Nothing more level and easy to slide a pier out on than ice! Bolt the sections together, mark holes for posts, slide pier sideways a few inches, cut holes with an ice auger on one side, then slide pier the othe way and cut the holes on the other side, drive in posts through pipe clamps, jack up to the height you want with wooden blocks and a crowbar, and tighten the bolts! Actually it's not a piece of cake if you do it yourself but it's do-able. Oh my aching back!

In my county a building inspector must come out to make sure everything is right. In this case she's easy to bribe with treats and a good rub behind the ears.

Note:

In this picture I had not jacked up the pier yet. One could forego this step if you raise your water level before ice up. Composite material on the sides was temporarily removed to access the connecting bolts.

Oh and the pier is 108 feet long now and consists of a treated lumber pier and this aluminum one with a composite material top. Both were given to me for free so I can't complain, although they do look a little funky bolted together considering they are made of different materials. Only 30 feet short of the opposite shore, and I plan on adding that 30 feet after a trip to Menards. Need some 2 X 6 ten footers and some 1 by 6 plank boards and I will be ready to go!

In case one didn't catch the thread regarding blocking nets, I will be hanging a blocking net off the side of this pier to divide the pond into two sections. The pier will facilitate cleaning of the net periodically of alage with a push broom on an extendable handle, and of course be fun to fish off when harvest time comes! One side will have male only bluegill and female only perch, and the other side will be for feed trained smallmouth bass.

Another pic facing the other side of the pond:



Board where the two sections connect is not a connector. It's left over from reinforcement for a swimming ladder. It will come off. All I need is for someone to trip over it.

Cecil:
What do you use to drive in the posts? Just a sledge, fence post ram, or what? Thanks.
P.S. Beautiful house with great view, I bet.

Schroeder,

Thanks for the kind words although the view consists of a highway and farm field, but I'm not complaining.

I drove the posts in at first with a post driver (see pic below) and then when the post driver came down far enough to make contact with the pier, and was no longer of any use (as in this picture), I continued to drive in the posts with a sludge hammer as far as they would go.

CB1 - And how long do the poles have to be to get to the pond bottom? Won't the dock be sort of wiggly when the heavy top is suspended so high off the bottom on tubular stilts? Or will there be some added stability since both ends are attached to the bank?

Bill,

Always the engineer and realist!

Well from my experience with the pier that was already put in the same way, yes it is a little wiggly but easy to get used to, and I've had up to five people standing on that one with no problems.

Posts were 12 footers and the bottom most of the way accross was 9 feet below the water level. So with one foot sticking up there is about 2 feet driven into he bottom. Believe it or not the pond is really hard clay just under the bottom surface, and not that easy to drive into. (I wonder how much the weight of the water has to do with that?) I had to catch a breath after pounding in each post. Probably 30 or 40 hits per post. There is also a lot of weight pushing down. Each pier section is at least 200 lbs. -- I'm guessing. For aluminum I'm really surprised how heavy they are. The friend that gave them to me said they are a little over engineered. LOL That may be why he gave them to me as he had to take them out and put them in every year on the 371 acre lake he is on.

I'm going to drive two short posts into the bank where it connects to opposite side which should also stabilize it. I can also add more posts any time just by adding more clamps if I want to.

Cecil - Your construction technique would not work here. The ice pack would bend the posts into pretzels and the deck would either be on the bottom of the pond, up on the bank or some combination of both after the spring thaw. The pier could survive if a circulator or aeration system kept the water open around the pier during the winter. Even then if the ice pack were moved by a big wind it could still take out the pier.

Dwight,

I've had up to 18 inches of ice here with no problems with the pier that is already in. With a .62 acre pond the ice doesn't do any damage. It typically melts in place and doesn't even start blowing around until it gets down to about an inch or less.
And there is not enough fetch for it to blow around or stack up againt the pier. I'm sure if my pond was much bigger it would be a concern.

Good point though. Not sure what the cutoff would be up north for maximum size of pond before one would have to worry about ice damage. Maybe 1 acre? Anybody else want to chime in? Don't be shy I sure don't know it all. I just know I haven't had any problems yet.

One thing to consider; I wouldn't be surprised if 90 percent or more of the people on this site have ponds 1 acre of less. It would be interesting to do a poll.

I think an acre or less may be a good cut off point. I didn't realize that most ponds owned by Forum members would be under an acre.

With my 0.9 acre pond, the ice will move some, but the only thing it's ever moved with it are Xmas trees sitting on top waiting to melt in. My dock, several floats attached by 1/4" poly or nylon rope, and some t-posts have all made it through about 5 Winters without moving or damage.

Your are treading on the ninth tenth of the 1 acre guideline. Careful out there!

I have trees that went with the ice to the oddest of places one spring and you know what? The fish love them there whether I like them there or not!

I had 5 to 6 inches of ice on my 2 1/2 acre pond. Then a fast warmup to 50 degrees with some rain. This left an inch of water on top of the ice. A quick drop in temperature down to single digits the next day refroze the water on top. Man was the ice making a racket last night. It sounded like (I imagine) icebergs colliding. I have a floating dock or I suspect I may have seen some damage.

Well most of us are serfs with limited moohlah.

All kidding aside I perfer a smaller pond for intense management. The things I could do with two or three more 1/3 acre ponds! Heck even Grand Poobah Lusk has several small ponds!

I think a 5 acre pond is too large to intensely manage unless you have a ton of time to spend working at it. I have gravitated toward a more natural pond environment.

The diverse goals that pond owners embrace are a part of what makes this one of the greatest hobbies on the planet!

Dwight you just have to be more creative. We use the Boy Scouts to help while earning merit badges. You are right it is very hard for 1 person to manage very many acres - you have to have help even if you are not engaged in intensive management.

Dang! Wasn't supposed to post w/o the story.

Hey Cecil. We did something very similar in '95 when the pond was down from adding a 1.25 acre addition on one end. We used salvage 1 1/2 inch water pipe with a 18 inch disc blade welded on the bottom so we didn't drive the posts into the bottom. Cross braces were then welded side to side and front to back and 2 long runners were welded from shore to the cantilevered end. Total length is 57 feet and I think they are 4 feet wide.

There 2 identical docks, one at each end, on the 5.25 acre main part of the pond. After 13 years it has not moved 1/4 inch from any ice movement but the deck boards are getting weathered. May replace them this year with composit or then again maybe not.

The following Spring ('96) the water level was back up to the shore end of the docks.

ewest - I already use slave labor in the form of friends and relatives. Using the Boy Scouts is a great suggestion!

I considered slowly converting over to the composite material available at Menards. When I found out they had it I was elated but it didn't last. Over $20.00 per 10 foot strip! Man I don't know. I suppose the indefinite lifespan over time would make up for the initial cost but that's stuff's not cheap! Each 8 foot length of my pier takes 9 of them if I remember right. That's expensive although I'm sure if I got th longer strips the price would come down per unit somewhat.