Dock Needing Repair

Moved Out of Position

Another dock adjacent to the one in the previous post, Dock Needing Repositioning, not only needed repositioning but also had a broken post that needed replacing. First I pulled the dock back to its original position using a tree on the shore and a come-a-long. The owner was a great help on this project either cranking on the come-a-long or making sure the jack didn’t slip which meant standing shin deep in muck at the deep end of the dock. Fortunately it turned out to be a warm day so the water felt good. Once the dock was straight out from the shore I used two different trees to anchor the come-a-long to pull the dock tighter to shore.

Dock realigned. Jack holding it level.

New Post

Even repositioned the dock had a severe low corner due to the broken post. The neighbor’s extended handyman jack again came to the rescue, this time holding up the end of the dock while I removed the old post and set a new one. Removing the old post was a bit of a challenge as it was attached to braces and frame with 6 bolts and lags. Those above water were not a problem but turning the ones underwater was a challenge and resulted in one lost socket. Installing the new post was a guess about height. I shoved it down all the way into the mud and reattached it to the frame and braces using the impact driver and speedy ledger screws where I could. The underwater lags had to be turned in with the ratchet. My height guess ended up being low but there was just enough room to sister on a second longer post which leveled up the dock without removing all those bolts again.

The Finish

I noticed the other post had a beveled top so after I cut the new post at the same height above the dock, I beveled it to look the same. Actually it will take some weathering before it will look the same but that will happen on its own!