Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Newbie fixed dock build

Hi everyone. Nice little community you have here, hope I can join!

First, I can’t believe I finally found a board about ponds/lakes. I’ve spent the past few days hitting Google hard, and the amount of information on dock building is pitiful.

I live on a small (168 acres) shallow lake in northern New Jersey.

I want to replace my tiny dock with something substantial, thinking around 600 sq. ft.

The dock would be used for my small boat, and also for hanging out and fishing from. I’m thinking an “F” configuration, with a deck area on top of the F, if that makes sense

My lake has a dam, so water level is +/- 10” during the summer. I do get affected by hurricane rain, but not that bad, maybe another 5”. The lake is lowered during winter and the level drops maybe 2-3’.

I don’t think a floater is for me, because when the lake drains I have a about 10 feet of dry shoreline, and then very shallow water for maybe another 15 feet.

I want to keep the dock in the water year-round. I’m not sure how concerned to be with ice. The lake freezes for 3-4 months, but doesn’t get the big ice flows like on much larger lakes. And my neighbors have fixed docks. So I’m hoping I’ll be fine.

So, I’m thinking about a fixed dock.

My lake bottom is sandy/silty with probably clay not too far below (I’ll be sampling this weekend).

So I see three options:

1) Buy something like they sell on Tommy Docks and use footpads.

Pro: cheap and easy. I can jack it up/down if needed.

Con: cheap and easy usually isn’t. How much will this shift, wobble, and be affected by ice?

2) Buy Tommy Docks but jet/pound the pipe as deep as I can get it.

Pro: more secure than just a footpad?

Con: not sure if this will work.

3) Proper concrete footings in PVC pipe with 6x6 post

Pro: Should be solid. Cleaner look. Can get creative with layout.

Con: Digging posts will be a major PITA. Also can’t adjust height, so will always be worried about the next big storm.

I’m going to build this myself, and I hate building things twice. I want something that will last 20-30 years. So I’m hoping for some real-life experience of what worked, didn’t, and what you’d do differently next time.

Sorry for the long first post. I’m excited to have found you guys, and really enjoyed reading the older posts around dock building.

Cheers,
Pete

Welcome to the forum Pete!

We put a permanent dock in the lake in the early 1970's. It's still there, and it sounds like we may even have worse ice than you do.

We used 2" galvanized pipe. We jetted it in, using a piece of 1/2" or 3/4" hard copper pipe on the end of a garden hose. 2 hp motor/pump sucked lake water and shoved it thru the hose. We put the copper pipe inside the 2" galvanized pipe, and wrapped a rag around the top so the water was forced to go out the bottom of the 2" dia pipe. We stopped about 18"-24" short of the level and pounded it down into the sandy/silty/clayey bottom the rest of the way with a sledge hammer.

We used pipe clamps that clamped onto the pipe and had another hole horizontal to hold a piece of 1 1/2' pipe crossways. The uprights are inside the joists, and the cross pipes stick out 1 1/2" from the uprights. Wooden joists rest on the cross pieces, outside of the upright pipes. Since they are clamped on the uprights, they can be adjusted 6" or so vertically. None of the pipes are sticking out past the sides of the pier, nor are they sticking up past the walking surface of the pier.

The pier is "L" shaped, 60' long, 4' wide with an 8' or 10' wide x 8' deep bottom of the "L".

I hope I'm not jinxing myself but none of the pipes have had to be replaced so far. There are uprights about every 8'.

It's pretty stable, we have between 2x and 3x the water depth of the pipe into the lake bottom. At regular lake water level, the bottom of the joists are about 12"-16" off of the water.

petesv650, welcome to the forum.

I use Tommy Docks for feeder platforms, and have been very happy with the process. I haven't built a larger platform yet, but I do like the ability to add to any platform panels as is necessary.

I make a 2X4 jig to get the first section perfectly alined, then just work out from there. The footpads do work great, and I usually set them 12" up the pipe, and then drive the pipe down to the pad.

Temporary eye bolts on the panels and adjustable prusiks make it easy to transport, then level the panels before I drop them.

Welcome to our pond management forum. There is quite a bit of info on this forum about dock building and ideas. Here is an extensive list for lots of reading from our Common Q&A archives of old Pond Boss posts about docks for ponds and lakes:
http://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=367495#Post367495