I looked at a job the other day where the customer wants me to build a 'dock' that would be on their lake. The dimensions of the dock would be 20 feet long. 8 feet wide. I was planning on building it like a deck and using composite decking for the deck.

Currently for a dock, the people have a railroad/brick paver combination. I will have to remove all that. The railroad tie sides acctually sit in the water. The new dock will be about 8'' higher then the old on to keep all joist out of water at all times.

My question. How am i suppose to dig holes for the footings with out them completly filling up with water? I figure that 'lake side' footing will need to be about 1 foot off the lake. How do i pull this off? I built decks before, but never a dock on a lake.  So how do i put footings in next to a lake where i know i will hit water when i dig down

Matt

You could drive telephone poles into the bottom with a big sledge, that has been done before.  

My personal preference is a floating dock.

Building Docks



Most stationary docks that I have used use pipes for the legs and a base plate to spread the weight.

Absolutely no disrespect intended, but it sounds to me you're in over your head.

You'll need someone to come in and set pilings for the dock, that are deep enough to keep them stable.  Be they concrete, wood or whatever, this isn't something you can do by hand...  Depending on the company used and the area in question, they'll either bring in a truck or barge to do it...  

Before any of that is even done, they BETTER get any necessary EPA approval and local permits etc.  Sucks when you build something and someone complains/finds out then you have to tear it down and restore the 'wetlands, etc' back to the way they were prior to your construction.

I'd suggest you find someone who's experienced in dock building and pick their brain...  Also couldn't hurt to just go down to the building inspector's office and ask them what the proper procedure for such a thing would be...

If you DO take the job, go into that job with all the information you can....  I've seen a few knuckleheads lose many bucks after finding out they can't just do stuff on wetlands/coastline whenever and however they want to.


Not sure that was the sort of answer you were hoping for, but that's my advice as someone else in the building trades...  Hope maybe it helps you some.

Since the lake will freeze over the best dock you can build is a steel beam cantilever anchored in a poured concrete base pad. It's more expensive to build but since it never touches the water/heaving ice it will last a lifetime with proper maintenance of the pressure treated wood decking. If you want to you can design it so the decking is removable if you have a place to store it over the winter.

Quoted: Absolutely no disrespect intended, but it sounds to me you're in over your head. You'll need someone to come in and set pilings for the dock, that are deep enough to keep them stable.  Be they concrete, wood or whatever, this isn't something you can do by hand...  Depending on the company used and the area in question, they'll either bring in a truck or barge to do it...   Before any of that is even done, they BETTER get any necessary EPA approval and local permits etc.  Sucks when you build something and someone complains/finds out then you have to tear it down and restore the 'wetlands, etc' back to the way they were prior to your construction. I'd suggest you find someone who's experienced in dock building and pick their brain...  Also couldn't hurt to just go down to the building inspector's office and ask them what the proper procedure for such a thing would be... If you DO take the job, go into that job with all the information you can....  I've seen a few knuckleheads lose many bucks after finding out they can't just do stuff on wetlands/coastline whenever and however they want to. Not sure that was the sort of answer you were hoping for, but that's my advice as someone else in the building trades...  Hope maybe it helps you some.

+1.

Is the lake privately owned or by a govt. entity? Around here, most lakes are owned by the Corps of Engineers or TVA and getting their approval is paramount to even thinking about a dock. Without the proper approval (if needed)  you may end up getting fined and more than likely having to tear it down.

You can find floating docks all over the internet.  They work well and you can pull them in for the winter and redeploy when its warmer.  

Quoted: You can find floating docks all over the internet.  They work well and you can pull them in for the winter and redeploy when its warmer.

It depends what you want to use it for and the lake conditions. The biggest problem is they are not very stable if there are wind or boat driven waves on the lake. The aluminum ones are great because they are maintenance free. They still need to be properly anchored and in some areas they get stolen.

The dock would completely be on land.  There floating doct would connect to it and be in the water.

Matt