Learn All About Building a Dock
In Southwest Florida, it is important to hire a marine contractor you can trust. With thousands of jobs to our credit, Honc Docks & Lifts can help you understand what to expect from a properly built dock. The choice of materials is critical. Cutting corners can severely shorten the life and safety of your dock, but you also don’t want to be oversold on materials and features that exceed what your situation requires.
Here are some short explanations of the individual components of your dock that are important to the longevity of your waterfront investment. Properly assessing your needs in the planning stages of your dock will help to assure that you get the maximum life and enjoyment out of your investment.
Questions to ask when getting competitive bids for your dock project:
- How are the pilings installed?
- What size pile hammer do you drive the piling with?
- What size lumber are you using? Are the boards a full 2” x 8” or are they actually smaller?
- Do you use stainless steel bolts and what diameter are they?
- What lifts are available and where are they made?
- Who does the electrical?
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Piling Installation
The most important factor you need to consider when choosing a contractor to install your pilings is their method of installation. Many contractors simply “water jet” their pilings into the canal bottom, then use a lightweight hammer. This will work fine if the canal bottom is sandy and not rocky. However, much of southwest Florida has a tough limestone bottom. Honc Docks & Lifts uses a 20-ton friction crane with a 3,800 lb. drop hammer to drive through the hard layers of canal bottom.
Deep Pile Penetration
Pilings are needed for proper dock and boat lift support. Pilings are driven with a full-sized, free-fall friction crane. This allows for maximum pile penetration for dock stability. When a hurricane brings extremely high water to your canal systems, often times your dock may get completely submerged. If the water level rises above the deck on your dock, the entire structure wants to act like one big float and pull the pilings out of the canal bottom. Proper pile penetration is crucial to preventing this.
Vertical Structural Wood
Vertical structural wood ties strengthen docks against uplift. These ties help keep framework level which reduce deflection in plastic decking. These ties help keep framework level which reduces deflection in plastic decking. Honc Docks & Lifts installs a plastic spacer between wall board and seawall cap to deter rot from sprinkler systems.
Proper Framework
Many people would be surprised to learn that a typical 2” x 8” board actually measures 1 1/2” x 7 1/4”. Honc Docks & Lifts uses “full size” lumber, meaning that our framework boards actually measure 2” x 8”. Our lumber is cut specifically for marine dock construction.
Ours – Fulll sized rough cut 2″ x 8″ framing and sub-framing.
Theirs – Dimensional 1.5″ x 7.25 framing and sub-framing.
PVC Pilewrap
In our saltwater canal system, there is a marine boring worm that feeds on your wood pilings. This worm floats up and down on the tide and eats through your dock piling, severely shortening it’s lifespan. To deter this damage, Honc Docks & Lifts wraps each piling with a thin sheet of PVC, which the worms will not eat through. Although this doesn’t entirely prevent worm damage, it will add years to the life of the piling and is relatively inexpensive. It will need to be replaced every 8-9 years.
Stainless Steel Bolts
The picture shown is of a 5/8” galvanized bolt being used to attach a framework board to a piling. Notice the rust on the bolt and streaking down the board. This dock is only 5 years old, the damage is the result of the use of inappropriate bolt material and will greatly shorten the life of the dock. It is not uncommon for us to tear out old docks where the galvanized bolts have rusted through and the framework has failed. Bolt size is also critical- while many builders will use 1/2” bolts, Honc uses only 5/8” stainless steel.
Deckboard Fastening
Just like the bolts used to secure the framework of your dock project, the deckboard fasteners are critical to the life and safety of your dock. There is only one acceptable method to secure deckboards – stainless steel screws. Nails will pull out of deckboards, leaving you with a projecting toe-stubber, and allowing the deckboard to loosen and warp. Using nails rather than screws is a time- and cost-cutting measure in the beginning that will wind up costing you more time and money in the end. Even stainless steel ringshank nails will have a higher failure rate than screws.
Deckboard Selection
Today, more than ever, we have a wide choice of materials available for decking. The standard 2” x 6” pressure treated wood decking has been around for generations and is still a good choice today. The drawback to wood decking is the requirement that it be sealed or stained every year to prevent the south Florida sun from destroying it. This inconvenience has spawned an entire market of wood alternatives such as composite decking, PVC or plastic decking, extremely hard woods such as Ipe, and so on. There is no perfect answer – all the products on the market have advantages and disadvantages.
Building the Best Docks at Competitive Rates
As you can see, we approach your dock project with the most professional, common sense, practical methods of marine construction. Are there corners we could cut to save a few dollars and still pass inspection? Of course there are. But then we wouldn’t be delivering the standard of quality that our customers have come to expect and appreciate.
Our goal is to build the very best dock at a competitive price. We want your custom project to provide many years of enjoyment for you and your family. We know it is cheaper to build it right the first time, rather than to have to fix or replace it later. Any questions? Feel free to give us a call at (239) 772-8181. If we miss you for any reason, you’ll always hear back within one business day.
