Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help building a floating dock

I'm also looking to build a floating Dock this spring. I've had good luck picking up 55 gal plastic drums from the local car wash. They get the soap in the drums and leave them for garbage pickup. I' planning to fill them with 2 part liguid marine foam in case of water leakage.

Jimmy, I also have a dock using plastic drums. Could you give some more detail about the marine foam you mentioned? Brand? Mixing?

Great idea. I'm just using hollow drums and I've got one with a leaking seal. I'm sure the foam would help.

Thanks.
Dave

Another way for an easy floating dock is an old pontoon boat that needs some work.I did this for my dock and it works great.

Dave, It's called a closed cell foam, to minimalize the absorbion of water.The prices didn't seem out of line either.

2 part foam[/URL]

OK that link didn't work to well, try copy and paste
http://www.shopmaninc.com/foam.html

Thanks, Jimmy. I'm not a real techie with regard to this kind of thing, so it's not clear how much foam it will take per drum (2ft diameter, 4 ft tall). Do you have an estimate?
Thanks for the help,
Dave

I found this link to the DOW site containing plans for dock construction using their styrofoam billets. FYI.

http://www.dow.com/webapps/lit/litorder.asp?objid=09002f1380039032&filepath=/noreg

Dave Thanks for the link, but I couldn't open the file. Does anyone know what program opens an asp file? I figure that a barrel needs about 12 cubic feet of foam. Also Dave, how big is your dock and how many barrels did you use? How stable is it with people on it? Trying to figure how many square feet of dock to the barrel.

JImmy, I'm using a software product called "Conversions Plus" that opens everything but AOL files. I got to the web site.It is a 16 page set of instructions on how to build the dock. The billets are being sold by Dow Chemical. They evidently put up the web site to help sell the Styrofoam. The product is called Styrofoam BB. For information they listed the following numbers: U.S. 1-800-441-4369; Canada 1-800-363-3500.

I printed out the 16 pages from DOW and really appreciate the tip on website location!

Nice looking dock, but I believe I will go with on a 3 feet wide dock vs. 6 feet, so I'm hoping I can get by with only one billet per 10 foot section. Anyone know if that will work? As it would be half the width reducing the weight load, I'm assuming it should. I have another dock that is permanent, and 3 feet wide is plenty.

I also believe the deck brace in the center would not be necessary with only a three feet wide dock, and don't believe the skirting on the bottom and the corner posts are necessary. The decking should hold the frame together just fine. Of course, I would still adhere the billets with the bottom skids and use three cross ties per 10 foot section. IMHO there is just too much lumber used on the plans on website, and using less lumber will reduce both weight and cost.

Jimmy:

Active Server Pages
(asp)

A Microsoft specification for dynamic web pages created using Visual Basic or Jscript (engines for Perl and REXX are also available). Pages written to this specification carry the extension .ASP and are similar to CGI scripts which generate code on the fly. ASP pages can combine HTML, scripts, and ActiveX server components.

I bet that doesn't help you at all.

In this case you are likely missing the Adobe Acrobat reader plug-in. You will need to get yourself Acrobat reader.
Adobe Acrobat reader

Thanks Pottsy, Acrobat 5.0 did the trick. Once opened the Dow article did give me the information needed (a 45 gal drum has 440 lbs of bouyancy), now I can do calculations of how many drums I need depending on how big I make the dock. Right now I'm thinking of a 4' X 24' walkway out to a 16' X 16' floating dock. We'll see what the funds will allow come springtime!

Jimmy,
Regarding the size, number of drums, etc.. I have 2 sections, each 7 ft x 16 ft. At each end of a section, I used 3 drums, side by side. In the middle, I just put one on each side, lengthwise along the side. Each drum is 2 ft diameter x 4 ft tall. It's very stable, but will rock if a couple of people stand near the same corner, for example. I've had 4 adults and a couple of kids on the combined 2-piece, 32 ft long section. One thing that helps the stability is that it's linked together with galvanized pin hinges that I can remove if necessary. I just leave it connected and it's pretty stable for me. I haven't connected it permanently to the bank yet, so that would also make it more stable. I plan to do that in a way that allows me to pivot it left 0r right.
Hope that helps.
Dave

Good info Dave! That does help alot! You have me thinking that instead of a 16x16 swim platform, I should build two 8x16s. this would allow me to change things up (16x16 or 8x32) two smaller ones would also be much easier to handle.

Good idea Jimmy,
I hadn't thought about a 16x16. Another good configuration would be 2- 16x16's in a "T" or "L" shape. That would be VERY stable I'd bet.

This maybe a dumb notion, but I wonder if that canned "Great Stuff" insulating foam would work as flotation inside the drums. It may be more expensive than the other foam mentioned, but once it was in there, it wouldn't come out!

Start nailin'!
Dave

Dave, that's how my looking into the marine foam started.Thought about great stuff, then figured if I could by it in bulk I could get it cheaper.The Marine foam is pretty close only better than great stuff. US Composits had the 80 lb pak for $175, check out how much other places want for the same stuff (2lb density 10 gal unit) Eager Plastics wants $320, Mertons Fiberglass wants $267. I'm thinking I could fill 4 barrels per pak it comes to a little over $40 a barrel.

Just an update, I found a cheap way out for floatation of a dock. I located a food distribution place called Krynos, they have hundreds of plastic drums (happy to give them to you) They were used to transport olive from Greece, so there are no chemicals.These drums have a big screw on top instead of 2 small ones. Then instead of filling them with foam, I started stuffing them with 2 litre plastic bottles. Turns out you can fit 52 2litre and another 20 smaller water bottles inside a 45 gal drum. With all of these smaller closed air pockets there's no way a drum could sink.

Dave, if you read this could you send me the pictures you mentioned early in this thread. I'm drawing up plans and they could be a big help. THANX Jimmy

I called the number on the Dow brochure and found out that the closest distributor in Houston is Weyerhouser. I called them to get the price, but they said I would have to buy through one of their distributors, like Home Depot or Lowe's. Also, since they don't normally stock this item, I would have to buy the whole pallet of 18 pieces.
The nearest place that stocks this is in Louisiana. Does anyone know the price on these buoyancy billets? The barrels are looking better again.

http://www.hendersonmarine.com/HMS_Section%200102.htm

Many options for dock flotation, no prices yet.

OK, gentlemen,

here is a nice site with the same flotation options as the link above, but with prices. It looks like the flotation for the 12*8 dock in the Dow booklet can be had for less than $300 plus shipping from Florida.

http://www.dockbuilders.com/index.html

I built mine with the same floatation foam... 16x8 foot dock with four sections of the foam at $70 CAD per. Floats 2 inches below the bottom skirt with no load so the only bit in the water is the foam and the bottom runner. Each section of foam supports about 650 lbs... very stable as well.

In most public Lakes these days, during new construction, you are required to encase styrofoam with something such as polyethylene tubs. This stops the foam beads from coming slowly apart and dispersing into the environment. It's a good regulation and makes sense financially too if you look at the increase in lifetime of the structure and decreased repairs needed. Here is something of interest to all you guys. If you are looking for a good looking top deck material that is sturdy and will to my knowledge NEVER need maintenance or require expensive coatings etc. during install, then try to locate a wood from Brasil called "IPE" (pronounced E-pay). This wood is unreal in it's strength and can be used untreated on even a SALTWATER deck . It is of course a bit pricey but if you are building or repairing your dream dock then check it out. A few things to remember, The wood is so dense - if you accidentally kick it over the dock while building, that piece of lumber sinks right to the bottom. Also...it is in some ways more like working with metal than wood in the way it will dull drill bits and saw blades etc. Always predrill pilot hole with the best bits you can afford before bolting...forget about trying to screwgun in deck screws. If you spring for this material you should go ahead and use only stainless steel hardware for the decking at least. We should be growing this wood here in the U.S. It probably requires warm climate, but there are areas where we could surely do that. Added bonus ...I have seen the Ipe trees while in Brasil. They have beautiful pink ,purple,and yellow flowers that grow up in the tops of the trees. Really pretty.
Now then, for info about where to aquire durn near anything needed to build or repair a boat dock or marina call or e-mail the following co.
Atlantic-Meeco corp.
McAlester, Oklahoma.
1-800-marina1.
http://atlantic-meeco.com/
These folks are the worlds largest manufacturer of marinas - docks - etc.
No...I don't work for them.
Be cool -Dave

How do you attach the barrels to the dock? I am concerned about having the unit stay together when we pull it out in the winter. I would also like to rig wheels to support it in the winter on the ramp. Any suggestions?

Num1Pirate, I built collars for each of the barrels(kinda like what the pilgrims were locked up in the center of town in)and built the collars into the framework. I attached the barrels to the collars with .030 mil x 1/2 inch stainless banding, and when I pulled it out over this winter,I laid down 2 inch PVC piping for the barrels to slide up onto shore. I used the PVC to put the dock back in just last week, and it only took two men to slide a 16'x 8' very heavy section of dock back into the pond.

Jimmy,

How did you secure your dock. My pond is full and I want to put in a dock. Not sure if it will be floating or secured.