Custom Docks

A good dock is a solved problem, not a product. The solving happens before any material is ordered, and it comes from a handful of questions about your property and how you use the water.

What we ask first

How do you actually use the water? A fishing dock, a dock for a centre console you take out most weekends, a dock that is mostly for sitting on with a drink at sunset, and a dock that has to take a large vessel on a lift are four different structures. The honest answer here shapes everything.

What boat — now and next? Draft decides the water depth you need, which decides how far out the dock has to go. Length, beam and weight decide slip layout and lift sizing. If you plan to move up a size in a few years, designing for it now is far cheaper than rebuilding later.

Where is usable depth? We establish where your water actually gets deep enough at low tide. This is the biggest single driver of layout and cost, and it is why two neighbouring lots can get very different estimates.

What is the tidal range here? It determines deck elevation and whether a floating section makes sense.

What is your exposure? Fetch, prevailing wind, channel wake. Exposure drives framing, connections and how the structure handles storms.

What does the shoreline do? Where the bulkhead or seawall sits, how the dock ties into it, grade at the landward end, and access for construction.

What will the permits allow? Length, footprint, configuration and covered structures are all subject to agency review — see dock permits. There is no point designing something that cannot be built.

Layout decisions

Walkway length and width. Length is set by water depth. Width is a usability choice — a wider walkway costs more and is much more pleasant if you are carrying coolers, rods and gear, which you will be.

Terminal platform. The business end. Size it for what happens there: fishing, boarding, seating, cleaning fish, or all of it.

Slip configuration. Parallel, perpendicular, or a slip between piles, driven by the vessel and by how much room the site and permits allow.

Fixed, floating, or both. Fixed structures are simpler and more durable. Floating sections solve boarding where tidal range is significant. A fixed walkway to a floating terminal is a common and effective hybrid.

Covered or open. A roof changes the permitting picture and adds structural demand — but it also changes how much the dock gets used in July. See boat houses and boat lifts.

Accessories. Dock boxes, benches, fish cleaning tables, single and double rails. Worth planning in rather than adding on, because mounting points and structure are easier to provide at build time.

Construction

Piles driven to adequate penetration for the loads and the soils — see pile driving — framing connected with hardware rated for a marine environment, decking selected for the way you use the dock, and the shore-end tie-in detailed properly against the wall.

Fasteners and connections are where docks fail first in brackish water. Specification there is not the place to economise, and it is invisible in a finished photograph, which is exactly why it is worth asking about.

Costs and timelines

The variables are on the dock cost page. Permit review is normally the longest item on the schedule.

Call (904) 327-3931 or tell us about your property.