Waterfront Projects Done Right
Trent Hollis · July 24, 2026
Right now, I’m staring at a piling in American Beach that looked solid from the deck until I ran my scratch awl across the grain about three feet below the waterline. The wood gave way like wet cardboard. Fifteen years ago, that same spot would have been someone’s catastrophic failure story—the call you get when … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 24, 2026
A marine contractor will charge you $80 to $150 per line to splice an eye loop into your dock line. Spend a Saturday afternoon learning the technique yourself, and you’ve paid for the knowledge in a single boat. The gap between those two numbers isn’t just about labor—it’s about understanding why this particular knot has … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 23, 2026
Most waterfront property owners believe barnacles are purely a cosmetic nuisance—unsightly, sure, but not a genuine structural threat. That assumption costs people money and shortens dock lifespan unnecessarily. Barnacle shells are calcium carbonate armor that traps moisture directly against your wood, accelerates decay from the inside out, and creates sheltered zones where wood-boring organisms like … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 22, 2026
Galvanic corrosion from mixed metal fasteners can destroy your deterrent system in months — but bird management failure happens faster if you don’t understand what you’re actually fighting. Over twenty years building and maintaining Gulf Coast docks, I’ve watched property owners chase birds with every wrong tool in the shed: poison, air rifles, adhesive traps … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 21, 2026
Back in 2009, a county inspector showed up at a Pensacola Bay dock where I’d just finished replacing twelve rotted deck boards and three corroded brackets. The citation read $1,200 for unpermitted structural work. Two days of labor, and suddenly I owed more in fines than the repair cost in materials. That experience shaped everything … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 21, 2026
Down at a marina outside Galveston, I watched a 24-footer drift sideways into its neighbor because the owner had wrapped his dock line around the cleat twice and finished with nothing but a basic overhand knot. One passing trawler created enough surge to undo the whole setup within an hour. The repair bill to the … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 20, 2026
Plenty of Gulf Coast dock owners believe their pilings are safe from wildlife damage because they focus on wood rot and metal corrosion—the threats they’ve actually heard about. Then they walk out one morning and find a 6×6 post narrowed to toothpick thickness at the waterline, the decking sagging under their boots. By that point, … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 20, 2026
When I walk out on a dock in the morning, the first thing I check is how the boats are sitting in their slips — specifically, whether the lines holding them are under even tension or if one side is slack while the other pulls tight. That imbalance tells you everything about what’s actually doing … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 19, 2026
The myth that dock electrical work is simpler than house wiring because it’s outdoors costs people money every storm season. I watched a homeowner in Destin spend $8,500 replacing a corroded dock system that failed after Hurricane Ian because the original installation—done by a contractor who “knew what he was doing”—used standard indoor receptacles and … Read more
Trent Hollis · July 19, 2026
Twenty years of finishing rope ends on the Gulf Coast taught me to wince whenever someone grabs a lighter to melt the tip of a braided line and declares the job finished. Heat-shrink gets synthetics through an emergency — I won’t argue that point — but it is not what a sailmaker’s whipping delivers. That … Read more