Quote:
Originally Posted by PaugusBayFireFighter
Or you could run it responsibly a few hours a day and spend only a few bucks preventing thousands of dollars in damage to your dock. You could allow ice to lock in around your posts and go years without ice damage or it could happen often. Before our aquatherm we had two episodes of ice damage from heaving. Aquatherms can be a nuisance when used without consideration for neighbors. It can also be a good piece of preventive maintenance if used with common sense.
|
That's the point. Your picture is all that it takes to protect the dock from winter ice formation and lake rise, and allows the ice to form to the shore land which will assist in protecting in the spring.
If you scroll up to my photo of our dock years ago, following the methods of a father son winter dock service, that is all we had was a small round circle at the end of the dock.
Thanks.
With the recent 1-2 inches of snow, the shoreline along Lake Shore Drive is really risky. However, it is setting records for cold. Checked my dock today as the end posts were bent. I set the end aquatherm for a couple of hours to restore end protection.
Checking the rest of the dock, at about the inside third point of my dock, a ridge area from what appears to be the constant current of the 24/7 looks to forming and building against the piles. This is what happened a couple of years ago.
So the dilemma, turn on the inside aquatherm to protect my piles (and become part of the problem, risking contribution to the open waters) or let it be (as the risk to piles isn't even a consideration compared to the safety risk to others, and being exposed to that risk, of those who are openly and knowingly without regard)?
Not willing to take that risk, won't turn it on. Will try to chainsaw some X's in the ice in that area to promote breakup at those piles.
THANKS to many for information posted. I know much more than I did at the outset. It will be a while to get a chance for a rep to sponsor a bill, but at least I have some contacts and they understand that the lakes have changed in the 3-4 decades since the existing laws, and regulations, have been updated to address current issues.
Hopefully there will be operating guidelines tied to the dock permits and ice retardant systems in the future that are enforceable and consequential.