Pond Boss Forums POND CONSTRUCTION Selecting a site Pier/Gazebo Construction

We are constructing a 1 acre pond for bluegill/bass and for general family recreation. I have posted some pictures in other threads at
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=14854&Number=182142#Post182142
and here:
http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Main=14898&Number=182856#Post182856
The second link includes a couple of aerial photographs near the end.

The next project is to try to get the posts for the pier/gazebo installed before the water gets too high.
This is a sketch of the layout:

The small green squares = 1 foot. The gazebo is a 12 foot wood gazebo sitting on an 18-foot floor--both from Amish Country Gazebos. The deck will cantilever out 3 feet on each side of the gazebo. There will be a 24-foot pier to enter the gazebo plus a 6 foot fishing pier at the far end.
My main question right now involves the support posts.
The gazebo floor kit comes as 8 pie-shaped wedges that meet in the center. I am planning to use 6x6 inch treated posts rated for water use for the pier supports and 8 outer gazebo supports. I'll use a larger center post where the 8 wedges come together.

The current plan is to bore 12" holes to 5 feet below the surface. I plan to add a couple of 80 pound bags of concrete to each hole. Is this likely to be adequate? A friend recommended drilling holes near the bottom of each post and inserting 12" of 1/2 inch rebar to provide better contact with the concrete.

I assume that the holes (at least those close to the water) will fill with water as soon as we bore them. This has never been a problem in my fence-building projects; will it be a problem pouring dry concrete mix into holes that are already partly filled with water?

Any other general ideas or comments would be appreciated.

Charlie

I will interpret the lack of comments to indicate approval, rather than lack of interest. I have installed the gazebo floor and have started on the connecting dock. I posted a picture of the progress to date on another thread at http://www.pondboss.com/forums/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=190416#Post190416
I have been making pictures, and would be happy to post them here if anyone wants to follow the project.

Charlie

Looks great to me... I wish I was that handy! Very nice.

FC keep the pictures coming, looks great, things can be kind of slow on the PB forum on the weekend, probably hangovers.

HAHA... I think you just might be right!

Exactly right!

This bunch is not affraid to let you know if they don't like something---keep up the good work

Someone needs to take the construction picture of this gazebo offa the other thread and add it here 'cause this is looking really good!

Here is a link to it.

Since the beach is right next to the pier/gazebo, there is some overlap in the threads.

Charlie

This is cool looking

We have finished the framing of the pier except for the decking and the stringers on the outside edges. I'm having a bit of a problem matching the wood for the gazebo and the pier. The gazebo decking and framing is made from Wolmanized L3 Outdoor lumber by Arch Treatment Technologies. It is clear, and it has no knots at all. http://www.archchemicals.com/Fed/WOLW/Products/Preservative/Authentic/default.htm I would like for the pier and gazebo floor to have the same appearance. I think I finally found the decking in Atlanta, but haven't found the 2x6 stringers so far. Maybe I'm being too picky, but I would like for the deck and gazebo to look the same.

Any suggestions?

Gazebo Project Update: This is the progress report on the pier to date. Warning: It's kind of long.

The final design is slightly different from the illustration, as I’ll explain later. I ordered a 12 foot gazebo kit and an 18 foot floor kit from Amish Country Gazebos. I had the manufacturer slightly customize the floor for my application, because the kits are designed assuming the same diameter for gazebo and floor. I laid out each of the 6x6 support posts to be directly under the gazebo posts, which will give a three foot cantilevered deck outside the gazebo. I did it that way for two reasons: First, I wanted the load to be transmitted directly from the gazebo to the ground. Second, I wanted to hide the supports, so the floor would appear to float just above the water.

After carefully laying out the locations of the posts I rented a skidsteer loader with a 12" auger to drill the holes 5 feet deep for the posts. The posts are 6x6 except for the center post that supports the inner part of all the wedges. This image shows all the posts after dropping them into the holes.


Lining up and plumbing the posts was pretty time-consuming, since each post had to be precisely located in order for each post to support two adjoining wedges of the gazebo. I got lucky on this step. The night after we finished setting the posts we got a big rain that raised the level to cover the holes for the deeper posts. Here is how they looked after setting them and pouring in two 80 pound bags of concrete mix into each. Now they look more like soldiers at attention.

The contractor used a rotating laser level to mark the water level. But being one not to trust modern technology, I used a water level to set the height of the posts. The reservoir for the level was an ice chest sitting on top of a 5 gallon bucket.
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I ran the hose to the spillway pipe to set the water level reference, and then adjusted the height of the reservoir with some blocks and shims, so I would not have to keep up with correction factors. From there I used the water level to mark the posts. If you look closely, you can see the water level at the height of the speed square.

For preliminary rapid setup I did use a transit level to mark each post.

We cut off each of the posts using two brackets as guides for the circular saw.

We finished the cut using a sawzall

This shows one of the posts after cutting it off.

This shows the gazebo supports after cutting off all the posts and installing cross bracing. Since each post extends 5 feet below the surface, I probably didn’t really need the cross bracing, but I decided to be a little conservative. Note that there are two extra posts to provide support where the gazebo floor joins the pier. I did this, because I didn’t want people walking from the pier to the gazebo to feel the spring from the cantilever as they step from one to the other.


Next came the fun part—installing the gazebo deck. This shows the first wedge being lifted in place using a rope rigging and front end loader on my Green Machine

This shows the first wedge being lowered onto the posts.

This shows three of the wedges in place.

This is the last wedge being lowered,

And this shows all the wedges roughly in place.

Precisely aligning all the wedges and leveling them was pretty time-consuming. The procedure involved using screw clamps to adjust one wedge relative to its neighbor until the two were precisely aligned and level. Then I drilled a hole at that location, installed a bolt, and then moved to the next section. This shows the eight wedges after they are all bolted together.

Each pair was bolted to its neighbor with three bolts. This illustrates one of the joints.

This shows how the 8 wedges meet over the center post.

This shows one of the joints with the post visible below.

This shows the supports from underneath.

So far the only thing that disappointed me about the gazebo deck was the alignment of the deck boards at the joints. I would have expected more precise cutting of the miter joints in a factory environment. Maybe I am just being too picky. I suppose most people would not notice the alignment, but when you build something yourself, you always notice every imperfection.

I’m thinking about covering up the alignment by routing out about an inch from the center to the outer edge at the joints, and then inlaying a darker wood strip. Maybe some ipe that I have left over from the house deck. That would cover the error in alignment, and might even add a little pizazz to the overall floor.

The next step was the connecting pier. I had originally planned to bolt the headers to the posts, so as to give some room for error in cutting the posts. But the levels of the gazebo deck turned out so well that I changed the plan and set the headers on top of the posts. I did take the precaution of attaching the headers of the pier and the stringers of the gazebo floor to the posts using lag bolts. That way, if I ever need to adjust the height, I can loosen the lag bolts and raise the level with shims.

Then we installed the stringers for the inner parts of the pier using galvanized joist hangers

I have not yet installed the outer stringers, because I need to find 2x6 stringers that match those of the gazebo deck, which used clear wood treated with a non-copper preservative that has a lighter color.
One detail that is not shown in the diagram is shown in the next image. Note that the stringers in the section of the pier immediately adjacent to the gazebo turn out at a slight angle. This is so that the width of the pier can taper from the 6 foot width of the pier to the 89” width of the gazebo edges. I think that, plus using the same wood and same profile for the pier and gazebo will tie the two together in a more unified manner.

This shows the overall project on the day before Hurricane Ida hit. It shows the gazebo deck and pier structure plus a berm for the sand beach. The berm is to reduce the migration of the sand downhill to the deeper sections.

I had planned to rent an excavator this weekend to dig out the beach area a little deeper. Then I planned to cover it with a layer of Portland cement, and rototill it in to make a hard surface to support the sand and discourage plants from growing in. But Ida came in with 6 inches of rain that night, and the next morning it looked like this.

It rose about 2 feet overnight. The red item across the pond is the water level cooler that Ida lifted and deposited across the pond—along with the 5 gallon bucket.

The next stage will be to find the matching wood to finish the pier. Then we can start assembling the gazebo itself, which I hope to have done by Christmas.

I would welcome any suggestions or comments.

Charles

Hang tight on any committments related to adjusting the confluence of the decking at an angle, particularly if it is treated lumber. I have done decks with similar features, laid them in perfectly, and come back the next year and found them looking very similar to your complaint. The wood shrinks at different rates on each edge, presumably due to the different overall length. By the time you are comfortable that it won't move or shrink anymore, your self-critcism will be long gone and you likely won't worry so much about such a minor detail.

oh yeah, and btw....it looks great. I luv this kinda stuff.

I agree with Brettski. The deck looks amazing and anything you do now, will more then likely make it worse by the time the wood finishes doing all it's shrinking. If you are lucky, it won't shrink and you can what you think is best, but if it does shrink, there is no way of predicting how much or what boards.

I've had 5/4 decking that I installed as tight together as I could get it, shrink to create a half inch gap in a few months.

With winter coming, I'd wait until late spring before doing anything.

Eddie

Its looking very nice.Iknow how you feel about the joints,but if you only want to fix them once,you might want to let it go for a while.Aint patience a drag?Again,great looking project,thanks for sharing.

I agree with everybody else on playing the waiting game. It looks great so far!

I installed a T&G treated floor for my back porch, using a tool to really squeeze the wood together. If the humidity is low outside for a long period of time, the wood shrinks almost enough for the T&G to be apart (you almost can see the ground thru the joint). They are nailed thru the tongue

It was a choice of 1) put them together wet and hope they wouldn't shrink too much or 2) keep them banded together and let them dry for the summer. I let them dry for the summer and the outer ones warped so bad that some were unuseable and the inner ones were still pretty damp. Oh well, I just have to live with the result.

I like that idea. There is plenty to keep me busy for the winter, and by spring, I may decide that the joints add charm to the project.
Tomorrow I'm off to Atlanta to chase down a possible source for the decking. The gazebo manufacturer could send it from Pennsylvania, but the shipping costs are pretty high.

Very cool project!

After a lot of time searching the Internet and a lot of phone calls, I got lucky today and found both the decking and the 2x6 lumber for the framing. It matches the gazebo wood very closely, so this weekend may finally mark the end of the gazebo/pier floor project.

I did have a blowout on the Interstate on the way back with the lumber. Pretty exciting! That was the second blowout in about a month, so this time I went ahead and replaced the other two rear tires too. Don't want that experience again.

Is that all! Could use some longer posts. Honestly great stuff. Love seeing and reading about your progrss. Thanks for taking the time to keep us up to date. Too bad you dont live closer. I'd hire you!

Some time about the middle of next August I might welcome a trip up north to Wisconsin. But I don't do much actual work. Mostly I just point and grunt and sometimes yell.

This afternoon, in preparation for working on the pier decking, I started looking for the cardboard box with the galvanized joist hangers and other hardware, but couldn't find them anywhere--not on the cart, not on the truck, and not in the carport. It was a real mystery.

But tonight I was looking at some of the pictures of the construction, and I noticed something suspicious in the next to last image of my lengthy post above. Sitting on the concrete border under the bag of Portland cement was something vaguely familiar. And zooming in on the original of the image, look what I found.


Another image taken before the pond had filled completely also showed what looks suspiciously like a very soggy box.

If not for the pictures, I probably would not have discovered them until next summer.
I wish the grandkids were here this weekend, so I could send them on the treasure dive tomorrow.

There's more than one reason for documenting the build! What's the water temp now???

Awesome Gazeebo project FarmerCharlie .. I found this thread and the wheels started turning .. why build a standard dock .. when you can have this ..

Keep up the good work .. and keep the pics coming .. Anxious to see the finished product.