If you are in search for a right precast concrete wave wall supplier, here are the points to keep in mind. The only purpose of a wave wall is to absorb and redirect the force of incoming water along a coastline or waterfront, and do that for decades, through storms and constant marine exposure.
Otherwise, no one will hear it.
If it doesn’t, it’s not a problem of the idea of a wave wall, it’s a problem with the supplier that designed and built it.
This is a guide to assessing such a precast concrete wave wall supplier so that you have a defense wall that doesn’t break when a storm comes along.
Pick a Supplier that is more than just Wall Height and Curve Shape
The initial concerns for most buyers are the profile of the curve and the height of the wall in question, as well as the price per metre. While that’s a good starting point, it’s also one that overlooks how the supplier actually designs a wave wall to endure the sustained impact of waves, exposure to the marine environment, and years of storm impact, and fatigue, beyond any single design load on a piece of paper.
The conditions in which wave walls perform, are much tougher on concrete than just about any other application. Reinforcement corrosion occurs at a much higher rate with constant exposure to saltwater when the cover is not adequate, when the mix design is not appropriate, when there is repeated wave impact loading, which is not encountered by most structures, and when there is no gradual damage, only immediate damage. A supplier who understands and works on the premise that the wave wall production process is a specialized marine engineering process, not “a shaped concrete panel,” is designing and building from the outset with these facts in mind. A person who does not will provide a yard wall that appears solid and will begin to crack, spall and fail in a few storm seasons.
Understand what kind of Wave Wall Your Project Needs
There are many different types of wave walls, and not every precast manufacturer offers this type in the marine-grade quality this application requires, so before you compare suppliers, it’s important to identify which type of wave wall your project will call for.
Curved Deflector Wave Walls
Curved deflector walls are constructed with a recurved profile to capture the water coming into the wall and send it back seaward which minimises overtopping and spray. This requires exact curve geometry – geometry is doing the job of dissipating wave energy, not mass.
Vertical Wave Return Walls or Framers
Vertical wave return walls are placed on top of a sea defense or promenade structure and offer a simple overtopping protection barrier without the more complex recurved structure. These focus on the height of walls and how strongly they attach to the underlying structure.
Stepped or Terraced Wave Walls
Stepped wave walls dissipate wave energy over several faces rather than one, and are used where a gentler dissipation profile is appropriate for the site or where the wall is used to provide seating or access for the public. It is important that these are aligned from step to step, as this will affect the energy dissipation and the visual flow of the building.
Combined Wave Wall and Walkway Units
Some wave wall systems incorporate a walkway or promenade surface as part of the precast wall system. These need to be performed in combination with the structural wave facing and the durability and safety of the pedestrian surface, making it much more complex in terms of the mix design and finish.
After determining which type matches with your project — and your site’s wave conditions — you’ll have the ability to reduce your supplier record and choose manufacturers with appropriate expertise in marine defense, as opposed to catalogued wall suppliers providing a shaped wall as a catalogue item.
Inquire about their Marine-Grade Mix Design and Reinforcement Cover
A manufacturer that is serious about manufacturing wave walls will not use a standard mix design and reinforcement cover for the wall as they do for their other products, but will use one specifically designed for marine exposure. This usually involves the use of a low permeability concrete to resist chloride ingress, increased cover over reinforcement in comparison to non marine applications and often stainless steel or coated reinforcement in most exposed areas.
Inquire directly about the target permeability class of the mix, the reinforcement cover and if reinforcement is treated and/or upgraded for marine service. A supplier who responds with specific numbers is talking your talk. When someone says “built to withstand harsh conditions” without specifying the particular ones, he/she needs to be examined more closely, since there’s a lot at stake here.
Discuss their Design of Structures and their Calculations of the Forces of Waves
The structural design of a wave wall should be based on the wave loading that your site experiences, not a generic assumption. Inquire about the supplier’s engineering, whether the wave height, frequency, and direction have been accounted for, and if the design has been independently reviewed or tested and if it has been subjected to repeated wave action, how the design addresses the initial impact load and the cumulative fatigue of repeated wave action.
It’s a supplier that can talk you through how their design will behave in your site’s specific wave conditions that is showing you real engineering behind the product. A supplier that is only providing a single standard profile is demanding that your site meet their product, not the other way around.
Check Their Manufacturing Quality Control Precast Concrete Wave Wall Supplier
Two wave walls could have the same specification as per the paper and yet vary in actual durability due to the difference in the casting process. Pose questions about the casting process, curing process and time, inspection process before delivery.
Here surface density and finish are more important than most other precast products, because a porous or poorly cured surface will allow chloride to penetrate the surface and will shorten the effective service life of the wall, even if the design and dimensions have been calculated. Inquire about the procedures adopted by the supplier to ensure that the units are consistently compacted and cured, and not just the first ones cast from a fresh mould.
Request Site-Specific Engineering, and not a Standard Profile
A competent supplier will be able to supply engineering calculations, and hopefully a curve profile that is tailored to your particular site conditions as opposed to a single standard curve profile used everywhere. This should involve wave loading, foundation and connection design appropriate to the structure the wall will support, and verification of long-term settlement and/or movement at the site.
Suppliers who can create this type of information will be able to identify site-specific problems before installation rather than after a wall is erected and it fails to live up to its performance expectations with real wave forces. This is a big gap if a supplier is unable to provide project specific calculation for a structure this significant.
Examine how the Installation and Foundation Requirements Differ
Wave walls are not usually easy to install because they are usually placed on or within an existing sea defense, revetment or promenade structure. Consider what foundation and connection requirements the supplier requires; if they offer installation guidelines, do they work with contractors who are experienced in marine defense work; how is the wall connected to the existing structure and how is load distributed between the existing structure and the wall so as not to create a weak point?
Be specific about how units are installed and jointed to each other: are the joints between the wave wall units equal or do gaps compromise the performance of the entire run?
Look at their References and Track Record Precast Concrete Wave Wall Supplier
Design and mix specifications provide information about the resistance that a supplier states the wall will have. What projects have done is revealed by their installation. Request examples of wave walls provided for similar coastal situations and learn about the performance of the wave walls over the years during storm seasons.
A manufacturer who has actually performed in the face of actual severe wave activity is a much bigger statement of engineering and manufacturing capability than any brochure.
Red Flags Worth Watching For Precast Concrete Wave Wall Supplier
A few common indicators are likely to reappear with less reliable suppliers of wave walls:
- Hazy responses to questions about marine grade mix design.
- A single uniform profile for all applications, regardless of the local wave environment.
- No clear indication of the engineering for that particular site.
- Prices that are significantly lower than the competition that has proven experience in marine defense.
Any of these factors should not be a deal-breaker, but when 2 or 3 of these things come together on a single supplier, it’s definitely a warning sign to come off that person’s website as fast as possible and ask a lot more questions.
Connecting and Integrating Multiple Pieces of Information Precast Concrete Wave Wall Supplier
The secret to selecting the right precast concrete wave wall supplier is to verify that the supplier understands its engineering design process and the details of the wave conditions on the site are what make the wall a coastal-rated wall, and not just shaping a standard wall and dubbing it coastal-rated. If you get this right, the wall will do what it’s supposed to do: stand up to the real storms, year after year, without anyone wondering if it will hold.
