Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Creating habitat Floating Pier design question

I did a little bit of measuring today in preperation of drawing out the floating pier. The fixed portion of the pier will be 12' long, then the angled, hinged portion, then the actual floating part.

My question is this:

If the floating portion could possibly drop 60" with the pond water level fluctuating, how long should the angled, hinged portion be so that if the water is low the angle to walk up or down won't be too steep?

I'd say at least 15' (3:1), unless you wana build a stair case on it.

Thanks. I don't think a staircase would work, because at full pool the angled section would then be horizontal. My gut feeling was 16', but I wanted to get some opinions. I wonder if the 3:1 would be too steep if the wood decking was wet? I'm planning on running the deck boards perpendicular to the pier length.

You might consider some some 1/2" thick treated plywood strips about 12" apart for traction on one side of the 16' section. Roofer's use 1"x2" strips on steep slopes just as temporary traction or safety stops. Not exactly a step but something to step on for traction at least. I assume most of the season the pond is not down 5'.

I've been working on some ideas for a floating dock. Since I've never actually built one, these are just my ideas.

First, you need a good, solid footing at,or above, the shoreline. I'm going to dig it with my backhoe and plan to use about two yards of concrete. To me, this is the critical component of the dock. It must hold the dock in place, and provid a solid start point for the ramp.

I'm going to use PT 2x12x16 for my ramp. I'll space them at 12 inches and make the ramp four feet wide. I thought about going longer, but don't really see much of an adnatage to this. I'll bock the 2x12's every four feet to make sure they don't turn on me. I will build it with screws and bolts. No nails. NEVER.

The hinge for the ramp will be at the bottom of the ramp on the shoreline side. This means that the concrete must 16 inches above the water at full pool.

The hinge at the dock side will be at the top of the dock. My platform will be 12 by 16. I thought about smaller and bigger, but this works the best for me. It's big enough for a group to hang out on, have some chairs and tables, and it will be stable. The deck will e made of PT 2x8's on every 16 inches, with a PT 2x12 skirt.

I forget what sized floats I'm going to buy, but there will be five of them at one size. They will go at every corner and the middle of the side without the ramp. Where the ramp ties into the dock, I'm putting in a much larger float. Again, I forget what the numbers are on them.

At each corner of the float, close to the shore, I'm sinking two galvanized metal pipes. I'm using two with the thought that they will hold it in postion and not bind up. I'm concernded that more will cause problems.

My water level drops about two feet. At the worse, I expect the ramp to slope down to the platform, but not be so bad that it's unsafe.

With regards to your question about the ramp when the water level drops 5 feet, the longer you make the ramp, the less of an angle you will have to deal with. I've been to allot of ramps on the SF Bay where they tide changed that much. The ramps were easily 20 feet long or more, and the boards had no slip tape on them. It was steep, but not something that you would thing was dangerous.

You can get PT 2x12 that are 24 feet long. At least, that's the longest I've seen. With a close spacing of 12 inches, they will be plenty strong enough to support several people walking across it.

Hope that helps.
Eddie

Thanks guys. Yeah, longer is better, and I'll give a couple of the local lumber yards a call to see what the longest 2x12's they carry are. I'm going to make the portion that is permanently afixed to the shore 4' wide x 12' long, it will be anchored in the ground. The ramp will be attached to the part of the pier that is anchored to the ground via hinges on the bottom, and lay on top of the floating pier, sliding along the top of the pier on rollers. The floating pier itself will be anchored in place with 2" galvanized pipes washed into the pond bottom, and it will ride up and down on circular metal brackets that are attached to the outside of the pier. The floating pier will be in the neighborhood of 48" or wide, 20-24' total length with a 12' wide x either 4' or 6' deep "T" section on the furthest end.

I still haven't decided on using 30 gal. or 55 gal. barrels.

I can build it on top of the ice, and sink the pipes into the pond bottom standing on the ice. It should be easy measuring on the ice where they go, and since the ice is level, it should be pretty easy to build in place. Hopefully the cold weather will last for a while. I've got to dig up the weight of treated 2x12's, 2x10's and 2x8's & 2x6's to help calculate the weight of the pier so I can get the correct # and size of barrels.

I'm planning on leaving the pier in the pond during the winter. There was a 12' x 12' floating raft (made with barrels) floating in the pond for at least 5 years, and those barrels made it thru the winter just fine.

I'd use all Stainless steel screws. Available at your local big box store.

It'll be either stainless or ACQ rated deck screws that are coated. I'll also put a mylar barrier tape on the side of the brackets that are facing the ACQ wood for an electrolysis barrier.

+1

Here in San Diego during extreme tide activities the water level can move 9 vertical feet in one day (On January 30th the tide will swing from a plus 7.3 feet to a minus 1.8 feet). Because it will change this much in a day the ramps are on rollers to allow them to move with the tide.

Most ramps here are either coated with a non-slip paint or every 18 inches or so a thin piece of wood (probably about 1/4 of an inch thick) crosses the ramp. Either method works well.

Are you planning on having the floating portion sliding up and down these sections of pipe that you are putting on the inland side of the floating section? If so, remember that the floating section will also be moving in and out from shore as it rises and lowers. If the pipes are solid then your dock will have to have slots for them to ride in unless the pipes are angled away from shore at exactly the right angle....

There will be a fixed 12' long section of pier solidly attached to 4'x6' timbers in the ground, then a 16' long gangplank that will be hinged to that fixed 12' section. The other end of the gangpland will be on rollers, resting on top of the floating section of pier. The floating section of pier will ride up an down on vertical pieces of pipe that are sunk into the pond bottom. I'll have larger pieces of pipe welded to plates, which will be bolted solidly to the floating section of pier. As the floating section raises up, the gangplanks' angle will diminish, and the end will roll towards the center of the pond.

The end of the pier that has the gangplank resting on it will have an additional 400# of flotation under it.

I measured the water level today, it's 37" below the first stand pipe, and 40" below the secondary, larger, standpipe. The floating section will be close enough to the fixed section that the bottom of the floats will rest on the bottom of the pond before the angle of the gangplank gets too steep, and before it rolls off of the end of the floating pier.

I'm making the fixed portion of the pier high enough so the gangplank won't get into a binding situation if the pond rises a couple of inches over the emergency standpipe.