Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Property Projects & Construction Floating dock built on the ice, and front yard

So sunday me and my dad decided to take a trip down to the cabin and get started on building the 12x16 (not 16x24 sorry) floating dock. We had a little break in the below zero weather and it actualy got up to 38. It felt like summer. dad and i were able to get dock framed and decked. were goin back down this friday to finish it and build the ganway. I bought the 2x4 basic bench brackets and I am going to use those on the sides and ends closest to the shore. the end of the dock with the 4x4 posts is going to have a hand rail with some big 3inch diameter tug of war rope. also have electric line run underneath the dock for the lighting, and aerator here are some pics. will add more after we get it finshed this weekend

Here some other pics of the pond before it froze up and while it was filling

The things we do when its winter.... looks like the ultimate FHM breeding ground

Boy, that's one pretty piece of country ya got there, RJ. I want more pics of the "cabin"...looks more like a home.
The dock looks great. Will you leave it in the water from here on in?

Thnaks guys! I bought the property back in august of 2009 and it didnt look anything like it does now! I too out a tuck and trailer load of scrap out, mostly old bent well case!Burned more stumps and junk then you could imagine. Beath the heck out of my yanmar 1700 brush hoggin! the guy who owned it preavously used it as dumping ground for all his crap! Im swear i picked up ove 5oo beer cans! lets just put it this way the neibors were so thankful i bought it, and they got rid of the old guy they couldnt thank me enough. Butas far as the dock I am going to mount solid eye bolts through the front braces and will use them to hook the tow straps up to the dock and the truck be able to roll it out useing the drums as wheels so I can stain it or do maintenace on it.

Here is a sneak peak at the cabin pics quick start to finish lol. will post more in another post today

Wow! It looks a whole lot different now than before! I like the hanging farm implements, were they found on the property during clean-up?

How far apart did you put the joists for the dock (over the barrels)? What size lumber did you use 2" x ?

Great looking pond and cabin, I'm also a big fan of the Gambrel roof.
That's some dock, you could put a cabin on it.

Looks like the outter frame is 2x6 and the inner framing is 2x4 but im also interested in the framing doesnt quite look like their evenly spaced looks like they spaced 2 over each barrel then spaced them 2 an even amount from the next 2 if that makes sense lol..

The construction is 2x8 out side frame with 2x4 in side joists. The 4 16 foot 2x4s are spaced 37 inches apart so the barrels would stay in beteen them. I went 37 inches over from the sides for the blue sections, then for the white i went 18.5 inches to the right and left of the center so that section of barrels was righ down the middle. The 12 foot 2x4 floor joists are spaced 17.5 inches on center that was the distance that the barrels would hit on the florr joists and not on the decking. I had to move the far last 2 floor joists toward the 4x4 post back toward the shore because i couldnt get my 4x4 posts in (trial and error, first docks always the toughest) Then I used 16 foot 5/4 boards for decking, heled with hot dippep ring shank galvanised nails out of the framing gun. This is the website i got the idea from and just modified it for my project. http://www.instructables.com/id/Floating-Dock-with-Barrels/

Esshup, didnt find any of the old farm stuff on property, but have been finding alot of cool old bottles. I found a HEINZ honey jar that is real old in the crick. Most of the farm stuff came from, flea markets,estate sales, and garage sales. out on the harley see somthin cool for sale and try to figure how and the heck i was gona get it home lol. Most expensive peice I bought was the old grain shuvvel on the barn for 20$ I liked it so I popped

So this past weekend did not go as planned! I had a interesting weekend at my place to say the least. got down there to find all the freezing rain and rain we got hwere in ohio melted the snow and th water running off my hill sides down into my pond decided to melt most of my ice where the dock was at. so my building the dock on the ice project has now turned into draging the dock up in the yard with my truck in 4x4 low, after i slipped and fell on a frozen pile of gravel and worked in the rain all weekend, pain in the butt project! lol will put pics up in the morning. after this weekend and the last 2 nights at work, I am sleeping in!

So here are pics of the dock sitting in the yard, with some more work done. I had to drive my Polaris ranger on to the dock in the pond to get the barrels to bust through the ice. used the truck ramps to drive it out on to it.

Had some problems with the bench brackets, I was shorted some hard ware,and had to drill out some of the holes for the hardware to work but over all they werent bad to use and the end product will be worth it!here are some pics of the bench bracket benches coming together. I didnt get as much done as I wanted to this weekend due to the weather, but managed to get a little done.

Nice benches....where did you get the base brackets?

How bout a pic of the whole thing.. Looks awesome man.. PM-sent

Hey Dracor, I bought the bracket kits from Home Depot on line. here is a link: http://www.homedepot.com/buy/lumber-comp...sand-52702.html

BGK that is as far as I have got. Going down this friday to finish it. hopefully! PM replied

Thanks for the link roadjoker...they look great....benches are sweet!

roadjoker, what kind of fish you raising?

Thanks Dracor, right now in my pond im raising a whole of Ice and Water! lol. Dug the pond in August and it didnt fill up until the week of Thanksgiving. But this spring I am going to stock with RES, BG, HBG, CC, Albino CC, and a LMB.
I seen now there ofering free shipping on those brakets. here is a link to the company who makes them 2x4 basics wich was bought out by Blitz.
http://www.2x4basics.com/dekmate-products.asp
There nice but kinda pricey at 15$ each, but that does include all your screws bolts and hardware. and good directions

very nice work, RJ22

Also RJ22 leave the HBG out if the equation.. Atleast do your research. And if you really wanna do things right you'll raise your forage fish well before you stick predators..

Thanks Brettski.

BGK whats the reason for no Hybrid Blue Gill?

Just start a thread on what to correctly stock.. Before you do anything.. You can ruin your pond by incorrectly stocking and that would suck when youve came this far..