You could argue that spending a summer by the lake—bear in mind every person has their own version of ‘the lake’—is a quintessential part of the American experience.
Docks are key to any summer spent by a large body of water, since most activities revolve around them. People sunbathe on them, hang out, and moor their boots. If you are fortunate enough to own a waterside property, perhaps now’s the time to invest in a dock of your own.
This post will explore this topic in more detail and tell you why docks are key to an amazing summer on the water and explain how you can get yours built.
Hire a Dock Building Firm
If you want a dock of your own, you need a builder’s support. Building any structure on a body of water can be extremely complicated. The inherent difficulty is building in water. A team of dock builders in Connecticut or any other part of the United States will be able to lay your dock’s foundations and construct it for you.
When searching for a dock building firm, you first need to know what type of dock you want. Until you know what you want, it’s unwise to approach construction companies.
This is because you won’t be able to give them an accurate description of what you want, and as a consequence, they won’t be able to undertake work. You also need to find a firm with a good reputation and positive customer feedback on their Google Review and Trustpilot pages.
Positive feedback shows that a company can be trusted and that its customers have nothing negative to say about it. Prioritize reviews posted on Google Review and Trustpilot because they are the web’s review authorities, and the ones posted on them are usually authentic.
Understand Your Needs
In the previous section, reference was made to the undeniable fact that you need to know what you want before you hire a construction firm to help you. You don’t necessarily need to have an exact idea of what you want, but you need a general one. A good way to get an understanding of what the different types of docks are is to look at pictures of people’s houses with docks.
One of the best magazines for inspiration is Southern Living, where docks are very common waterside houses. You can also take a trip to seaside or lakeside towns around New England and look at people’s docks. When you find a style you are comfortable with, photograph it.
This is so you can show it to the company that you hire to build your dock for you. It is very important to make sure that the dock style you want is realistic and is going to look good when added to your property. Think about cost, too. Larger styles of dock are obviously going to be more expensive than smaller ones, so if you do not have a sizable budget, invest in a small one.
Understanding the Benefits of Docks
Docks have a lot of benefits. Their main one is that they make it possible for people to hang out by a body of water without lounging around on a patch of grass or getting sand all over them.
Docks also give people somewhere to take a chair out and relax without chair legs sinking into the mud or sand. Docks are also not impacted by the tide, so you can go as far out as you want without worrying about being caught by the incoming tide.
Docks also give you somewhere to park your boat, assuming you have one. If you do have a boat, make sure you set your dock up so it’s able to accommodate it. It is very important to make sure that you maintain your dock if you plan on attaching a boat to it, because if it deteriorates, it could cause damage to your boat or lead it to become detached.
As long as your boat’s anchored, detachment is not so much of an issue, but it is still something you need to be conscious of and actively protect against.
Maintain Your Dock
In the previous section, reference was made to the fact that you need to make sure that you properly maintain your dock, otherwise it could begin to deteriorate. This is especially important if you own a boat. If your dock starts to deteriorate, it could become unsafe for use. In addition to becoming unsafe for use, it could pose a threat to marine life. If a dock collapses, it could damage marine habitats. The process of maintaining a dock is relatively straightforward.
If you have never owned a dock before, the chances are you will not know much about maintenance. If you are not able to maintain your dock yourself or do not know enough to, you can ask the company that built it to come back and perform routine maintenance for you. Alternatively, you could hire another company that focuses exclusively on servicing and not building docks.
They will be able to offer the same sort of service and maintain your dock for you. Make sure that as soon as you notice any signs of damage or wear you get in touch with the maintenance firm and ask them to come and perform repairs immediately. This is so that problems do not get worse.
Safe Swimming
If you are going to be hanging out on a dock this summer, the chances are that you're going to be swimming. Swimming is something you should do carefully. Drowning deaths are not uncommon in the United States. When summer rolls around, they increase.
Make sure that you keep an eye on anybody around you that is swimming as well. This is so that you can ensure their safety. Make sure there are life jackets and buoys available on the dock so that if anybody does start to drown or struggle to swim, you can rescue them. Take swimming classes if you are not a confident swimmer.
Docks are the key to an amazing summer on the water. If you are planning on having one built or just want to hang out by the water’s edge this summer, then give consideration to the points made here. They will help you to get your dock built and get more out of it.