Boat Lift Installation in South Florida

A cradle lift stands on pilings of its own with the cradle slung between them. It is the common answer on an open canal and covers the widest range of boats.

An elevator lift mounts to the seawall or to pilings along the dock face and lifts the boat on an inclined rail instead of lowering a cradle under it. It is the usual answer on a narrow canal, where a four-post cradle will not fit between the dock and the channel. [mcidocks.com]

PWC and jet ski lifts are a separate, much lighter class, typically rated up to 1,500 to 2,500 pounds, and they can be mounted on the dock or set up as floating units. [mcidocks.com]

Which type fits comes down to three things: what the boat weighs in the water, how much room there is between your dock and the channel under the city's projection rule, and what the pilings or the seawall can carry.

Lifts are sized to wet weight. The manufacturer's method is dry weight, plus the fuel tank in gallons times 6 pounds, plus about 500 pounds for gear, batteries and people, then a 20 percent safety margin, sizing up if you land between two models. A lift carries its rating and not a pound more, and its capacity cannot be upgraded later. [shoremaster.com]

Hurricane Boat Lifts puts the margin at 10 to 20 percent, and above 20 percent where saltwater exposure is significant or a bigger boat is likely later. They also count the water a boat carries in the bilge, the livewell and the hull. [hurricaneboatlifts.com]

Bring the builder's spec sheet and the fuel capacity to the site visit and we will run the number with you. The full method, with a worked example, is in our guide to boat lift sizing in Florida.

On a new dock the lift is designed in from the start. Lift pilings are driven with the dock pilings, beam height is set to the tide range and the boat's freeboard, and the motor circuit runs with the rest of the dock electrical. That is the cleanest way to do it.

On a dock that is already there, the pilings decide everything. If the existing ones sit in the right places and will carry a loaded cradle, the lift mounts to them. If not, new lift pilings go in beside the dock. Canal width and the city's projection limit then choose between a cradle and an elevator lift; city rules are under our locations.

How the lift ties into the structure depends on the model. Hi-Tide lists its aluminum elevator as piling mount up to 20,000 pounds, or seawall mount, and calls the space-conscious design the answer for narrow waterways or settings with side mount requirements. [hi-tide.com]

That decides what gets inspected first. A seawall mount puts the boat's weight into the wall and its footer, so we look at the wall, the cap and the tiebacks. A piling mount sends it into the ground, so embedment and section matter instead.

The motor circuit is licensed electrical work with a code section of its own. Boat hoist outlets on docking facilities must be GFCI protected where the circuit voltage does not exceed 240 volts, and feeders run out onto a docking facility need ground-fault protection set to open at no more than 100 milliamps. [ecmweb.com]

The sequence is the same either way: measure the boat and the water, confirm what the pilings or the seawall will carry, set the lift with the manufacturer, pull the permits, drive or verify the pilings, hang the lift, wire the motor.

The paperwork is lighter than owners expect. FDEP runs an online self-certification covering a new dock with or without a boat lift, repair or replacement of an existing dock, and adding a lift to a dock that is already there. There is no fee for using it. [floridadep.gov]

The federal side folds into the same review. Under SPGP VI, the general permit DEP holds with the Army Corps of Engineers, FDEP may authorize construction of boatlifts, and repair or replacement of an existing single-family dock in its previous configuration, up to a cumulative 1,000 square feet, or 500 square feet in an Aquatic Preserve or Outstanding Florida Water. [floridadep.gov]

On the state rules, a pile-supported boat lift installed within an existing mooring area at a legally existing docking facility is exempt from environmental resource permitting, as long as it does not conflict with an existing permit and adds no platform or roof. Pilings serving an exempt private dock are exempt too. [law.cornell.edu]

Floating boat lifts are a different exemption with its own cap: 500 square feet in combination with the dock, and 200 square feet in Outstanding Florida Waters. That applies to floating platforms and floating lifts, not to a piling-mounted cradle lift. [flsenate.gov]

Broward County's environmental resource general license covers installing a boat lift, and the code says a general license is issued within ten days of receiving the application. [broward.elaws.us]

In Miami-Dade, a Class I permit is required before any work in, on, over or upon tidal waters or coastal wetlands of the county. A lift hanging over the water is work over tidal water. [miamidade.gov]

The local building permit is always required on top of the environmental side. Our dock permit guide walks the steps county by county.

A lift concentrates the whole wet weight of the boat onto a handful of points, so lift pilings are specified heavier and driven deeper than walkway pilings. They are wood treated for saltwater service, concrete, or composite.

Salt and brackish water shortens a timber pile, and the damage is not even along its length. Forest Service research puts significant marine borer attack along the Gulf and South Atlantic coasts. Gribbles bore only about 13 millimeters deep, but water erosion keeps stripping the surface so they keep going, and their attack sits between half tide and low tide, which is what cuts the hourglass shape into an old piling. Sphaeroma, the pillbug borer, is common in Florida estuaries, and dual preservative treatment is recommended where borer activity is high. [research.fs.usda.gov]

So a lift piling that leans or wobbles has one of two stories. Either it never reached the bearing it needed when driven, or it had that bearing and lost it since: ground washed from the toe, section eaten away at the waterline, or a hard sideways load in a storm. Telling them apart is a diving inspection, not a guess from the dock.

FEMA's coastal facilities guidance for piers and docks sets out both ways forward. Where erosion and scour are a concern, install deeper piles, which can replace damaged or deteriorated piles or be sistered, meaning installed alongside, to existing piles still in good condition. It also calls for scour protection at the pile toes against undermining from storm waves. [fema.gov]

A piling still well embedded but losing section at the waterline is a different case. The FEMA measure for aging timber piles showing decay, and concrete piles showing cracking and spalling, is a jacket encasement: a jacket, an internal reinforcing layer and a grout infill that prevents further weakening and reinforces the pile. [fema.gov]

That is SnapJacket. The jacket opens and locks around the pile and is filled with concrete, so the dock, the lift and anything over it stay put. Where a pile is past that, we drive a new one: piling replacement.

Salt water is hard on a lift, and the parts that fail first are the easiest to look after and the worst to ignore: cables, pulleys, the gearbox and the motor. We provide maintenance and repair for all lift systems. The routine, how long cables last here, and what to do before a storm are on our boat lift maintenance page.