Do You Really Want To Build That Floating Dock All By Yourself?
Before you start hauling in lumber and equipment to build that floating dock on your pond, lake or beach front there are a few key things you need to consider, the most important being – how long do you want that floating dock to last? If you want it to last more than one season, then you'll need to take the following building requirements into consideration:
The size – The size of your boat dock will depend on what you plan to use it for and how far out from shore you need to build. As far as the length goes, you'll need to include the required depth of the water for your boat and the slope of the bottom of the lake or pond. The width of your dock will depend on what you plan to use it for – are you simply going to dock your boat or will you be loading and unloading equipment? Will you also need room for lounge chairs and maybe a table?
Calculating the floatation – In order for your platform to remain stable most floating boat docks require approximately 30 to 35 pounds of floatation. You'll need to calculate the square footage of your dock first, and then and then multiply that number by 35 determine how many floatation platforms you'll need.
Materials – You'll need pressure treated wood, at least 2 inches thick, and any hardware you use must be galvanized or made of Marine-grade stainless steel. All materials must be environmentally sound and able to hold up under the ultra-violet rays of the sun and all types of inclement weather.
Framing and construction – Remember to work on framing your dock as close to the water as possible. It's going to be extremely heavy when it comes time to position it and hopefully, you'll have plenty of friends around to help that weekend.
Don't forget about special hardware you might need for installing the floats, and then you're going to need decking to install over the whole thing, and that will require more galvanized hardware. And when it comes time to secure it to the shore you'll need special cabling, more pressure treated wood for the piles, pipe sleeves or pile guides and even more Marine-grade stainless steel.
As you can see, there are a lot of steps you'll need to take, and a lot of specialized equipment, hardware and materials you're going to need to purchase, if you want to build a floating dock that's going to last more than a month or two. If it looks like more than you can handle, you do have two other options:
Go ahead and listen to your buddy – build it out of beer kegs and a couple of sheets of ply-wood. It's just a boat dock after all. Who care what it looks like or how long it lasts? You empty beer kegs every weekend. You can just keep shoring it up.
Save yourself a lot of time and a lot of energy and let a professional build your floating dock. You don't want to spend your entire summer trying to figure out where to find Marine-grade stainless steel. And if you do try to build it yourself, it's going to cost even more in the long run for the professional to come out and either fix your mistakes or rip the whole thing out and start all over again.
So forget about trying to do it yourself and save money, forget about the beer kegs that are only going to sink anyway - and maybe take your boat down with them - and get the job done right so you can enjoy your boat – and your floating dock – for years to come, instead of just a few weeks.