Ice Out Dock lost
 

The good news: Ice is out.
The bad news: So is our dock.
The power outage on Bear knocked out our bubbler for 4 weeks at the worst possible time. Result, dock is destroyed.

It is unfortunate to incur damage under your circumstances. This winter seems more destructive than most in our area.

Unlike my insurance company, I hope your policy covers ice damage to docks.

What a shame, didn't realize that Bear Island was without electricity for such a long time. Any chance of insurance covering repairs?

Ouch, sorry to hear of this!

Perhaps try what the youngsters do these days, create a 'go fund me' page and ask for donations to help repair it.

Obviously this was not your fault, so ask others to help pay for the repairs.

It seems this is what the young crowd does these days, why not do it yourself ;)

walmart.com has many, many different aluminum docks, and dock items, that get shipped to a local Wal-mart store for free delivery pickup. Check out the PlayStar 4' x 10' aluminum dock section kit, price - $491.80, was $542.76 ..... plus about a hundred other dock items ....

Aluminum lasts forever in Lake Winnipesaukee, and you get to haul it out, and reinstall......every year....woooo-hooooo!

Apparently, the PlayStar line of docks sold by walmart.com are a dock-in-a-box, where the cardboard box contains a disassembled, aluminum dock frame, and legs, and you buy the deck lumber locally. Go to Walmart.com and enter 'PlayStar dock kit.'

For 8.49-each, there's a galv steel finish footplate that fits 1 5/8", or 1 7/8" pipe legs, plus many other dock repair items.

You know for about $399.99, the Ocean State Job Lot in Meredith has an outdoor, hot tub in-a-box, an Intex 4-person, round, inflatable tub, that runs off a 110v-15amp standard outlet..... so's one could get both a dock and a hot tub in-a-cardboard-box ... and set both up in your driveway, or your backyard, or almost anywhere, and not be paying these big, fat, Lake Winnipesaukee, waterfront property taxes .....wooooo-hooooo!:cool::D:cool:

Are you on East Bear? We're on West Bear, in the cove near Shepard Island.

An option
 

You might want to consider an aluminum dock. It looks like the land is fairly flat. A aluminum dock on wheels may work for you. You might want to check with Raise-A-Dock. They have plenty of options. I bought mine there.

Dave M

We're on west bear, on the carry.

I don't think your loss of power would have made much difference. It is my understanding that the ice can attack your dock in two ways and a bubbler only protects it from one. When the ice freezes solid around your fixed posts it can move them up, down sideways...with the movement of the ice. A bubbler keeps the ice from forming and moving your posts.
The second cause of damage is wind driven icebergs moving in the spring. These can be huge and weigh thousands of tons. There is pretty much nothing that can stop them and your dock is at the mercy of the wind direction. By the looks and timing of your damage it looks like it got hit by a sheet of ice. Even if your bubbler was going 24/7 it would not have made much difference.
I ran my bubbler all winter a few years back. I thought I was in the clear when an ice flow took out my dock just days before ice out. it was painful to watch this sheet of ice come out of nowhere and destroy everything in its path.

Correct the way to hold those sheets back is to have a couple clusters of driven pilings out in front of the dock to catch the moving ice flows and hold them back.

Pilings to Rescue???
 

We had pilings at our dock for many years. Last year, the ice pushed the pilings against the dock and caused severe damage. A permit is required to be able to install pilings.

That's too bad - really - no fun at all.
 

That's too bad. A wrecked dock is absolutely no fun at all.

I notice you have a lot of big trees in the background. This suggests that you could do a tip-it-up-and-out-of-the-water dock (and have something sturdy like the trees to use to pull it up) and not have to worry about bubblers and the like any more.

Don't know about your DIY capabilities, but the materials for such a dock would be quite reasonable (assuming PT wood and lots of galvi and stainless hardware). I have built such a dock in the past - 30 feet long. I had one helper.

A thought anyway.... it is very nice to get the dock OUT of the water.

One of my neighbors had a stays-in-the-water-all-year dock, and even with the bubbler working properly, the dock got wrecked by an ice flow. They replaced it with a tilt-up dock.... and the Cadillacs of docks - aluminum tilt up installed by pros.... not necessarily suggesting that unless you have a lot of cash lying around, but the point is the bubbler doesn't stop the flows of ice on a windy day.

Again, sorry yours got wrecked.... definitely feel your pain (have been there)

'Could Happen Again, Too...
 

It appears the least damaged part of your dock is on pilings—close to shore—where it's out the reach of winter ice pressures.

If D-I-Y-ing this repair, you could hinge the rest of the (repaired) dock to that section, making a "Hybrid Dock".

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...psiwsczptw.jpg

If you're going to call for professional repair, be prepared for a wait. :(

My dock had an oversized ice-floe push three pilings towards shore, causing the middle of the dock to sink under the surface! Although it was the middle of April, I was advised to wait until July for a repair. :eek: A couple of days later, they were working on a neighbor's dock, so I asked—while they were 100-feet away—that they repair mine. No-can-do, they said. :eek2:

I managed to use scraps of wood, a farm jack, and a piece of angle-iron (to spread the load) and restored the dock to level.

http://i70.photobucket.com/albums/i1...ngDock2007.jpg

More on ice/dock repairs:
https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums...ight=farm+jack

https://www.winnipesaukee.com/forums...ad.php?t=21745

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Dock Damage
 

Sorry for your damage. Usually the carry would be safe from floating bulldozers, I thought.

I totally agree with winterh. It would have happened, bubbler or not.

The thing you need to worry about right now is getting your application for a permit in. That is a bigger worry than how and who to fix your dock. It could take a long time unless things have changed.

Get the permit yourself
 

The process should not be too difficult as long as it was a legal dock and you are replacing it with a similar dock.

A few years ago I had some damage on a property in Laconia. I was quoted (by a local contractor) $1,200 to get the permit from DES.

The application has to go through the local city (town) hall before it is submitted to the state and they will want pictures with it. I completed the process myself in about 2 hours and I do not remember it taking very long to get the permit. I think the key is replacing it with a dock of the same dimensions as the one that got damaged. If you want to make changes that might delay the process.

I have called DES on several occasions and found them to be helpful with any questions.

Permit
 

I just finished a DES permit for minimal changes. I won't sugar coat it, the permit is time consuming. It took my wife and I several hours to complete as there are portions you have to send to the DHR (NH Division of Historical Resources), maps and plans you need to create, and in our case four copies needed to be submitted to the town (Alton) conservation commission for their consideration. After the town approves it (hopefully) we then send the final copy to Concord for approval.

Let me note that we are removing a manmade object (old crib dock) from the lake, NOT building anything new. Good Luck

Wow! Talk about red tape! Too bad such regulations are in place to hinder a project that actually, enhances the lake..."live free or die" not.

Wow, as someone said in another thread, you can't remove things from the lake without a lot of paperwork and permits, but it's ok for people to leave trash on the ice that ends up on the bottom of the lake every spring.

Did you check to see if the repairs could be handled under Permit By Notification? It may be worth a call into the state. If you have to go through a full permit process, kiss the summer good bye. Being that its your only dock, and that you are on an island and need it as your only access you may be able to work something out with DES.

Otherwise make it go away in the dark of night, and do a PBN for a single finger seasonal liftout.

Bearly There, I sent you a private message, I have an aluminum frame dock that I am selling, it is 6'x40'

.... it's a dock in a box .... omg!
 

Homedepot.com has do-it-yourself dock builder kits, same as Walmart.com and shows the PlayStar, and MultiNautic brands. Basically, the kit in a cardboard box gets shipped free to a nearby store, and you complete the dock project with deck lumber purchased locally ........ like wow ......what a 21st century, do-it-yourself concept ...... a dock in a box ..... omg!

I just ordered two of the PlayStar $8.49-each galv finish base plates that fit either a 1 5/8" or 1 7/8" diameter pipe leg support, and look forward to doing this repair in 40-degree water, five foot depth, while holding my breath........ weeeeoooooooo!:eek:

My aluminum dock is soooooo ooooold .....it looks a lot like a 1936 DC-3 airplane ...... what with many, many, many aluminum rivets holding it together!

Man-o-man ......last spring I gave up on finding a similar base plate and ended up making six homemade baseplates with a mitre saw, drill and 2x6" pressure treated lumber and a 1/4 x 4" stainless bolt .....and they actually seem to be standing up good.....yikes!
..........

.... slightly off-topic, but what the heck: If you are a large sized adult, such as myself, then you may be interested to know that Walmart.com has Stearn's pfd's, blue or red, adult over-sized size, USCG-approved, for the bargain basement price of 9.94-each ...... this is a high quality and a low price.

Those dock sections that the box stores sell are light duty, not something you can expect to take any kind of serious use or actually tie a boat to unless it were on a small pond and a small boat. They are rickety as heck too but that should not come as a surprise as you look at the way the way and amount of surface the legs have to connect to the horizontal platform. The good docks tend to have a cross braced sub structure that allows for two well spaced capture points for the leg supports. Then again you get what you pay for. Guess it all comes down to what you're going to use it for.

I find it hard to believe that with all the places that either sell or make docks around the lake you cannot find parts for what you got - it's not as if those posts and pads are that unique. In fact Heath's Hardware store in Ctr Harbor has a whole selection of parts that are reasonably priced.

If it is not at WalMart in Plymouth or available with multi-colored noodles wrapped around it.... FLL will not know about it.

Heath's Hardware also sells noodles in a wider variety of colors.... come on what could be more tempting than that?!?

While installing my dock last weekend, I lost one of the vinyl caps that sets atop a 2" diameter support leg ...... probably, it's now resting somewhere at ten foot depth ...... and will turn up in summer with a snorkel search.

Anyway, Heaths' Hdwe had the vinyl post cap, and I bought it for 4.99/one.

Lo and behold, cross my heart and hope to die, and shoot me dead if I am lying here ...... the Walmart.com PlayStar page shows the identical item as a four pack/2.99 ...... Lord have mercy! ...... and, I already painted the one for 4.99, so I cannot return it back to Heaths' .......... amen and boo-hoo.

You could perform the stunt that my GF's sister would do.

She'd buy the cheaper 4 pack, break it apart, and return it, four times, to the place that had the higher price.

Oh, maybe I shouldn't teach you her stunts! ;)

As it is, she doesn't like to talk to me much anymore, as I am always calling her out on how illegal and unethical many of her stunts are.

But what about ski belts? Can't forget his love for those!

Best to support your local retail hardware store, and be a good faithful customer, as much as one can afford. Maybe not the lowest prices, but so many, many, different items including paint, fasteners, plumbing, electrical and thousands of other items ...... all, just a 15-minute drive away.

Between Lowe's, Walmart and the internet.....the local hardware needs real strong customers who support it ...... plus Heaths' usually starts up their free coffee in those high quality, brite red, Tru-Value coffee cups this time of year. Something you probably would not trust to get at a Wal-Mart.

Rand's in Plymouth has k-cup coffee for 50-cents, and it could be the most popular item in the whole store.

Like ....... think I'll head over to Rand's to pick up a $250 all-aluminum, dock ladder, a couple 2" aluminum dock brackets, and a 50-cent cup of coffee, just for that french roast, k-cup ....... yum!

So sorry to hear about your dock. We were on Sleepers Island for many years and that was always a concern. Hope you are able to get it rebuilt soon.:(

Opening Day
 

We opened our cottage on East Bear Island to begin our 50th season at this treasured location. The only damage we found was one 6x6 post on our dock was broken off. We look forward to sharing our place with family and friends. 🐻

Hmm.. so what actually happened with the repair / replacement? I don't think we saw a final outcome. Hopefully all worked out for the better :)

Regards, Steve

This was only 2 weeks ago. I would be surprised if it was fixed yet.

.... el cheapo $14 waders
 

You know the walmart.com has these $14 waders .....that's right.....just fourteen dollars for light weight waders with built in suspenders that really get it done. They go up to one's arm pits, and you wear old sneakers over the stocking feet.....good enuf for doing the dock.

Is there such a thing as waders that never spring a leak.....probably not?

pain
 

Hey Bearly There, I feel your pain! What really made my day was when I paid the fee to DES for the repair. $850. As I always said about NH, live FEE or die.

OH no, Chase! So sorry!!

Thanks!
 

Ice, wind, and fecal matter happens. This is the first problem in 20 years. Hopefully the next will be in another 20.

I hope so!!

Who did you pay?
 

$850 is about what I paid my contractor for a permit year before last. Did you pay DES $850 or did you pay a contractor $850 to get the permit for you? I think repair permits are good for five years and, if I'm right, you can renew it for another five years, reduced or no fee. Hope you don't need to renew, but I'd consider it if the cost is low, as opposed to starting all over again.

Watermark had told me it was $1500.00 for permit. to replace my crib dock

Hearing these prices, I gotta say that if I were just replacing something damaged that I'd attempt to do it without a permit. $800+ for permission to replace something is ridiculous.

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Certainly sounds like it

Yup. Long as your neighbors aren't your enemies. If they are they may rat u out.

The filing fee for a permit to repair docking facilities is $200. The permit is good for 5 years and can be extended to 10 years without charge. Also please note that you only those repairs that will occur below the waterline. So dock/deck surface and stringer repairs don't require a permit.

Does that include the repairing of a breakwater?? I think I paid a lot more than that when I had my breakwater repaired...

Thanks!

Dan

Docking facility repairs, including breakwaters, that result in no change in the size, location, or configuration of the structures qualify as minimum impact projects. The filing fee for a minimum impact project is $200.

Thanks for the info!

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fee
 

I let the contractor file the application. When I see an application I foget how to spell my name. It's all coming out of the same pocket. The inuance company took a leave of absence when we asked about coverage. We'll see them when the bill is due

Another Winter, a Different Problem...
 

This winter's ice raised one of my tie-off pilings. In a prior year, that same piling had broken off at the waterline. :( Now that it's useful again, I don't think I'll try to "fix" it. ;) But one piling under the dock's end was also raised.

The opposite ("low") piling was pushed towards shore, lost the two shims pictured below, so the dock's end has taken "a list to port". Ten years ago, I had bolted heavy chain to keep ice from moving the piling; otherwise, the end of the dock would have fallen off the piling. :eek2: While I can "live with it" I've seen an electrical demolition hammer being used. (It's kind of a mini pile-driver, but powered by electricity).


Barges on Winnipesaukee drive pilings using the same principle of pressurized vibrations. An Internet search of other forums didn't even raise the possibility of using a demolition hammer in this manner. :confused:

Sure, it would take more time to drive the "high" piling back down, but I've got all day, so why not buy or rent a demolition hammer for this purpose?

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Update
 

As many of you predicted, we found that getting a permit for a new dock takes forever. Even with a permit, it's impossible to get someone to fix a dock on short notice because of the all the ice damage to docks this year.
So... we waded in to the VERY cold water and managed to cobble together the pieces of the remaining dock. Hopefully, it will last the season while we wait for the permit to build a new one. Thank you to everyone for your suggestions and support.
Attachment 13058

Good luck!

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