So after MUCH review here, i bought lumber, and building supplies from dockbuilders.com I was hesitant to start without any plans, so I spent Many hours in the program SketchUp and was able to design my dock. I have taken a fair amount of info from the pictures that N8ly has posted. He also answered a lot of questions for me.

To start, here are the basic sketchUp pictures. I have the raw sketchUp files if ya'll want them.

Deck is 16 foot by 16 foot, and has 2x10x16 boards back to back as well as one below to make my side board 19 inches tall.










Here are a few construction pictures









Note how the 2x4 run at an angle to support the barrels in a on the flat edge of the board.

So here we are after some stain from dockbuilders. i used the dockbuilder woodRX. expensive stuff, but it seems to work well. took 5 gallons for the whole project, and i think i probably could put another 2.5 gallons on to finish it up.

Beautiful..

LAUNCH DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So this was VERY challenging. My wife called me Noah for about a month building this thing so far from the water.... but i needed flat ground and electricity, so the problem was unavoidable.

We used 10 friends, lots of red-neck engineering (actually had an engineer friend helping), a flat bed trailer, PVC to roll the deck on, and a front end loader to help push. Here are the pictures of the event!

Here is my swim across the pond to its final floating point

We need to get the walk-way down to the water. it was smaller, but still darn heavy!


note the T.H feeder on the right... oh yah





I had the whole thing connected to a winch on my old Toyota land-cruiser (another hobby)

Did you put sealer on the bungs on the barrels?

Final Picture. I still have to connect it with 2 large metal poles, but it is basically in place at this time!

This was a huge project, but I am super excited to have years of fun on this bad boy!

I will post pictures soon of my pole system that will allow for changing water depths.

Yes.

I opened each lid, put in liquid nails and then did layer on the outside of silicon.


Hope it works!

drp

Should work good.. My dock is basically the same.. Your gonna need quite a few post to keep it from swaying side to side.. Trust me I tried 2 and it was like walking on it drunk with a couple people moving and it swaying..

even with two post 5 foot down with 10 sacks of quickcrete per hole? was your walkway going out at least 1/3 the width of the dock? N8ly says that if it is at least 1/3 to 1/2 it will support it..

if not, i have room to put up more posts...


drp

Mine was only 12x16.. Here's a pic of it right before finishing.. I actually took the benches off the side and only kept them along the back they never got used and took up space..

I'd say if it's 1/2 it would I'm about a 1/3.. I'm actually planning on raising it and solid mounting it.. N8 is the pro I'm pretty sure I talked to him when I built this.. I just think anchorin it to just the 2 post it will still have a bit of sway.. The sway don't bother me but old peole hate it lol..

Bluegiller,

I saw your post on making those brackets. I almost attempted that, but i decided to buy the plastic ones instead. Your dock is sharp.




drp

Do you remove those in the winter????

nice work you have something to be proud of there.

but good lord that had to be heavy,makes me wonder how many burgers and beer where consumed after the job was finished

Dustin, I'm impressed. I would have torn the whole thing up trying to move it.

Dustin, where'd you source the brackets for the benches? That was a long project, but it looks great.

Incredible Dustin. Very nice. You're family's going to appreciate that hard work for years.

Nice Job, My neighbor put a trolling motor bracket on the one he built. The dock disconnects from the post and can be driven around in the lake.

My mistake is about 10x10 and only serves as an occasional fishing platform.
Not only do the bungs seem to finally crack and leak but people seem to prefer sitting at a table or in a smaller, more face to face grouping. And, unless they are fishing or swimming, adults will pick a shady spot every time. On the other hand, children... well, no sane person would try to predict what boys will do, but it'll probably be somewhere between totally unacceptable and just plain dumb. Girls seem to be much less adventurous.

The bench brackets are from amazon.com. that was as cheap as i could find. they are the 2x4basic brand. Individually, i don't know how strong they are, but it is very very secure spaced 16 inch centers.

FrozenGator, We don't freeze much here. if we ever get ice, it is very very thin. i don't plan on moving it much.

Thanks for the comments. I am very excited about having it.

The good thing about my dock is it is off the edge of a hill and has shade every evening for about 2 hours. Furthermore, it is 50 feet from my back porch and outdoor kitchen. I anticipate a LOT of time out on the dock. It will also serve as a swimming platform as the banks are very steep and the boys LOVE to jump off of it.

looks very nice...I was thinking about building one that size but went with something smaller so I could use the loader tractor to set it in place - not sure I have that many friends that'd come help for a job like that!

Getting it from bank to water was the hardest part of my project.. It handled the ice last year.. Kids love it plus it's about 100 ft from my pond patio with tables and chairs firepit that's one of the reasons why I removed my side seats.. Pretty much everything that happens at my pond is centered around the dock and I'm sure you'll be in the same boat so you and your family and quest will be very happy with it.. It looks great!!

Just an FYI it is much easier to build one of these by building the frame and walkway frame and installing the barrels and floating it. Then simply deck it after it is already floating. Course if you got a backhoe on hand and plenty of help you have more options on the construction phases.

It looks great!

I agree Rocky, but i had warped boards that required lots of persuasion to become straight, and I really wanted to stain it on ground. Those were my two reasons.

Thanks!

Holy Mother of Floating Docks! Your dock is very nice. I had a big problem with my gangway stability until I added these barrels in an outrigger style frame. Maybe not the nicest thing to look at, but the gangway is very stable, plus they take some of the load off the dock barrels. Just an option for you.

I want to build something like this, maybe even just the walk way to get my feeder out away from the bank so cows can knock know it over.

Can you tell me about how many barrels you needed for this?

My dock is 12x12. I started with only 9 barrels, but ended up with 14. There is a third barrel in between the two on the outside of the gangway. My gangway is 36' long and is hinged in the middle. I have one barrel on the end near the dock, three in the middle, and two more at the beginning near the shore set up like the two in the picture.

Figure each barrel will float 225# when 50% submerged. (55 gallon barrels)

my dock is 16 by 16 and i have put 24 barrels under it. It floats me and 8 obese friends; and has plenty of floatation to spare!

drp

Dustin,
It should be plenty stable when you hook it up to the posts on shore. if not you can cable from each corner of the dock back to shore or back to the posts...

looks AWESOME!!!

roadwarrior,
You have what looks like a fence at the end of the gangway just before the dock. Can I ask what purpose that serves for you?

Thanks N8ly,


I have been awaiting your approval since i stole a lot of design from your handiwork! Thanks again for advice in building it.


DRP

Certainly. It is a gate that I built to overhang about 2.5' on each side of the gangway, pokey spikes on the top (not sharp). It is locked and designed to deter unwelcome people from using the dock. This river runs thru my neighbors property. Some of the other neighbors can't respect other peoples property so it was installed after damage to my (cheap) fish feeder and other items were discovered. I think it subtracts from the scenic beauty, but unfortunately, is a neccesary evil.

How long does the silver paint last on the barrels before it needs to be touched up? Was any prep work done to the barrels before painting?

Even with primer, the paint wears off pretty fast. It could use a touch-up up every couple of months or so. The paint on the dock barrels is just silver paint. The paint on the barrels supporting the gangway is supposed to be formulated specifically for plastic, but I can't tell a difference. It doesn't seem to hold up any better. I guess partial UV protection is better than none.

I am building a 12x12 dock with a 12ft landing 5ft wide, I would like to hing the landing so can have a floating platform to take out to middle of pond when we are swimming. how many 50 gallon drums do you think I will need to float platform and float landing. note plat form will have 2 4x4 post on land with 1 bolt in each side to allow up and down movement with diffrent water levels, so only one end will have to float at the attched floating platform

We have a 12x16 deck with 9 55 gal. plastic drums that is attached with landscaping fabric. It is free floating and does fine with the people that we have on it. Never over 6 people on it.

I can give you an answer if you can answer one question:

How much will it weigh with the maximum amount of people on it? (people and weight of floating platform and landing)

I have no idea I know it will be pretty heavy all treated wood and I have read a post saying each barrel should float about 225# at 50% but the formula I read says 17 drums. I find that a little hard to belive. I think 9 would be about the most but guessing I should try to get weight per foot on materials and do some math

Bingo.

Here's something that might help. I did the math on mine. Floating dock, using 55 gallon drums. Floating portion is "T" shaped. Bottom of "T" is 4' wide, 16' long. Top of "T" is 12' wide, 8' "tall". I used 22 55 gallon barrels and one 30 gallon barrel. I forget how many people I calculated for. I figured that the pier, with just the weight of the wood would submerge 50% of the barrels.