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

Dindt get as much as i had planned to but the weather was nasty and took sonme time looking over a new 2 wheeled toy. Decided to buy a 2008 DR650 enduro off the neigbor to add to my collection of Bikes. But here are some pictures of the rope I put up around the dock. Also spent time building my aeration system and compressor/dock box indoors at the cabin. hope to get more done Friday.

What size is your pond?

Nice looking dock, I like it!

Bossone, the pond is around 3/4 acre and average depth of 10 to 12 feet with the deepest spot being 15.

Thanks JHAP its coming together but not as planned. had weatehr in the 70's fridat and my frozen ground is now a mud bog! didnt get much work done on it this weekend, but did managed to ge the lights wired and mounted!

RJ,
Picked up my barrels yesterday, Its amazing the price difference between Menards and Home Depot almost $250 cheaper at Menards. Those deck boards are where they get you..

my barrels were filled with vanilla flavoring, and the others where filled with a coagulant aluminum something, I sprayed them off and the water turned to gel on top. I gotta get them cleaned pretty good and sealed up real tight. The vanilla smells good though lol

BGK, I know what your saying on those deck boards! I buy almost all my lumber from Menards. I still call around for prices, and menards always blows home depot and lowes out of the water on prices and the quality of the lumber. Ya and about those my buddy works at a dairy and he gave me about 5 barrels that were full of vannilla flavoring. smelled real good! A 3/4 pipe thread PVC plug works great for the center of those bung plugs. I also used silicone on the threads. probaly over kill but didnt want thise leaking. The plugs were cheap. like 4 for a buck.

Road thanks for the follow up. I have a half acre pond and I would like to have a dock as well. As N8ly told me not having a dock is like having a peanut and jelly sandwich without the jelly.

How far out the water do you think the barrels will keep your dock? Some I've seen really puts them up high, depending on the weight I guess.

Bossone that sounds about right. lol. The dock was actully already floating in the water and it sat up out of the water im guessing 18 to 20 inches. we had some rain and the water coming of the hillside that feeds my pond melted the ice and the dock was floating. I was sitting on the end with my muck boots in and the water was above my ankles.

Mine also came from a dairy. I have a couple that dont have the caps, but my barrels are wierd one side is fine thread the other is coarse, so it could be real fun finding caps.. I planned to silicone mine also.. My holes are alot bigger than 3/4 maybe 1 1/2 will work on the coarse one.. Thanks for the tip.. Did you say you got 15 barrels under your dock?

BGK, I have the same barrels. the inside of those caps are threaded for hose hook ups or valves if you look close the centerof the plastic plugs are very thin and some times at the dairy up here they pop tiny holse in them to vent the barrel so the liquid flows out easier. a 3/4 PVC pipe lug fits in there great. I am not sure why they make the barrel threads coarse on one side and fine on the other but mine are the same way. I need 6 of the plugs myself lol (3 fine 3 coarse). Curently there is 15 under my dock but im going to put 27 under it for more stabilty. it works out to be 3 rows of 9. might be overkill but I want it to be as stable as possible and 27 barrels is the most that will fit under there.

The guy i got them from said his buddy built his dock with them and filled the barrels with expanding foam, would even need lids then and more bouyant..

Also i think im framing mine in 2x12 to hide the barrels a little better.. Do you have any pics of yours floating. I wanna make sure the weight of the 2x12 that ill still be plenty out of the water, or i might be getting somemore barrels also..

Hey BGK, where can you get that expanding foam and whats the price on it? also here is a link for the weights of boards I used to figure out the weight of my dock. unfortunatly i didnt have any pics of it floating should woulda coulda and didnt. http://www.brownlumberservice.com/PDF/lumberweight.pdf

2x8x12= 53 pounds
2x8x16= 70 pounds

2x12x12= 79 pounds
2x12x16= 106 pounds
246 pounds with the 2x8 frame and 370 pounds with a 2x12 frame. 124 pounds aint nothin

The foam is expensive.. His buddy had a company that installed it.. You can get kits from insulation companies though if your still interested.. Thanks for that info..

Well if my calculations are right my dock should be able to support 6750lbs minus the weight of the barrels.. I cant get that link to open to see how much weight i will have in lumber on it.. My dock is going to be 12x16 i was thinking 3 rows of five, but i dont even see how that will fit under mine. I just have to get it laid out to find everything out..

PRESSURE TREATED LUMBER WEIGHT PER BOARD
8' 10' 12' 16' 20'

2 X 4 17 21 26 34 43
2 X 6 26 32 38 51 64
2 X 8 35 44 53 70 88
2 X 10 44 55 66 88 110
2 X 12 53 66 79 106 132
4 X 4 38 48 58 77 96
4 X 6 56 70 84 112 140
4 X 8 75 93 112 149 187
4 X 10 93 117 140 187 233
4 X 12 112 140 168 224 280

it goes in order 2x4x8= 17 pounds 2x4x10=21 and so on. i had it all spaced out right but when i submit it the forum puts it the way it wants it lol.

That link works ok on this end but,thats what the link looked like but in excell form. My dock is 12'x16' i need to go back and fix that typo. 15 drums fits under there with ease. right now i have one outside row of 9 and the middle and other side has 5 each. the side with 9 barrels fit fine. still waiting on the rest of the barrels to lift it agian to slide the other barrels under the middle and the other side

Guys, just remember that a barrel will have roughly 8.3 pounds of bouyancy for every gallon that it will hold. BUT, that's with the WHOLE barrel just barely submerged, minus the weight of the barrel. Figure out how far down the barrel your dock boards will come; if the barrel is 24" dia., and I was using 2x12's for outside "stringers", then I'd only figure on each barrel having a floatation capacity of 220 pounds (half the barrel total flotation capacity, minus 8# for the weight of the barrel.

Make sure you have something strapping the barrels to the underside of the pier. If a barrel pops out it's a bear to get them back in.

Well ive been studying around online. It seems like some of the best built barrel docks have the barrels mainly wrapping the edge then just using a couple to hold the middle up, Which makes sense..

essup that makes sense being that using the 2x12 framing it will be closer to the water, o using the 220 punds per barrel should be a good estimate inorder to keep that framing out of the water under load.

BGK your deck 12x16 with out any post just framed and deck will way roughly 1400 lbs and the barels will be 120lbs. I figured it out using that weight sheet. that is just a 12x16 platform. I figured out mine with the 4x4's and the benches and brackets weighed about 2600lbs and it floated fine with 500 pounds of humans and a 1200 pound polaris ranger on it. so 15 barrels were holding 26000 pounds of wood and 1700 pounds of weight on top. and my frame was about 10 to 12 inches out of the water.

RJ, Do you have your sitting in the water now on 15 barrels? IF so could you take a measurement from the water to the bottom of your outter framing?? also and see what the difference or drop is if you stand directly on the corner..? Could you feel it actually sink any when you sat in the bench's? I think i might be starting to overthink this but i really dont wanna put 2x12 if there gonna be sitting in the water everytime me and a couple of people are on there.. Im thinking i might just ad 5 more for the even 20..

BGK my dock is sitting on shore right now, but whem it was in the water it definatly sank down when my dad and I were in the corner. didnt sink down to the frame, but sank down enoguh that i want to add more barrells just to make it as steady as possible. Im positive my dock would be fine with 15 barrels but i figured if the barrells are free im going to add the extra ones under it.

Yeah I'm gonna do 3 rows of 7. Final answer lol

BGK that should work great, PS harbpr freight has 20'and 25' ratchet straps for holding the barrells in place for like 4$ each. Im gona run 2 for each row. just so i dont have to fight with loosing the barrells

Yeah i havent even begun to think of how im gonna attach them.. But ratchet strap would wear out rather fast i would think.. I got some really thick aluminum wire i might use to tie them up some how. Its the same wire they use to anchor power poles..

Ya im not planning on leaving the ratchets straps on just using them to get the dock in out of the water. If those drums pop out from underneath that dock while its sitting on the pond. I either got hit by a tornado, or got drunk and brought home 25 fat girls to dance out on it! either way i dont think any kind of tethering system is going to work for thos situations lol! i would be amazed if thos drums poped out with the weight of that deck on there