Me and a few of my employees have been looking at this for a year or two. The problem is that only a few companies make these products and the patents are still in effect. Eventually there will be a more affordable type of product, but we are looking at a different approach to the problem. If we come up with a system I will let you know. If a universal and affordable system is made, what boat owner or HOA wouldn't want one.

Instant hot water heater..a lot of hose..and the lake provides the water. Its not something that needs to be run non stop but can be set to a timer to kick on every 4 hours or so stop the build up of ice and snow. It also would not have to cover the entire roof top but would melt enough away to stay a float or becoming top heavy. Sounds fairly cheap and doable to me. OH and I guess a water pump...septic pump or something..

We have looked at this angle. It is possible. We are looking to remove the vast majority of the snow. To do the water it would have to be very hot to make the roof around it warm as well. Most of the electric wire systems will make a 24' heat zone. So as long as you place them about 24" apart it will cover the whole surface. We like this idea, just looking for a cheaper way to do it.

Well good luck! If I stumble across any ideas I will shoot them your way. Maybe the simplest would be to cover the rooftops with rain x!

I wish.

I could go get your powerplay and nestle it safely in Iowa if you would like.

Love your boat man. just had to say it. Hope she is ok. But its a powerplay. she cant be hurt!

[QUOTE=baywatch;3314847]Hey Tom,

Is there a correlation between the number of boats in the slips and how the docks fair?

Seems like most damage is normally to larger community style docks that have several of the slips with boats left in them. Likewise, those docks with fewer boats in the slips seem to be floating higher and fairing better. I would think that an empty slip with a lift in the raised position would add buoyancy but I'm no expert. QUOTE]

The lifts help if they have upper limit stops on them. The problems occur when one half the dock is loaded and the other is not. Imagine a teeter totter wih the fat kid on both ends and a weak link in the middle...the dock wants to tilt but it can't lift the unloaded side so it starts to bend in the middle...until it breaks. The reason you see the problems on the condo docks is because they have so many slips with only 4 foot wide fingers in between and thus not enuf floatation to hold them up...the solution is wider fingers and more flotation. Some marinas pull the conc pads on the fingers in the winter to help lighten the load. I have snow drifted at least 30 inches deep on the south sides of my dock roofs but I have large deck areas and wide fingers and the dock is only down about 4 inches at most.

I too have looked at the electric heat loops and considered water. With the water you could easily run a 2 inch pvc pipe across the ridge of the dock roof and hook it to a pump pulling from the lake a couple of feet down...enuf water should keep the ice and snow off.

[QUOTE=omerta one;3315584]No matter which way you look at the system it still comes back to making the docks stronger. If you put floats that have a higher weight limit and beef up the frame either by putting larger supports or adding to exsisting ones. Utimately it comes down to the floats. I think this is the most cost effective solution. Dock builders have to understand weight limits just like deck builders do. Always plan for far more weight than you actually will ever get. Most docks have a limit of 25lbs per sq', most decks have 90lbs per sq'. I don't think the docks need quite that much but 50lbs would be enough.

Everything is a compromise. Larger slips = more roof space without flotation. If you put larger fingers; you decrease the amount of slip space available due to permitting regulations. Removing concrete decking would help and using empty lifts would help. You need to drop the lifts and run supports (boards) across the tanks and under the dock and raise the lifts up.

[QUOTE=shinglman;3315770]I agree 100%. I actually find it laughable that every 4-8 years it is like the movie ground hog day and we go through this snow/ice load issue on the docks.

I moved to Missouri from the mountains in Colorado where our average snowfall in town was 300+" per year and 100" storms weren't out of the question. Code was for support of 100lb of load per sq ft. on the roofs. Most roofs had a pitch which would naturally shed the snow load and those that where shakes or non shedding material by code had to be shoveled when consolidated roof snow pack reached 30".

It will be interesting to see what happens when we get some snow on Sunday night as well as the storm the middle of next week.