I live on the Elk River in northern Alabama -- about 7 miles up from the mouth where the Elk meets the Tennessee River. I love it, I love water -- this house was my dream. (It's a dream that needs a lotta work, but I like doing that kinda thing, so it's been cool.)<br />My house is on a bluff lot over the river with stairs (LOTS!) down to a floating boat dock. A few years ago I bought a new boat, a 1999 Bayliner Capri w/ a Force 120 outboard. The dock/lift were a little smaller than ideal for it... So, late last year I started thinking it might be time to replace the dock / lift. I looked around and found a company that builds all-aluminum docks with polyethelene encased foam floation; they also had an association with Hydrohoist for boat lift. So this spring, I decided to go for it. And man, that was the end of our enjoying the water for this season...<br /><br />The salesman had suggested an anchoring system with large collars on the dock encasing spud poles which would be dropped onto the bottom to anchor. We get a lot of wind and wake at our site, so I asked if he was sure that would work, "yes, they do this all the time blah blah blah". I asked if they could use the driven steel pilings that anchored the old dock "no, can't be certain of their integrity...". Ok, it sounded kinda funky, but that's what this company does, right -- they oughta know what will work... So i thought.
<br />The dock structure itself is beautiful. But man, have we had a time with it. For the first month, it moved, it really moved. That anchoring system did NOT work. The dock moved around and ended up with railing of the ramp contacting one of the uprights of the dock -- with any wave action, metal on metal so lotsa wear there (the dock is not attached to the ramp, the end of the ramp has some little wheels which allow it to roll on a platform on the dock). When it looked imminent the dang dock was going to leave the site entirely and "set sail", the company sent someone out to cable the dock to a tree until a permanent solution could be made...<br /><br />Finally the company got a pile driving crew to come out and drive new steel pilings to anchor the dock. So all should be well, right? The next weekend, the dock had the funkiest movement -- we finally saw that the pilings were binding in the collars (about 4-foot long aluminum collars) and when the water level dropped (we're on a lake w/ a TVA dam -- the water level can fluctuate a foot or so in the summer; in winter they drop the water about 5 feet below full summer pool) the dock was essentially "hanging" on one of the pilings and kind of pivoting on that point.<br />Did I mention we now call the dock "Galloping Girdy"??? Being on it really reminds ya of the suspension bridge by that name that finally disentegrated.<br /><br />The company that orginally installed the dock <br />removed the collar that seemed to be binding the most and put in a smaller loop to hold the dock to that piling. Wow, when that collar came off, we could see why it was binding -- the piling is driven very, very crooked. The water has raised a bit, and now it seems the other piling is binding. It's more difficult to tell with the large collar covering most of the piling that is out of the water, but apparently that one is crooked, too.<br />What a mess. This has gone on all summer, and has really been a bummer.<br /><br />The piling without the collar, now that it can be seen, looks just awful -- it's very badly out of plumb. I shudder to think what will happen when they start dropping the lake level in late summer -- I seriously doubt the pilings are crooked in parallel, so I'd imagine the whole dock may bind enough at some point to... who knows? really cause some damage.<br /><br />I am so bad at dealing with things like this. <br />The company has been very slow at responding, and every step seems to just reveal another problem.<br /><br />On the bright side, the HydroHoist lift (which was installed over a month after the dock "completion", but at least it's there now) works wonderfully! It is terrific. Now if we only had reasonable anchorage for the dock...<br /><br />This has gone on for almost two months now. Here's a lesson learned -- don't pay a contractor in full until the work is ALL complete AND you're completely satisfied. I trusted them too much, and paid them at the end of the week that they built the dock, even though the lift wasn't installed yet. At that point, I wasn't aware of the anchoring problems. I think they might be more responsive if there was still an outstanding balance...<br /><br />At this point I'm wondering how long it will take to fix the piling situation. They are really off; I don't think anything besides pulling them back out and driving them again will fix this...<br />Why do folks do work so badly? Don't they know it will come back to them?<br />Sorry this has been so long...<br />This has been sooooo frustrating. If anyone has thoughts on negotiating with contractors, I'd appreciate 'em.<br />I really just want this to be over, and have a dock we can enjoy instead of an albatross that makes my head hurt whenever I see it and think what I paid for it...
<br /><br />Now you get out there and take Birdie for a cruise, y'hear?<br />