Boat dock questions.

[Sherwood]

I believe my hoa has gotten completely taken advantage of by a dock builder.
Does anyone have any formulas on how much force different boat puts on a dock in different wind speeds?

 

[ZippyBoater]

Does the dock have a roof? Boat Lift? What type of dock? Generally, a boat tied to a dock, under normal wind conditions doesn't have a whole lot of effect on the dock. That is assuming that the dock is built for that boat. A dock built for a 19 foot boat will have problems with high winds and a 30 foot boat tied up to it.

You are going to need engineers to get into the specifics otherwise.

 

[Sherwood]

No roof or lifts. It's a dock rated for 700 pounds of people, with two finger piers that are completely jankie.
The finger piers are like 12 feet long. Each finger pier is on two pilings and connected to the main dock (that's rated for 700 pounds of people) by one 2x8.
The whole contraption shakes like crazy when you walk on it.
Also the finger piers where 4 feet above the water during high tied, so I don't know what yacht they had in mind when they built it.

 

[fatboyroy]

HOA likely went with cheapest option, they can always challenge it in court otherwise. 4ft clearance from high tide is safer during storm etc, less maintenance.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Need pics

 

[Ronnie]

Docks are generally expensive. When I was house shopping for a place on the water with its own dock or a spot for a dock I was told that each piling would be $10k for time and materials. Redwood being the least expensive decking material but also the most maintenance intensive followed by a couple composite materials which were more expensive. The rough estimate I got for a “U” shaped dock built from scratch was $100k, this excludes the walk way to the dock an awning, boat lift and shore power. If boat is short for break out another thousand I wonder what dock is short for?

 

[Sherwood]

Need pics

 

[The Canuck]

don't know much about docks with piers (ours is a floating dock), but they couldn't even get the spacing of the deck boards to be consistent.

 

[1WetBoat]

Wow, that is an accident waiting to happen.
It looks more like a plank on a pirate ship than a pier.

 

[Sherwood]

Need pics

Wow, that is an accident waiting to happen.
It looks more like a plank on a pirate ship than a pier.

Yeah, I can just shake the shit out of just by wiggling. It's supper sketchy.
I'd like some data to take to the board of directors, other than my rough building skillz.

 

[Sherwood]

don't know much about docks with piers (ours is a floating dock), but they couldn't even get the spacing of the deck boards to be consistent.

All different colors also. They never heard of mixing boards from different packs before .

 

[ZippyBoater]

That's not a dock, that looks like a finger between two slips. Even for a finger, it is pretty sketchy. It should have cleats to tie the boat to as well.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Dont tie a boat to that or it will rip right off!

 

[Sherwood]

Dont tie a boat to that or it will rip right off!

It's a ticking liability nightmare right now.

 

[1WetBoat]

Maybe it was meant to be a diving board? lol

 

[Ronnie]

That does not look anything like the docks around here or that I’m thinking of. I originally thought the dock in the pics was a walkway to a dock but such walkways usually have hand rails, at least the ones I am used to seeing.

On a positive I’ve note, at least the deck is composite material. You should find out when it gets hot if it’s premium or non premium. The cheap stuff heats up faster and stays hot longer, so I’ve been told by my friends and neighbors with docks.

 

[The Canuck]

When we built our dock last spring, we upgraded to a decking product from Moistureshield. It has some type of heat reflector built into it, and it was very noticeable this past summer. Our neighbors dock is pressure treated, and we couldn't walk on it barefoot. But ours was no problem. Well worth the extra money so the kids could actually use it.

 

[Sherwood]

My hoa has docks closed off now, so apparently I was not the only person who noticed the crap work.

 

[biffdotorg]

don't know much about docks with piers (ours is a floating dock), but they couldn't even get the spacing of the deck boards to be consistent.

No doubt. Anyone that has built a deck knows how to drop a pencil between boards to get the spacing right.

But better yet, they used that expensive Trex style composite deck board, but didn't use the proper fasteners that set the spacing and hide the screws between the boards and fall into the grooves. Instead they just screwed from the walking surface like amateurs. That is a poor job for sure.

 

[The Canuck]

The fasteners are great. Keeps the dock so much cleaner looking. Yes you can get plugs that will fill the screw hole, but I have seen them pop or not sit right, and in my opinion they now look worse. That being said, our dock has had some movement with either the framing or the boards, and because they are not screwed in, there are some larger gaps that have formed. There is no perfect system.