Dock

CrealBilly

New User
Jeff
Looking to build a 8x16 dock in the farm pond. I have 4 plastic 55 gallon barrels that I plan on as my pontoon.

The dock will be anchored to the shore, most likely with some rebar sunk in deep holes full of cement. Not sure if this is classified as a dock persay but more like a anchored floating board walk.

It seems there are numerous treated lumber & 55 gallon plastic barrels youtube videos and how-to's floating around on the internet.

My question is has anyone here actually built a dock this way? If so can you give me your experience good or bad.

Thanks
 

JimD

Jim
Senior User
Jeff,

I haven't built a dock but I do maintenance on my dock, especially when they lower the lake I am on. I replaced all the floats one time and several of them the last time it was lowered. Our floats have to be encapsulated foam. They still float if they get a leak but not nearly as well. Regular dock floats are not terribly expensive, at least as I remember it. I pick them up at a distributor near Charleston but the price isn't much better than at a dock repair place. They fasten into position with lag bolts. So they are quick and easy to install from below. I would check on the price of regular floats before I built with drums. But if you don't like the price I am sure drums will work. The issue with my floats is typically muskrats. They like to lay on the float and chew holes in the plastic cover causing a leak.

The main structure of my dock is 2x6s that support the deck boards and there are 2x4s fastened flat on the bottom that the floats are lagged to. There is an extra 2x6 around the perimeter to hide the ends of the deck boards - which in my case are also 2x PT lumber. Whoever built it put some fairly good sized steel angle iron in the corners which is bolted to the 2x6s. I've added some 4x4 legs to hold the dock up out of the water when the lake is lowered 10 feet. I lagged or bolted the 4x4 posts to the two sides of the dock they are next to. That also stiffens it. My dock is a U shape, a slip dock, so it is only about 4 feet wide but about 26 x 16 feet (with my pontoon in the center). I don't know if you need more than 2x6s for a larger rectangular dock but I tend to think you do not as long as the span from the floats is not too much for a 2x6 floor joist to support. I would treat the structure like a deck and look up spans to be sure. I use screws or bolts whereever I can to resist the tendency of waves to tear things up.

Jim
 

Skymaster

New User
Jack
I have done so a
with barrels. Above is great advice. When i did I built it just like a deck I built partitions for the barrels,decked over them, use rope or some kind of waterproof strapping going under the barrels and attached to the joists or underside of deck to keep the barrels in the respective cavity
 

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