Building a dock....What material?
 

I am building a dock for my place up in Maine and I am not sure what to use for the deck. Some of the options that I have thought of are Cedar, Mahogony, and the plastic stuff. This will be a dock built on posts not a floating dock. It is fresh water. I have ruled out the plastic for two reasons. One is it gets to hot in the sun, and two is it weighs to much. The mahogony is cheaper right now then cedar. Anyone have any other ideas? I want it to be a darker color so that it blends in as much as possible.

Jon

old aluminum bleachers :D just kidding
I have see the old stadium bleachers for sale and they do make good looking docks.

Cedar or mahogany are both good choices- cedar is quite soft and does not hold a nail or screw quite as well as mahogany. It also is quite difficult to get it to hold a stain until dried out and cured- many people just let it go grey or paint it after it does.
If mahogany is cheaper, you can't go wrong with it. I have a mahogany swing hanging from one of our huge oaks in the back yard that is 20 years old and it has never been stained or varnished- looks weathered but is structurally sound. :)
Jim

Ipe. I built a deck for a friend out of it a few years ago, and was amazed by it. Especially amazed by how fast it kills saw blades. :D
It's looking like this will be the last year of life left in my deck. When I rebuild it next summer, it's going to be out of Ipe.

uhh. . . . . .just what exactly are you going to put at this dock :confused: :D :D :p



just kid'n bro . . hope the project is come'n along for you :cool: :cool:

I like the plastic "Trex" stuff for the decking.

I am finishing up building my new one now...almost done:) I am using Southern Yellow Pine... best stuff in the world:D

ditto that

i have trex on about 1700sqft of deck and i love it , cool, no maintenance, and not slippery.

later

I like the Trex also.
I,ve built a couple really nice decks with the stuff.
easy to work with, cut's nice, flexible (you can do some pretty cool curves with this stuff!).

Only drawback is it is heavy, and needs extra support, otherwise it will sag.

2 pennies in the jar.

I have "fiberon" on my deck and front porch. This is the stuff that is sold at home depot. I have heard complaints that it is hot to walk on with bare feet in the summer....but have only had the deck for 8 months so I can't confirm. Here is a picture of the deck underconstruction to give you an idea about color.