Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Float recommendation

Can anyone recommend a good float to buy for building a floating dock? There seems to be several available.

I used free blue poly 55 gallon drums.. Keyword free lol

Where do you get them?

I used the blue 55 gallon drums for my floating dock -- but, if I lived in Michigan or Wisconsin, I'd have gone straight to Menards. The Menards I've been in, in your areas, have excellent selections of items for floating docks.

Menards Floating Dock Stuff

The blue 55 gallon drums are getting harder and harder to find for a whole variety of reasons. You can buy them new, but they are expensive. This past April I paid $15 each for the 12 under my new dock, but it took a lot of searching to find them.

Wow, those are some really nice docks!!!

Thanks for the Menards link, I'll check it out but the nearest one is 50 miles away.

Do a web search for dock flotation, here's one, http://www.dockbuilders.com/dock-flotation.htm.

Even Amazon has some. Here's one from Home Depot: http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stor...ocStoreNum=1950

Most have a 10 or 15 year warranty.

Not knocking the regular floats, but at $100 a pop and if you need 10 of them, thats $1000, when you can get plastic barrels for little to nothing. Just us silicone to put on the plug threads and seal it up, then paint it white or silver to help reflect the UV light from the plastic. Spend the money saved on something else.

I used the Menards floats and my 12'x12'dock has not had any problems yet (left in the water for over 5 years). I did cover the bottom of the dock with them, so it is over-built. I also built wooden rails to protect the floats down to water level. I have no experience with anything else. I would have given barrels a shot if I knew where to get them cheap.

Thank you, this helps.