Dock Builders in Longboat Key, FL

Longboat Key is mostly water on paper: the town covers about 16 square miles, and almost 12 of them are water. For dock builders, that means the work is concentrated on the bay side, where homes face Sarasota Bay and the Gulf side is mostly beach. Boat lifts are the most common request here, followed by dock rebuilds and piling work.

A key split down the middle

Longboat Key has been divided between Manatee County to the north and Sarasota County to the south since 1921, and the island is almost equally split. The Town of Longboat Key, incorporated in 1955, covers both halves. In practice your dock project answers to the town, to state rules, and in some cases to county-level reviews, so we confirm the path for your address up front and tell you what paperwork to expect.

Choosing a lift

A lift has to suit three things: the boat, the water and the structure. We weigh the boat with fuel, gear and engines, not the brochure dry weight, and size the lift with room to spare. On open bay frontage, wave action matters, so we look at how exposed your slip is to wind across the bay. Then we check that the pilings carrying the lift are in good shape, because a new lift on tired pilings is a short-lived fix.

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Slow water near the passes

The Sarasota County manatee rule lists New Pass, at the south end of the key, as a year-round slow speed zone. On the Manatee County side, the state rule makes the bay waters within 300 feet of Longboat Key's eastern shore slow speed all year. For a lift owner, that means plenty of time spent idling to and from the slip, so we set the lift where the approach is straight and easy.

Roofs and covers

Many owners want a canopy over the lift. Under DEP's single-family dock criteria, a roof over a lift cannot overhang more than one foot beyond the lift and the stored boat, and slips cannot be enclosed by walls. We design canopies inside those limits so they do not stall your permit.

Seawalls behind the lift

Many bay-side lots on Longboat Key have a seawall at the back of the slip, and the lift pilings sit just in front of it. If the wall is shedding fill or the cap is cracked, the soil around the nearest piles can loosen as well. When we size or replace a lift, we take a look at the wall and tell you if anything needs attention before the new equipment goes in. A cracked cap or an open joint is a far smaller job when it is caught early.

Small islands, boat-only access

Jewfish Key, about 38 acres inside town limits, is reachable only by boat and runs on underwater power cables, well water and septic. Work on a property like that means barging materials and planning every trip. If you own on a boat-access island in the area, ask us how we would stage the job.

Dock repair and pilings

When the lift is fine but the dock is not, we handle that too: new decking, rails, ladders and replacement pilings. Call (941) 213-5801 to talk through your slip.