Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Dock Pilings?

cybball

Well-Known Member
Now that my pond is just about done, I'd like to get some posts/pilings put in for a dock. I've seen guys use telephone poles. That would be awesome, but super heavy to lift and I don't have an excavator to lift them into place. Pond is empty and dry (for a short time) as it's filling now.
What should I use???? Treated posts? If so, who carries them? I'll need really long ones as my pond drops off pretty deep pretty fast. Don't need to go out too far, but the posts may need to be like 12-16 feet.

Daver did telephone poles and built in the winter on the ice. That's kind of my plan too. Just need to sink in some posts now.

Thanks!
 
I used telephone poles for the main dock, mainly because I had them. It would not be necessary to go that beefy though. I also used treated 6 x 6's on the two auxiliary docks and I think that size would be very sufficient for all but the biggest docks. Any lumber yard should have them. As far as length...plot out your dock size and plan on about 4 feet of the 6 x 6 to be below ground level and calculate how high you need to go to get your desired height, including whatever you want for above water exposure. Play it safe and get them a little long...you can always cut some off the top later.

I would not use 4 x 4's, I think those could be a little light structurally.

One thing that I did that I wished I had done somewhat differently is I put the telephone poles in their holes and then put 2 bags of dry concrete in the hole with them when I trued them up. That was the right idea, but I should have done more...as I underestimated the flotation power of those big poles. By the winter time when I was building the dock, those poles had moved on me and now they still move a bit...but it's a dock, not a house...so I live with it. :)

But I either should have put more concrete in the holes and/or put some sort of rod, etc, through the poles and then the concrete around it to provide more resistance to them trying to float up and out of the holes. I did not see this on the 6 x 6's...but those were not in nearly as deep of water as the telephone poles either.
 
Thanks Dave. Really appreciate that. I was thinking of 6x6 minimum. Dock won’t be huge but I want it strong. I’ll put a lot of concrete in the holes. Glad you said that. I probably would have done the same as you did.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
I've never built a dock. however why not dig a hole and pour sono tubes full of concrete you can get them in 20 ft lengths if needed maybe 6 or 8 in diameter slide some 1/2 inch rebar in the center of each pier, pour em plumb I'd think they'd outlast your grandkids
 
Helped a buddy build his dock at his cabin in Ontario. Went up in February, cut holes in the ice and sunk 6” or so Tamarac logs down through the lake bottom. Used a small tractor with loader bucket to push them down, they’ve not moved. We built framing around them on the ice but he installed the decking that spring. Maybe not feasible in your situation but thought I’d pass it along.
 
I would expect a treated 6x6 to rot out over time right at the water line. A telephone pole or bridge piling will hold up much better .
FYI, I put some nice big bridge pilings in after building a pond several years ago. I never built the dock due to a pond that doesn't seal well causing constant fluctuating water levels. Those 4 posts stood just fine for several years.
This spring we had over an inch of rain in March while the ground was still froze and the outlet culvert was still buried in snow. The water flooded and when the ice floated it picked the poles up out of there holes. With that in mind, if I had it do do again I would cement them in very well.
 
We ended up with 50 metal light poles that are around 20 foot tall and approximately 4"x4" that a customer rejected and the pole company did not want to take back, that we have used for friends and family and sold for this exact use. Seem to work great
 
Think about a floating dock and pick up some of those fiberglass poles they sell up in Harpers Ferry.
 
Top Bottom