Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Dock built with steel pipe 25 years ago needs help

Fellows I need some dock help/advice.
My brother has a nice dock on Lake Fork
in East Texas, but age is taking it's toll.
The dock was built 25 years ago using steel
piping for supports before the lake was full.
Now the Lake is low and we discovered some
serious problems with the support structure.
The water and elements have really taken a toll
rusting out the support beams. Does anyone have
any experience on the possible best ways to repair
something like this? See pics below:

Here is the dock years ago when Lake is full:


Here is the new aging problem with the metal pipe supports.

Well, this is not exactly going to be the best help, but I would start by raising the water level of the lake. Then you would not notice any problems.

Wow! We have a pier that was made from 2" galvanized pipe and put in service in 1974. We don't have anything corroding like that.

I'd see about driving more pipe into the lake bottom equally spaced from the existing posts, refurbishing the whole pier. I'm assuming the angle iron braces are welded to the pipe? Those should be replaced (or added to) the new pipes. If one is corroded away that badly, the rest can't be that far behind.

It's not going to be a small project.

Clayton...that would be nice...outta sight outta mind! (lol)

Yeah esshup he bought the property & dock around 1986
and it was only a few years old. I would think the dock
is around 26-28 years old. I knew it was getting older
but was surprised it was so bad. Thanks for the input.

Honestly myself. I would drive down same size pipe right up against the rotted ones (or all of them). Then connect the old pipe to the new pipe by drilling completely through both of them and bolting them. If you have spots that need new angle iron put the 2 new post on the inside of the exisisting pipes so you could run the angle from new post to new post.. Kinda hard to explain. I would think this would be the easiest and most efficient(cheap) way to fix this problem.. If you need to pm me i could try to explain better.

Wait till the water level is high enough to cover then damage then sell!!!! Seriously, this reminds me of one of my corrals that was built out of used oilfield pipe. It has rusted from the inside out and the oil field guys tell me it had acid in it when it was taken out of oilfield service and that is why it has rusted/rotted away so bad.

I would check with the dock repair services near you. I'm sure yours is not the only one in this shape and perhaps they could direct you to a repair they have done that you could look at. The time to fix it is certainly NOW while the water is low!!!

CowMan

Bluegillkillers suggestion is better then mine. Bolt or weld above high water level.

I would make a fully supporting pipe structure matching the supports that are rotting away. This way the dock would be fully supported where it is at, regaurdless of the old supports. They can just rot away or be removed as the dock becomes stable.

attach foam flotation to the bottoms of the flooring framework; set small charges at the remaining supporting poles and blow 'em all at once.
(don't forget to hinge the gang plank)
-
in lieu of the charges, wait for the water level to come back up and methodically disassemble/remove the supporting metal framework

Thanks for the help and suggestions guys. I found a
company that specializes in this exact type of dock.
They are coming to take a look this week.
I will report back.



Cajun Marine Construction Website

I bet it was to. We used to sell that stuff all the time out of wells when plugging. Set up the workover rig, pull out as much pipe as possible, and seal with concrete. Texas used to have an abandoned well plugging program that made it pretty profitable because they did not know the operators could pull pipe for extra money. Who knows how old that pipe was before it was ever used on the dock. We used some for pipe fencing on a 90 acre horse farm and the salts would leach out and flake the paint off every year. A lot of wells had salt water and sulfuric acid in the pipe from drilling around salt domes. Sorry, I don't have a solution, but figured you might wnat to know the reason.

Thanks Jeff. The guy looked at the pics and says 27 years
in the water and this sometimes happens. He builds and
repairs docks made of steel pipe. Acted like he could
stabilize it without it being too big a deal. If he can
make it just last another 27 years....we'll be happy.

The cheapest way to renovate a wooden dock/pier/deck is to merely flip the boards over and screw them back down. Yes, you may have to replace a few boards due to cracking and warping, but of the several decks/piers I have worked on and repaired, the boards look almost new on the underside. Two caveats: they have to have been screwed down in the first place, and the wood has to be pressure/weather treated.