Aluminum dock for pond

[Jbass123]

Folks, I’m looking for advice concerning an aluminum dock for a 1-acre pond. The pond is not deep, and I plan to purchase two 8-foot dock sections to create a T shape, mainly just for a place for the grandkids to soak their toes in the water or for relatives to dunk a worm for bluegills. With 4x8 sections in a T, the deepest part would be 10 or so feet out [the walkway will be partially resting on shore] at a depth of 4-5 feet. The pond is around 70 years old, with a fairly clean clay bottom. The maximum variation in depth from spring to late fall is about a foot. Usually fills up near capacity before it ices over, and this year we only had ice for about 2 weeks.

Any advice is welcome, but my main question is whether to go with two fixed dock sections or just a fixed walkway from shore and then a floating, removable section to T off on the end. A neighbor who used to service docks up on Erie suggested the floating dock at the end, but Erie gets a lot more ice and potential water movement than in this small pond. Sectional, pre-fab docks that are sold at places like Home Depot have “platform” type feet that rest on the bottom. Wondering how those would work for a clay bottom, and whether it would be a problem to leave the dock in when it freezes. We might have 6 inches of ice that lasts for 2 months, or hardly any ice at all. Thanks for any input.

[harrys]

I retired from RGC Marine Products a company that manufactures docks and boat lifts. I would suggest aluminum framed docks with legs and wheels on them for the size you are looking for, if you have a nice clay bottom these can be assembled on land and rolled into your pond in the spring and rolled out and stored on shore in the winter.

[harrys]

If you want floating they will work you would have to drive posts into the bottom for support legs and with only minor freezing you could leave these in the pound year round if you want any more details you can PM me

[CastingCall]

Get a roll-in with the main and tee bolted together, with poly decking. They offer good traction for little bare feet.
Some have adjustable legs that can be raised/lowered with a cordless drill, which is great for adjusting dock height evenly as water level changes without needing to remove the dock, get in the water to adjust, or use wrenches.

[pabasshawk]

I retired from RGC Marine Products a company that manufactures docks and boat lifts. I would suggest aluminum framed docks with legs and wheels on them for the size you are looking for, if you have a nice clay bottom these can be assembled on land and rolled into your pond in the spring and rolled out and stored on shore in the winter.

This is the way I would go. Easy to adjust for water levels and to pull out for ice or maintenance. It's almost all you see up north.

[harrys]

Look up RGCmarine.com under docks you will see the set up castingcall is referring to including the poly decking and legs you can adjust with a cordless drill. I lean towards RGC brand product having worked there for 20 years...lol