are considering a project near, on, or in the water. From boats to docks and berthing locations, projects in and on the water need to meet a unique set of engineering requirements. From buildings on piers over the water to high-rises off the beach, permanent building structures include additional issues for engineers to consider before finalizing plans.

If you are considering a marine construction project in the near future, please consider these areas and how they will impact your planning processes. Additionally, consider the importance of having integrated CAD drawings for the various parts of your building plan including mechanical drawings and more. An integrated, quality engineering plan is essential to crafting and planning your building project.