</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Richard-
If you don't mind my asking - what size is the butt of your pilings (piers?), how far do the stick out of the lake bed, how far apart are they, and why was the cross bracing used on a lake? We're going to have a dock built on the river this spring, and the contractor is going to use 10 inch butts 12 feet apart with no cross bracing. Thanks for your help. )</font>
Don't mind ya asking at all /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif Note that I might not know all the answers here without looking/measuring further.
1. I'd guess the pilings are probably 8x8's
2. I'd guess they are 6 or 7 feet above the lakebed (I'll be happy to measure if you want, I'll be down there this weekend)
3. spacing maybe 5' between?
4. Why cross bracing lol First you must realize my Father in law & Uncle in law built this. They probably put the cross bracing in because it wobbled (semi-joking here).
Seriously, I have no idea why they did it the way they did it. To add insult to injury, when the water is up to it's normal level, the walking surface of dock is maybe 18 or 24 inches ABOVE the side of the boat making it interesting at minimum, and now (with them in their 80's) almost impossible for them to use.
Frankly, I'd love to re-do the entire dock and LOWER the surface down to a more level height with the boats. Better yet, maybe even a floater.
When TVA put the lake in, the TVA rep told them they were NOT allowed to have a dock (even though they met all the technical requirements). This person was transferred elsewhere, his replacement said "no problem for a dock" and signed off on it. They built the dock over the next 2 weeks and low & behold, this NEW person was transferred/quit/fired and the OLD one returned. Well, the original rep got rather T'ed off that the dock was now installed and told them to dismantel it. They fought back and said TVA can pay for it, since they'd had permission... ultimately this person backed down.
Fast forward to today and what I find interesting is, we are only allowed to "maintain" this dock. We can not improve it, change it...strictly maintain. Yet, if you look across the water, there are within sight of my dock, 6 to 10 docks that must have cost a small fortune with their roofs, boat lifts, multiple slips, lights and some with sundecks on TOP of the boat house.
TVA at it's best with double standards.
