What Dock Repair Costs, Broken Down by Component

By Ed Brannigan, Marine contractor. Reviewed by Amanda McCallister, editor.

Dock & Pier Repair Last fall I was under a dock in Biloxi, knee-deep in cold mud, splitting a rotten piling with a pry bar. The owner was standing on the deck above asking if we could just replace the one bad board and call it good. That's when I had to walk him through the real cost of a dock repair — the part you see and the part you don't. The truth is, dock repair costs are a stack of line items. You've got the piling, the framing, the decking, the hardware, the permit, the labor, and a little extra for the stuff that surprises you. There's no single magic number per square foot, because it depends on the water, the exposure, the age of the structure, and how hard it is to get a barge to your backyard. But I can give you a breakdown that puts you in the ballpark. So let's break it down. Call it a working estimate, give or take 20 percent, and we'll talk about what drives it one piece at a time.

Piles: The Foundation Is Everything

Your whole dock is riding on a few sticks of wood. In my work, that's usually southern pine piles, treated with creosote or ACQ. A 20-foot treated pine pile will set you back about $250 to $500 for the material, and that's if you can haul it yourself. If you're paying for delivery to a waterfront site, add another $100 or so. But the real cost is installation. You're looking at $300 to $800 a pile to set it with a crane or a pile driver, and that assumes the water isn't too shallow or too rough. On a 30-foot dock, you might need six piles on a good day, so call it $3,000 to $6,000 just for the foundation. Concrete piles are a different animal. They're heavier, more expensive, and need a bigger rig. A 30-foot concrete pile might cost $400 to $600 per pile, but installation can run $1,000 to $2,000 each. And there's a reason we still use timber: concrete is unforgiving if the ground shifts. Timber gives a little, concrete cracks. But if you've got a nasty borer problem, concrete is the way to go. And that's my digression for the day: shipworms aren't worms. They're clams. They tunnel into wood and eat it from the inside. A piling that looks solid on the outside can be hollow as a straw. That's why you don't just look at the pile cap — you have to sound the pile with a hammer or bore into it to test. Give or take, you'll rarely get out of a pile job for less than a hundred bucks a linear foot, and that's on the low end.

Decking: Boards, Fasteners, and the Sweat You Sweat

Decking boards are what people think about when they talk about dock repair. The cheapest way to go is pressure-treated pine, usually 5/4x6 or 2x6. That'll run you $3 to $5 per square foot in material. But pine on a dock is a sweat. It splinters, it twists, it stains, and you're replacing boards every five years if you're lucky. Composite decking — Trex, AZEK, TimberTech — is a whole different price bracket. You're looking at $8 to $15 a square foot for material, and it goes up from there for the top-tier products. It still gets hot as a skillet in the Florida sun, but it won't rot. But you're not just buying boards. You've got joists in the subframe, and those are always pressure-treated, usually 2x8 or 2x10, running about $1.50 to $2.50 a linear foot. Add in hangers and hardware from Simpson Strong-Tie, and you can tack on another 50 cents to a dollar a foot for connectors and bolts. If you're not re-framing the joists, you're probably paying for a bunch of galvanized nails and screws, which run about $50 a box. It adds up fast. Then there's the labor. A good carpenter along the coast will charge $75 to $125 an hour, and a two-man crew will often knock out 100 square feet of decking in a day. So let's do the math: on a 10x20 dock, that's 200 square feet. In composite, material runs $1,600 to $3,000. In pressure-treated, $600 to $1,000. Labor maybe $1,200 to $2,000. That gives you a wide range of total deck job, from about $1,800 to $5,000.

Framing and Structural Repairs

Underneath the decking, there's a whole skeleton of beams, stringers, and braces. If those are rotten, you've got a bigger job than just decking. A single 6x6 beam, pressure-treated, runs $100 to $200 for a 20-footer. A 2x10 joist, same length, is maybe $25 to $50. But the labor to replace them is a pain, because you've got to pull the decking you just put on, or work from underneath in a skiff. That's why I tell homeowners: if you're replacing the decking, check the framing while you're at it, because pulling up a new deck is pure waste. On an older dock, I've seen the entire beam system fail from rot because a single piece was installed wrong ten years ago. The fix was re-framing the whole span, which came to about $4,000 on a 40-foot dock, including materials and labor. But that was a special case. Usually frame repairs run in the $500 to $2,000 range, depending on how much wood is shot. One thing most people miss is the fastening system. Use the wrong galvanized steel or just nailing it with common nails, and electrolysis will eat the metal in salt water. Simpson Strong-Tie has a whole line of stainless steel hardware for marine use, and it's expensive — call it double the cost of galvanized. But it's the right call. If you're doing a repair, don't cheap out on the metal that holds you up.

Hardware, Accessories, and the Things You Forget

Cleats, rub rails, ladders, dock boxes, shore power outlets, and a boat lift if you have one. Those are the extras that make a dock feel new, and they're easy to price. A good stainless steel cleat will run $25 to $100, depending on size. Rub rail is $5 to $10 a foot. A dock box is $400 to $1,000. A swim ladder, $200 to $500 for a decent pivoting one. But the big-ticket item is a boat lift. On the Gulf, we install a lot of aluminum lifts with bunks, and those run $6,000 to $15,000 installed, give or take, depending on the weight of the boat and the configuration. If your electric is shot, that's a separate contractor. But a good waterfront shore power setup, including a marine-grade outlet box and wiring, will cost $500 to $2,000. And if you're replacing a whole panel, watch out — that can double. All of these are line items you don't think about until the dock is down to bare frames.

Labor, Permits, and the Unforeseen

So you've got your materials. Now the labor. I've been quoting $75 to $150 per hour for a good crew, and that's on the water. If you're in a remote spot, you're paying for travel time and mobilization — a barge doesn't drive itself to your dock for free. Call it $200 to $500 extra just to get equipment on site. Permits are another line item. Coastal counties and states charge for building permits on docks, and the fees range from $200 to $1,000, which often covers a couple of inspections. If you need an engineer's seal, add another $1,500 to $3,000, though that's usually for new builds or major repairs. Now here's where the truth comes out: you will find something you didn't expect. It could be a pile that's rotten below the mud line, or a stringer that's sunken into the water. I usually tell clients to set aside 15% of the total for the unexpected, and that's not just a sales pitch. On a $10,000 job, that's $1,500 in your back pocket. When I quote a job, I'd rather be honest about the range and have the customer decide how deep they want to dig. That's the breakdown. It's a jagged puzzle, not a neat little package. But if you walk into a repair with this in your head, you won't get sandbagged.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much does it cost to replace a single dock piling? Between $500 and $1,500 installed, depending on the pile material and how hard it is to get your equipment in. A pressure-treated pine pile runs $250-$500 in material, but the crane or barge time is what eats your budget. What's a realistic budget for decking replacement on a 10x20 dock? Give or take $1,800 to $5,000. Pressure-treated pine keeps you in the low end, composite is at the high end. That includes material and labor for a typical two-man crew. Do I need a permit for dock repair in Florida? Usually, yes. Even for a minor repair, most coastal counties want a permit and an inspection. Fees range from $200 to $1,000. If you're just replacing a couple of boards, you might skip it, but that can be a problem when you sell the property. Is it worth trying to do a dock repair myself? Dock work is a specialized trade. I've seen homeowners do a decent job on deck boards, but if you're talking piles or framing, you need the right equipment and experience. You'll save labor, but you're taking a risk with your safety and your dock's life.