Pond Boss Forums INTRO Questions & Observations What is the most economical way to build a dock???

Hey everyone,

Well I have finally given up on the property that I have been working on for the past twelve years. We built a 7 acre pond about 4 or 5 years ago and it still leaks terrible. I have purchased another farm that has 5 small ponds on it. Two of the ponds are decent size......maybe an acre and a half to two acres. My wife prefers to fish off of a dock and was asking me if I could build one for her. So I have a couple of questions:

1. If I build one should I look at just building one with posts into the water or should I try to make some sort of a floating dock? I would also like to mount or put my stren feeders on them as well.

2. I don't want to spend a great deal of money on one but if I build it I would like for it to look decent and hold up for a while. Can you fellas post some pics of your docks to give me some ideas and if you don't mind maybe a little idea of what it cost to put in?

Attached are a couple pics of the new ponds....the other 3 ponds are rather small and I probably won't mess with them much:

Hey Lee...excellent recovery. Ya found the silver lining!
did ya see this thread? pier thread

Lee, I built my first starter dock a floater using treated lumber and plastic 55 gallon barrels you can get them at Coca-Cola plants or feed stores etc... Some places give them away for you to haul off. Other places sale them for about 6 to 10$ each. My first 10 x 10 dock built about 10 years ago was recently replaced with a l6 x 16 pier. Beam structure used was rail road ties. Deck and joist was treated lumber. Original floater cost me 500$ material. I got the barrels for free. The recent pier cost about 1300$ material including stain not shown here. Refer to this link http://www.rockytoppers.com/the_pond.htm towards the middle of the page you can see both. The floater is beached because of our recent draught here in Texas. I took the opportunity to build the pier while it was dry. Plan to stain the floater and move it up to my other pond above. Barrels are cheap but the dock tends to move when you walk on it. Foam blocks are much better for floaters but can be pricey. Good luck. It will be hard for you to build a stationary dock while your pond is full of water. You would most likely have to have a pile driver come out to set the vertical post or drain your pond. This can be achieved by yourself if you have a boat stable enough to hold you while you use a large hand held post driver to drive 2 7/8 pipe deep enough in the bottom to hold up the structure. It will be very hard to square up. Good luck.

Thanks guys. I am going to do some more looking through google and other places to get some info on how to build it. If I decide to go with styrofoam where would be the best place to purchase it? I am thinking that I would like something say 12'x6' or something of that nature. I have alot to catch up on because I am wanting to try to fertilize a couple of the ponds and get my feeders fixed/running again. In all likelihood the dock will have to wait until after deer season this year. I have a great deal of work that I am wanting to do this summer.

Yeah I put out 12k lbs of bentonite in a john boat in one day. It slowed the leak but it didn't seal. It's a long story but I have basically moved on and got myself a small property for myself. I'm in the middle of having my equipment moved to the new property and then I will be able to get to work.

Lee,
ya gotta drill a little, but within that thread link-link is some foam billet input by fozzybear...maybe we can stir him up for more help...?
detail of pier thread

Lee,

Check your email, I just sent you the plans from Dow for the Floating Dock or Raft.

Have you considered getting an old pontoon type boat with aluminum, not steel, pontoons? They make a great floating dock and can be used for a temporary work platform when liming or other pond maintenance.

Thanks guys. The Pontoon boat may be an option.....I'll have to check into that one.

Fozzy....I can't thank you enough for that file. If it comes down to building one(which it more than likely will) that sure tells me almost everything I need to know. Thanks again.

Robinson......my luck is pretty bad most of the time and terrible at others. I'm moving equipment off of the place tomorrow/saturday and it'll probably stop leaking on Sunday

Lee,

Glad I could help.

Fozzy:
Any chance you could publish a link to the Dow Floating Dock plans so we all could access it?

Schroeder,

I just found this link.

billet dock plans

Here is another good link:

http://dockhardware.com/dib.htm

Just went through that process last summer. Actually I tripled the size of the dock I had built some 9 years ago. This worked well for me but I don't know how deep your water is. I waited till the drought had done its damage and only had to work in 4 to 5 feet. We used 4"treated posts that we cut on the ends(that went in the lake) to a point, with a chain saw. We then got in the water with a ladder and a 10lb.sledge and pounded them as far as they would go and then tied them together with cross members. We used 1 x 6 treated for the deck, but if I were doing it again I would use 2 x 6. If you are not getting much wave action, which you probably are not the weight of the deck and crossmembers are enough to hold it in place really well. We have a 4.5" walkway and the dock now is 10 x 30......It was relatively inexpensive, I thought. Spent about $900 on the lumber and about another $500 for my help.....If you have any other questions please don't hesitate to let me know.......good luck