For the many docks that have not yet fallen to disrepair, the dock pro can help you stay ahead of maintenance before repair turns into replacement. You’ll find tips for breathing new life to your dock. Whether you need to apply wood preservative, bracing to prevent unwanted instability or repairs to the decking and frame, see what the dock pro has to say; the advice makes this book worth its weight in gold.
If maintenance and repair isn’t your thing and better left to hired help, you can expect this book to inspire and get you thinking about how to make the most of your dock whether you build it yourself or get someone to help. While a dock is key for access at the shore and getting the full value of your waterfront, the dock pro recognizes for some, it’s a destination. Of all the places you could spend your available hours of leisure, dream about how the dock will be an extension of your outdoor living space, a place for making lifelong memories with family and friends. To help with that, explore the various floor plans that invite leisure time opportunities utilizing either fixed or floating docks while seeing yourself in the plans. Begin with your dream and let the dock pro help with making it real.
Who Is This “Dock Pro”?
Imagine a hardware store that is all about dock building, stocked up on chain, cleats, flotation, galvanized bolts, and an array of marine-grade gear that you wouldn’t find at the usual hardware store. It’s Saturday morning and you’re beginning a DIY dock project at the lake, after stopping at this supply store first to see what they offer that will help. Once inside, you find experienced, trained helpers who are ready with all the tips and guidance to put you at ease. It might sound too ideal to be real, given how specialized your task is, but this describes a unique business that my father, Fremont Merriam, started in 1979. Greetings . . . I’m Sam Merriam, aka the “dock pro,” and it has been my pleasure to have worked many years in a family business where I’ve helped countless DIYers like you make improvements to an existing dock or build a new dock from start to finish. Located in the beautiful state of Maine, where bodies of water and shoreline are abundant, it’s no wonder how someone could sustain a business like this.
Now, after decades of experience and acquired specialized knowledge from the business, my tips and guidance for DIYers, which were available only in my store, are now here in this book. If you have an existing dock, and looking for ways to improve, embellish, or problem solve, make this book your user guide for invaluable tips and ideas. For your new dock building project, start with my guidance on relevant topics along with instructions and plans for some of the most popular DIY dock building methods. The added knowledge base you’ll gain here will add significantly to your confidence level before and as you build, saving you time and costly futile efforts.
Growing up in Maine, I was never far from water. With the profuse amounts of precipitation New England is known for, I’ve advocated at times that Maine should change its name to Raine. Seriously though, all that moisture is responsible for the privilege I’ve experienced, both playing and working in water. A vast array of water environments such as lakes, rivers, tidal inlets, and coastline has been my world since a youngster. If it has a paddle, oars, power, or sail, I have used it. Chances were fair that my future occupation would have something to do with water. In Maine, the variety of water environments present a large demand for docks across varying degrees of challenges. With that, there is the demand for people who know how to make docks for a specific environment and application. While I was in middle school, my father was self-employed as a building contractor within the lakes region of southern Maine. He started offering docks as a sideline that over a ten-year period became his sole business. During those years, his dock business offered reliable summer work for me. Naturally, it was from my father where I learned the trade and the business, though I had other plans while in college. I thought my calling might be TV journalism or becoming an ad executive, but there seemed to be a gravitational pull on me to come back to the water. After college, I made my decision: I was going to grow the dock business with my father.
“Weekenders” at the lake camp carry a section of dock to be installed on the shore.
My father was a talented structural designer. Before his building contractor career, he designed bleachers and stadium seating at Hussey Seating Company for nearly 20 years. His background revealed itself in the dock business after an investment into metal fabrication equipment whereby he made specialty hardware components for wooden docks. Most of the components were his own design and made to facilitate the mobility of wooden docks to go in and out of the water. To folks who are south of New England, it seems absurd that one installs a dock only to remove it from the water in the same year. In the north, that’s what you do; winter ice requires it, especially on larger water bodies. The northern ice is powerful and can destroy the most rugged docks. Working with the northern climate in Maine played a big part in defining his business that he named Great Northern Docks. His specialty dock hardware components proved very effective in making a sturdy wooden dock that could be annually installed and removed relatively easily. While in business to provide complete dock systems to turnkey customers, his parts raised the eyebrows of DIYers and contractors who wanted to build their own docks. In time, he saw his business evolve into the supply house and information resource center for dock building.
More than just being a dock, a ready-to-be-furnished outdoor family living space is made on the water for good times and memories.
Not your everyday hardware store, this place bustles at winter’s end with do-it-yourselfers who find specialty components and guidance on all sorts of dock projects.
Since my father retired some time ago, I’ve been online with the business serving DIYers far from my home. Naturally, this has inspired me to become familiar with dock techniques used throughout North America and Europe. Not to my surprise, for example, the way docks are done in Ontario is slightly different from the way docks are done in Florida. The insight gained from my travels, coupled with decades of experience in Maine, has equipped me with knowledge that will help any DIYer anywhere. So that you’ll be equipped with that same knowledge, I’ve written this book for you, capturing the fundamentals you’ll need to successfully utilize, improve upon, or build your own dock from scratch.
Boundaries for Building a New Dock
Some jobs should be left to the experts, of course, but when it comes to dock building, there are a vast number of opportunities just right for the DIYer. Regardless of your motivation, be it budget constraints, a shortage of locally skilled dock builders, or, simply, that you like to build, this book was written with you in mind, the DIY dock builder who probably doesn’t own a commercial barge, crane, and pile driver.
No worries. . . . You’ll find I’ve set the boundary where the scale of the project can be done using common carpentry tools and the materials can be hand carried or lifted into place without heavy equipment. Most of the dock designs that I’ve included are comprised of portable, standard-size sections of dock, each serving as a building block to make up whatever configuration you desire.