Piles driven to refusal
Helical piles go down until the torque gauge says the lake has run out of arguments — typically past the ice shear zone, always past what a driven post would reach. The gauge reading is written into your build folder.
Hardware that survives the draw
316 stainless fasteners, hot-dip galvanized brackets, and decking gapped so the boards drain instead of cupping. The hardware below the waterline is chosen for the ten years you will forget to look at it.
The winter draw, done for you
Shoreline sections that should come out before the ice do — our crew, our barge, our calendar — and everything goes back level in the spring. It is in the contract, not in your autumn to-do list.
Services & rates
The shoreline rate card
Per running foot of dock and per square foot of shore deck, installed. Piles, hardware and the first winter draw are inside every number — the lake does not get a vote in the price after you sign.
Helical-pile dock, installedfrom $124/ln ft
driven to refusal, timber or composite deck
Crib dock, traditionalfrom $96/ln ft
stone-filled cribs, the heritage line
Shore deck, installedfrom $58/sq ft
footings below frost, lake-facing rail
Marine rail & guardfrom $118/ln ft
316 stainless, code heights
Kayak launch & swim stairfrom $1,840
non-slip treads, deep treads
Winter draw & spring re-setfrom $640/yr
barge, crew, level check — both ends
The lake ledger
A quarter-century at the waterline
Tremont Shore · Gullwing Bay · 2024–2026
From the water, photographed at eye level
Six shorelines from the last two seasons. Every dock here has been through at least one winter and one spring re-set since the photograph was taken.
What the water does to hardware
Hot-dip galvanized bracketincluded
the freshwater honest choice
316 stainless upgrade+$14/ln ft
for the runs that stay wet all season
Composite deck boardsfrom $9/sq ft
gap-and-forget, no spring oiling
Cedar deck boardsfrom $7.50/sq ft
the shore look, oiled every second spring
The hardware truth
Freshwater is kinder than the sea. It is not kind.
Galvanized hardware is honest in a lake and rusty in year six; stainless is dearer and boring forever. Boards that drain last, boards that sit in a puddle cup. We quote the whole hardware ladder in one visit and let the waterline decide — the cheap answer at the dry end of the dock is often the right one, and we say so.
How it goes
Depth survey to first swim
The same sequence on every job — the only variable is your project.
Day 1
The depth survey
We sound the bottom, read the ice history with the old-timers at the landing, and mark the deadheads. You get a drawn line, a fixed price and the pile count — free, and yours whoever builds the dock.
Week 1
Permits below the waterline
Shore-land permits, the conservation letter and the neighbour signatures — filed by us, before anything touches the water. The boring paperwork is what keeps a dock a dock and not a lawsuit.
The barge week
Piles driven to refusal
Helical piles spun down until the torque gauge settles the argument with the bottom, caps trimmed level, frames bolted on 316. Crib docks get their stone instead — same season, older method.
Deck week
Boards, rail, ladder
Decking gapped for drainage, rail at the code height, the swim stair hung deep and non-slip. The lamp line is wired before the last board, not after the first complaint.
Every October
The draw
The sections that should come out come out — our barge, our crew — and go back level in May with every fastener checked. It is on the rate card because it should be on somebody’s calendar, and ours is free in spring.
The ice took our old dock out twice in nine years — posts pulled, sections gone walking across the bay. Lakewater’s piles are past the shear and the dock has sat through five winters without a wobble. The spring re-set crew found one loose lamp fitting and tightened it before I had coffee made.
Depth surveys free on both lakes through June · shore-land permits filed by us · (555) 662-0917 · shore@lakewaterdock.example
Before the barge
The questions the lake asks
Every shoreline conversation arrives at the same four questions — answered with torque gauges and ice histories rather than optimism.
Piles or cribs — which dock is right for this bay?
Piles win almost everywhere now: driven to refusal below the ice, no disturbance to the bottom, and the deck sits level for decades. Cribs still suit the shallow, weedy corners where a barge cannot work and where the stone has been the method since the bay had one summer road. We quote both off the same survey.
What does the ice actually do to a dock?
It shears. The sheet expands and contracts all winter and pushes anything in its path like a slow ram — which is why our piles sit below the shear zone and the shoreline sections that cannot get out of the way come out in October. A dock that stays all winter here is a dock designed to lose a fight we prefer not to schedule.
Do we need a permit for a dock?
In this county, yes — a shore-land permit and, on some bays, a conservation letter. We file both, draw the plan the warden wants to see, and handle the neighbour signatures. It typically adds two to four weeks and zero visits from you.
Composite or cedar on the water?
Composite shrugs off the constant wet and asks for nothing — the low-Saturday answer. Cedar is the shoreline look and asks for oil every second spring. Both get gapped for drainage, and we quote them side by side on one drawing so the lake decides on facts.
Walk the waterline with us.
A depth survey and an ice history, a drawn line and a fixed number — usually inside two weeks of the call. Tremont Shore, Gullwing Bay and the coves between.