Docks Building maintaining

[Taxus812]

Anyone have good tips on how to build simple docks cheaply ?

Im not thinking of something that you would put in a harbor. Im thinking something that you might put in a river at your summer camp.

I wanted to build one that can float but it would normally partially only sit in 2' - 3' of water. The reason floating is, the river is Dam controlled and the water level varies based on power generation (and flooding). The river can rise and fall as much as 4' in a single day (I can be totally dry at the end of the day). In the winter it can rise far above that so it is best just to pull it out.

Any good sites and tips ?

 

[Another retired guy]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

I made a 3 section floating dock. Used plastic barrels for flotation. Each section attached to the next with galvanized dock hinges. Frame made of 2x8's, and decking of 2x6's. the 3 hinged sections allow for changing water levels. Finished it with a couple of metal poles, driven into the lake bed, to stabilize it. Total cost around $500 for a 25 foot dock.

 

[Campylobacter]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

My father has lived on a river/reservoir with extreme variations in depth for 30 years. Like another retired guy, he has found three sections to be ideal, attached to a non-floating section on the shore that is a couple of feet above the maximum expected pool.

To connect the sections, he has found large eye bolts into the corners of the sections with a steel (plumbing) pipe that goes through the eyes. You can get pipe with threaded ends and use caps to secure them.

He uses barrels for flotation, but they can get pretty tippy. 30 years ago most were steel, and most of his originals have been replaced over the years. Most are plastic now. A skinny dock will get VERY tippy with the barrels, so the last section he has is a square, roughly 12 x 12. If you can drive in the metal poles like ARG, this should help with it not be tippy but this is not an option on my dad's place.

He made the whole thing very cheap, I'm sure less than $500. He salvaged most of the barrels (and some of the lumber) out of the river. He watches all day and if anything good floats down, he's ready to go get it .

 

[pckeen]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

Hi,

I've built a couple of docks now - both about 16 feet long and 4 feet wide out of treated lumber - though you could use cedar or untreated as well: here's how I did it.

Materials:
3 16' long 2x6 (I used 2x6 because I wanted to save weight - you could use 2x8 or 2x10)
1 8' long 2x6
about 15 8' long 1x6 (you could use 2x6, but I have found that 1x6 are strong enough, and I needed to save weight).
a bag of 2 1/2" deck screws (suitable for treated lumber) - if memory serves, I used about 3 or 4 lbs.
2 1x6 x 16' (or 2x6 x 16')

Instructions

Cut the 8' 2x6 and all the 8' 1x6s in half - so you have a whole bunch of 4' pieces.

Lay the three 16' 2x6 parallel to each other - so they are exactly 2' apart - 4' from side to side, forming a foundation 2' on center.

Screw the 2x6 x 4' into each end. This will make a 16' 3" x 4' foundation.

Then screw the 1x6 4' pieces onto the top as a deck, with a small gap between each board. I used 2 or 3 screws per end of each 2x6.

Then put floatation underneath. You can buy blue billets - they are 8' long wide and thick pieces of floation foam. This would be the most expensive part, as locally, they cost $90 a piece - you would need four of them. You may need an 8" or 10" foundation to accomodate them.

Then underneath the blue billets, screw 1x6s into the boards - this will allow you to pull the dock into and out of the water.

In terms of what you put on shore to hold this in place - this will depend on what your shoreline is like...You will need a structure of some sort, and hinges, to link up to your floating dock.

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

My friend's father got ahold of lots of styrafoam typewriter cases. He built a bos for them, with decking on one side to become the floating dock. Drive some iron pipes into the riverbed to keep them from floating away....

 

[Chris1956]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

Sorry, fat finger...He built a rectangular box for the typewriter cases.

 

[JASinIL2006]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

I built several dock sections for our lake dock when we bought our bowrider. The frame was 2x8 construction with 5/4 decking, pretty standard. I used 2" thick polystyrene foam boards (the pink insulation boards), wrapped together with heavy plastic sheeting (mostly to make them easier to handle and decrease squeaking) and then held in place in the framing with batten boards. The dock is anchored on the lakeside end with four 5-gallon buckets filled with concrete, two per side. The anchors, two per side, each have large attachment hardware (bent pieces of rebar or really large eyebolts) cast into the concrete. They are sunk a the end of the dock, about 6' out from either side. We attach heavy chains that cross under the dock and attach to eyebolts on the dock. (From what I've read, this is pretty standard for a floating 'finger' dock.)

The floating section attaches to the stationary dock with big dock hinges (with removable pins). Our lake generally doesn't change level dramatically, so both floating sections are filled with foam. I have seen designs for docks where there is a suspended section hinged between the stationary dock and the floating part; it's essentially a gangplank, that allows the floating section to rise or fall and yet stay connected to the shore-based part of the dock. If the 'gangplank' section were long enough, you could probably manage a 2' rise or 2' fall in the level of the floating part of the dock using this sort of a system. If you need to accommodate a 4' rise AND a 4' fall, though, the gangway would probably be at too steep of an angle. Does that make sense?

This year, our lake was about 14"-16" deeper than the year I build the dock, and the angle of the section that attaches to the stationary dock was manageable. If we regularly had had that much of a change in water depth, I would probably install a gangway that bridges the stationary and floating sections. It was just steep enough that you had to pay attention to what you were doing. I would also make my dock wider. My sections are 12' x 5' and they can be a bit tippier than I like. Again, it's not terrible, but I think 6' wide sections would have been more stable.

My dock (the floating part) is removable, too. Each section is paddled over to shore where we pull it up on skids to get it away from winter ice heave.

Good luck. Hope this helps.

Jim

 

[Taxus812]

Re: Docks Building maintaining

They drained the river down about 4.5' today. hear is my neighbors dock it is normal about 2' deep there. Can you tell where I was pulling my boat in . I will be building my doc about 100' downstream (just past the fallen trees). I have to cut up a LOT of debris as well. (as you can see they block the channel.

 

[Home Cookin']

Re: Docks Building maintaining

The water at my dock rises and falls almost 4' a day, twice a day, regular as a tide chart.

I'm partial to fixed docks myself. While either type can be victim of a major storm, I find the fixed docks if built right fare much better, are easy to maintain and repair and modify, and handle adverse weather, currents, tides and daily wave action much much better.

But I don't have the ice factor that many have to deal with.

Moornig a boat to a fixed dock and pilings requires skill and knowledge, but it's been done for centuries longer than mooring to a floatnig dock. So like a lot of boating things, like bunk trailers, what seems easier to the inexperienced is not always best.