im looking at building a short dock to raft off of to pick up and discharge passengers. since creosote is outlawed and i have never seen pressure treated lumber here in colombia.

i was going to use a hardwood and use some big pvc tubing to make a column out of cement to surround and protect the wood piling. any one use a cement wrap like that? thx, rm


p.s. i have the stripper pole figured out. i will put a s.s tube about 4 meters deep, and have a floating stage move up and down with the tides...

We are building a dock right now and we sunk a bunch of I beams, using a BIG trackhoe. I'll post some pics later today

We used a large water pump with a 4" nozzle reduce to a pinched 1 1/2" tip, it dug a nice hole in the river bottom, pilings dropped right it, use the pump to back fill too. Had a boom made for a back hoe that attached to the bucket to handle the pilings. The "work" barge was a piece of the floating gas dock with a small outboard mounted to one end. Worked great, built 50 slips this way on the Mullica River in NJ.

Not knowing where you are doing this project - I'm offering this.

A number of years ago at our summer home - in Michigan-- a person had the same idea that you posted. He sunk telephone poles into the lake bottom and built a pier from heck -- You could have drove a semi on it. The only problem was he didn't understand or consider the power of ice. After only one winter this beautiful pier was a twisted mess. The ice literally snapped the telephone poles like toothpicks. He had to hire a company to come out and (in most cases) hand saw off the poles below water level. Long and short mother nature is a heck of a lot stronger than anything we can build.

All the best and good luck

3pointstar

Wow that would suck!

im on the equator in colombia south america, if i have problem with ice, its because the new ice age has arrived, and we're all doomed. lol

my father had a dock in annapolis for his 40 ft sailboat behind his house, he had a bubbler deal that kept the water churning all winter long so no ice would form around the boat or dock... worked like a charm year in and year out...rm

I think ratman has some of the funniest come back posts on oso hahaha. Keep them coming, make me laugh every time.

thx brah, its great to see some peeps enjoy my somewhat twisted sense of humor...

I did one this past summer, and sunk the pilings in with a power washer.

Here on Lake Washington you have to deal with permits. They include building permits from the city you are in, the Core of Engineers, the state and city compliance to the Washington State Shorelands Management Act, the Washington State Department of Fisheries, and what ever local Indian tribes that may have fishing rights. As a general rule this will take about $75,000.00 in fees, plus an attorney.