Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Help building a floating dock

Does anyone know of a place where I can get/buy plans for building a floating dock addition?

Thanks

Bill,

I think there is a company advertised on this site under products or something.

I have a Menards near me that sells floating sections in season. I think they are expensive so I'm going to build one using billets of bluefoam used by many for floating docks.(I can order them here in Indiana that are 8 feet long)with a frame of lumber over it. All it takes is 2 by sixes for the frame and decking size 1 by 6's's on top. Put together by predrilling and deck screws. Alternate the spaceing of the frame to slide one section into the other before bolting.

I already have a 70 foot permanent pier I put in in my warmwater pond put in on the ice by cutting holes and driving galvanized posts from Menards into the bottom which are attached to the pier by sleeves which Menards also sells. We then propped up the pier as high as we wanted on the ice before tightening the sleeves.

But for my trout pond which is only 1/10th acre, I want something I can remove when it is time to harvest by hook and line in the fall so I am going with the blue foam.

See: http://www.ligtel.com/~jjbaird/bairdfish2.htm

I hope this helps.

I did see a book at a Menards or Lowes that was on just building piers of all types.

... On the note of blue foam or similar... does anybody have any calculations on how much weight a given amount of foam will float? If not perhaps I will get myself a chunk of it and play in the bathtub with some weights...

Pottsy,

I don't know but I will find out. I need to know too. I'll find out how much is used customarily to float a particular width etc pier.

I first found out about this foam from a taxidermy supplier in Idaho. I was told it worked great to carve fish bodies for taxidermy, and he said it was commonly used for floating piers in his area.

I may have my pieces shrink wrapped for extra protection or breakdown, even though the billets will be under the pier.

Remember I don't believe this is the regular construction foam. It's about 8 feet long and I believe it was about 2 feet thick or more (I don't have any right now as I now use a softer foam for carving fish bodies).

Thanks Cecil

2 feet thick eh? Hmmm... wonder how I will find that.. thickest I can find is 6" and that is construction insulation foam. It may well be a good idea to cover it with something, I have seen regular styrofoam after a few years in the sun/water and it doesn't look very healthy.

The few years that I have been using foam in a pond setting has been more work than it's worth. Muskrats seem to chew on it for fun, and build tunnels in it here in Wisconsin. Chasing the pieces around when you move the dock isn't fun. We tried some empty 55 gallon plastic drums or smaller 35 gallon ones. I would think that a few phone calls could find some cheap or free. They could be strapped in, and a frame could be built around them.
Robert B

Bob,

I thought of the barrels too. I may do some calling. You may have a point.

1morecast: The use of empty 45 gallons plastic drums are excellent for floating docks because of their appropriate length and width. In my application I created 4' width docks with 16' lengths and framed the 2 drums near each end's width. The drums were framed into the width of the 4' and approx 4' in from each end for each dock section, resulting in the docks being equally spaced and balanced throughout the floating dock sections. The docks were joined together with galvanized brackets and screwed into each side joist of the adjoining docks for stability. If you were for example making an 12' X 12' platform you could build 4 framed in areas near the four corners. Use 2 X 6" or 2 X 8" for the joists and framing structure. When the dock is floated the top of the drums will rest on the docks decking for a short height distance above the surface water level. If you require more height of the dock above the water you could frame each drum so it will sit higher in the water. I hope this helps with the many variable possible. Tip- seal each drum opening with water friendly caulking and be careful in the chemicals that were stored in each drum before your use.

Rowly

Rowly,

Just to check if I am reading correctly. You are using 2 - 45 gallon drums for each section of dock? One on each end mounted sideways? Are the sections stable even when not connected together? How far out of the water would you say the dock sits? Any idea how much weight it can carry?

Lots of questions. : )

Thank you.
Chris

Hi guys, looks like I can finally contribute to this board instead of just reaping the benefits of your collective wisdom!
I built a floating dock last year and it's working great. I used $5.00 drums from the local Pepsi and Coca-Cola bottling plant. They have lots of 'em, with tops, screw caps that are water tight and in excellent shape. Can't see why they don't re-use them. Probably costs too much to clean, etc?
Anyway, I built 2 docks that I can connect together. I couldn't find the exact plans tonight, but each is approx. 7' wide x 16' long. I used 2x10 inside stringers and 2x12 on the outside frame - all Press. Treated lumber and galvanized connectors on the ends from Overtons.com . The 7' odd width is based on the lowest cost lumber I could buy at the time without making it too narrow. That stuff's EXPENSIVE!! I used 8 barrels per section. 3 on each end and 2 in the middle, mounted length-wise. May be overkill, but I had no idea how much each would hold and I wanted a floating dock, not a sunken reef! Someone told me that each drum would support the weight of the water it displaced or 450-500 pounds. Heck, I ain't no Engineer, so I used that as a rule of thumb. One thing I did on the 2nd dock was to put waterproof glue around the screw cap threads. I didn't on the first dock's drums and I have one that leaks.
It floats about 1/2 drum out of the water.

I spaced the 2x10 lumber stringers about 2' apart, which fit the drums exactly, allowing me to wedge them in snug, but not too tight. I then used thin strips of galv. metal strapping to secure each drum to the frame. Used 2x6 decking on top.
It was a real hoot building this thing in my basement since I live about 30 miles from the pond and I have no electricity there yet. I built it and then disassembled it to cart it to the pond. Then reassembled it onsite with a friend. The first one took all day to put together onsite. The second one about 2 hours by myself. I have some good photo's if someone can tell me how to post 'em here or I can email them to anyone who's interested.

It works great, hold 4 adults and several kids without much tipping. The best thing is I can move it to any spot on the lake or just float free, by attaching a rope. I used it to move about 20 Christmas trees out about 30 feet from shore - worked great.
I'll be glad to provide more detail if desired.
Dave

Dave, I have thought about using fiberglass barrels but am concerned about sun damage. Do you or anyone else know about the life expectancy?

Good question Dave - I really hadn't considered it. Only about 5-6 inches of the drum are exposed. Also, I don't think these are fiberglass, but rather a very thick plastic or poly-something.

I've considered putting a few gallons of water in each drum to give it some stability and lower it in the water a bit. That would help reduce sun exposure too.

I'll email you a photo so you can see it.
Dave

Pottsy, to answer your questions, yes the drums were turn side ways on the 4' wide dock near each dock end, each section is quite stable as one section but much more when secured together as one larger unit. If you need more stability on one section of dock you could add more drums or increase your width and add more drums to that width. The dock floats approx. 18" above water level and with 4-6 adults getting in and out of various water crafts it may dispers some 4-6" more? These drums work well and the sky is the limit on any design wanted.

Rowly

Hey guys, this is good info. I might start looking around for barrels unless I find some of this foam Cecil has mentioned. As Dave said about this dock I could always add water to the drums if it floated too high.. better safe then sorry with the amount of drums.

Pottsy,
You may want to go ahead and get some extra drums. Around here, all of the little league parks snatch 'em up and cut off the tops for trash cans. The baseball season's not far away!
Here, they're only $5.00 each.
Good luck.
Dave

FYI, here are plans for a large floating dock:

http://www.canadianfishing.com/dock/index.htm

Pottsy, check with your local chemical suppliers they will have them or know who may. In London, the cost is between $10-$15 apiece for black 45 gallon drums.

Rowly

Jason, I tried to pull up the dock plans but the link didn't work.

Hey Dave, the link is working for me... did you try the old cut and paste method? (Copy the link and paste into the browser address bar)

The biggest revelation for me in that plan is the use of plywood... if treated I don't see why it wouldn't work... the time and money as well as effort it would save seems worth trying! (I spoke to my father about this and he mentioned 'Marine' grade plywood as the plywood of choice... not sure though if this is readily available or how much it costs)

Excellent find Jason.

Pottsy, The cut and paste worked. Thanks. That is one of the most informative, well done, web sites I've seen.

The plans are nice and it looks very simple to build. In July I'm going to build one similar with 45 gal. drums rather than foam billets. If someone builds one this spring, I will be very interested to hear how they like the plywood deck vs. 2x6 or 1x6 decking. Please keep me posted.
JN

You all need to be real careful using used chemical drums. Some pretty nasty chemicals are sold in them and it is almost impossible to remove all residue without a very professional cleaning setup. You don't want to try this youself unless you are absolutely certain what was in the drum. Some chemicals react very badly with water! I was in the business and witnessed enough "accidents" and mixups to cause me to want to caution you all to be more careful about this then you might be inclined to be.

Jim,

I found some free barrels labled "Rotenone." There is some residue left but not much. Do you think they could affect the fish if I use them for floatation? LOL

Sorry, couldn't resist poking fun.

Cecil:
Taken with a chuckle! On the serious side, many, if not most, chemical drums are disposed of because they can't be cleaned or the cost of disposing of the waste is too high. If it were me, I would only use drums with a known history. Out west here we get drums that were used once to transport Olives from Europe. I have several that I have been using for years and still can smell the Olives. If you were to wind up with a drum that had contained something like Bromine, and only a few ounces in a pond could be quite bad. The human nose can detect Bromine down to incredible low doses - smells like shoe polish and aside from the possible toxic effect, LMB should not taste like your loafers!