That's awesome Manny! Nice work. I would love to see a picture of it!

8iiiiiiiiii8iiiiiihiiiiiii8rihitiriiiiii8iiiiii8

Well he saved money on the dark stuff and has a huge floating solar cooker.

Solar cooker? Man he did a great job. Nothing there is money saved. That’s a lot of money he spent

Good info to have for the next guy or next time. ha For now, what's done is done. I appreciate you sharing! I like hearing this kind of info from people more knowledgeable than me. Time will tell how long they last under there.

​@IndyFarmLife would these float if encased in cement / concrete?

Thank you! Cheers!

Haha I was thinking maybe a Johnson 150..... :)

From one Adam to another, you are welcome! Good luck with the build! You doing so on a lake/pond? Would love to see it when finished.

building at a docking area and putting it in the gulf. Ive been planning this for awhile, assembling materials now, will definitely be putting up a vid when i build/finish. yhanks Bro

Thank you Chris. This was a couple years ago. Click through the other videos on my channel if you want to see what it looks like when it's all buttoned up. It turned out awesome!

Ty for sharing it. Have you had any problem with the barrels ? Leaks or trying to escape as they’re not secured from bottom

Nope! They are pinned in there pretty good given the amount of lumber/weight on them. No water intake that I am aware of. It floats at the same height today as it did 2 years ago.

@@IndyFarmLife yours is really nice size. Stout. I’m going to try

Thanks! Good luck. It will be time well spent.

Yea, I should have. Just went with what was available without ordering.

@@IndyFarmLife I have 12 barrels. Is it enough for 16 x16? If not what space they will be good for? How many for 16 x 16? 10 x 10?

If only they all weren't under the age of 5 ha

Not a bad idea. What kind of tape were you thinking that wouldn't break down? Zip tape?

Thank you! It's holding up really well. No major issues. Perhaps I'll film an update video sometime soon.

@@IndyFarmLife great, I am subscribing now... by the way in what state are you...? Im asking because you mentioned an extreme weather exposure... wondering if using any sealants help to extend its life

hot air expands, "Cool" air more dense and therefore contracts..

Open the bings at night ? Really ?

@@IndyFarmLife I'm an overkill kind of guy on certain things. Do you think your stability from side to side is mroe or less that it is 16 x 16 though over HOW you built it? I was thinking of building a see-through floor platform the other night using 1-inch ribbed polycarbonite that you can buy for roofing and a regular framing method. That would be awesome. We have those 50 to 80 pound grass carps in our pond thta would probably come right up to you. They eat bread and not just algae. What do you think of that idea? You would see the framing but open water underneath also. It would also reduce the weight by about 1,000 pounds or more than using trex. I know they give a 10-year yellowing warranty so I thought if it started yellowing by then, I could just go over it with Rustoleum Restore for about $30 to $50. Just my thoughts. There are companies that make some heavy duty FLAT-RIBBED polycarbonate. Also, you can cover the ply in the water to slow down yellowing during those months. Not sure where you live but I live n the snowbelt in NE, Ohio.

@@IndyFarmLife We are right in the wind tunnel from geneva, ohio to buffalo, new york. Eire, PA gets it the worst about 40 minutes east of us. Two years ago they got 6 feet in one day and it happened on my wife and I's romantic getaway to Presque Isle (14 white sand beaches) of all days. LOL. Anyhow, we usually get 8 to 10 feet of snow a year and some heavy winds because we are 7 miles south of Lake Erie so we get that lake effect. Only 30 inches of snow the last two winters but the winter lasted at least 4 weeks longer than usual. Yeah, going with the polycarb takes abut 1,000 pounds or more off the floor weight alone that you have in trex. Do you have a total weight of your deck doing it your way? That is a monster but very well built. I did a design on graph paper the other day to build a 16 x 16 with polycarb. Did you use 30 or 55 gallon barrels? I forget. I need to figure out the total cost would be. But I should be able to go with 2 x 6's due to the much lighter floor weight. There has to be a way to do it. I am showing about 14 barrels would probably work and it looks like I can probably have 75% viewing with the barrels in place. I was messing with eccentric squares (two outer squares to hold 10 of the barrels in the corners to stabilize, then an inner circle with four barrels dead center in a smaller square. Then run joists from the inner small square to the first outer square. So 3 squares and then joists from 1st square to 2nd square and then brace the 2nd square to the largest outer square. My thought on it. I think it would really work. If it ever began to yellow, you could run epoxy paint over it and it would only add about 10 pounds to the structure. You just wouldn't be able to see through it anymore or just use the yellowing polycarb for a greenhouse and put new on every so often.

@@IndyFarmLife Spiders? the bass will probably come up and eat them. Our bass crack me up. they hug the shore line and face it like the Orcas do the seals. They wait for mr. frog or insect to land and bam gone.

I'm happy to weigh in, but as you go down this path, if you are planning a commercial property, there are probably a lot of building codes/ordinances you are going to need to follow. I'm not sure a dock built like this would suffice. 1. This dock has 24 barrels, so in could support over 10k before sinking. You have to factor in the weight of the dock itself too, but there is plenty of capacity on this dock. 2. It will probably happen eventually, but we used pressure treated lumber. Also, none of the lumber actually touches the water, so that should help. 3. Yes, you could definitely use steel.

@@IndyFarmLife Hello Adam. thank you very much for getting back to me. This is very helpful. I am going to check with the relevant people in regarding to the codes/ordinances and confirm if such dock will suffice for such activity.

Hey Adam, Great video.❤️‍🔥 It is very inspiring as I am in Oxford, GA, currently attempting to repair/replace two dilapidated docks on my private pond. One is 4'x12', and the other is 12'x12'. I was wondering if you considered filling the drums with a boyent close-celled insulation to keep barrels from warping from temperature variants?

It did cross my mind, but my goal was to keep cost down as well. So far they have seemed to hold up just fine.

Thanks Joe! That's a good idea about the grass. Check out some of my later videos with it finished. It turned out awesome!

Yes, I had heard that as well, but I didn't do it. ha As you saw, we closed our barrels up in the blazing heat. They did suck in a bit after the weather turned cold, but we haven't seen any 'collapsing'. They have all held up well with no loss of buoyancy. My fear with a small hole is that water will still somehow find its way in. The best advice I heard was to fill the barrels with closed cell foam. A great idea, but it then defeats the purpose of this being a 'cheap solution'.

Yea, we were hastily moving forward. No harm done thus far though.

@@IndyFarmLife Thanx a bunch!

@@geotechie2391 lol

what do you mean miter the deck? Curious.

For rough math I would say I have 3k lbs (likely less) in materials. There are 24 barrels that can displace roughly 11k lbs when fully submerged. If you even half that and say 5,500lbs of capacity, you could easily put 12 200lb men on it without an issue. I think you would run out of space long before you would ever sink this thing.

@@IndyFarmLife awesome 😎 thanks for your imput

We used 24, which is almost 11k lbs of buoyancy. I think we had slots for 2 more but I opted to use those 2 for my gangway. I only bought 26 total.

Hahaha 😆

@@IndyFarmLife Thank you for all your help!! ill send a pic of finished product

@@IndyFarmLife thank you very much bro

My best advice is that if this is for commercial use that you check your local building codes and see what is acceptable. The barrels may not be. If for personal use, then pour me a cold one, I'm coming over! 50 barrels would support north of 20k lbs. That's a lot!

Yes, that decking can get very hot! I have heard about people filling floats with foam. I can't imagine that would be cheap. I'll be curious to hear if anyone chimes in with a good solution.

Yeah, get a can of spray foam and smear some on the bungs, the idiots that cume up with that sh:t won't know the difference.

Lowes sells a DIY spray foam kit.

@@IndyFarmLife Thanks for answering, maybe the best idea here is to only fill the outer barrels as those are the most likely to strike something. But really if you only using it in your own pond your good to go. Nothing in there to damage the barrels. Have a good time enjoying your new float it looks Great. Any plans planting fish?

haha I now have a canopy. Holding out for the Johnson 150 though! :)

The composite decking is holding up very well! I have to make some gangway repairs in the coming weeks and I'll be sure to shoot an update video. No, I didn't put any ballast in the barrels. If I were making a smaller footprint of a dock I probably would, but ours is so big and heavy that it's not really needed.

Hi Debbie, sorry I don't. It may be worth finding a handy man and showing him this. Perhaps they can replicate it.

Thanks the response. Appreciate it. Deb Thompson

Yes. A lot of us would so much like to see it. Thank you for the first one. I do hope you were masked I when you were sanding.

Nevermind, caught its a 16 x 16. Thanks!

Yes, 16x16. It was pretty heavy until the PT lumber dried out. The Trex decking also weighs about 1,000 lbs. My guess in total is that it's about 2,500 lbs or so.

@@IndyFarmLife thank u

@@IndyFarmLife Finished mine 2 weeks ago , Thank you Worked out great its a Tank. I have blueprints if anyone is intrested

Sure! Love to see them

Roughly 417lbs per barrel at full submersion

Yea, it definitely gets hot. Our Canopy helps a lot though. It's nice in the fall time.

@@IndyFarmLife its all marsh and no hard land, and full of gators

@@IndyFarmLife air boats are to easy to flip. Our inboard mud boats work fine

It's been awesome! It could use a little more stain and a good powerwash, but otherwise great!

@@IndyFarmLife how many barrels did you use do you use all 20

I think 24 under the dock

Each barrel will displace roughly 450lbs at full submersion.

Looking to build a floating sauna. Good info

@@IndyFarmLife wood fire for sure 👍 🔥

I meant if the dock was already in the water.

You would probably need a lift or some piece of equipment to pick up the dock and scoot them under. Otherwise, you have to submerge the barrel enough under water to get it in there. I don't think that would be very easy.

@@conniefrye9448 you would have to set it up so that you allow the barrel to fill with water, move it into position, and then pump out the water. you would need to replace the bungs with proper fittings

How many barrels would you think for a 25x25.?.

I used 24 barrels for a 16x16 dock. You would probably want to sit down and do the math for a 25x25. Or just use the ratio I did on ours

16' x 16'

I've got you/us covered ha. Check out this other video of mine. ukposts.info/have/v-deo/i3OSgH6igaqTpJ8.html

@@IndyFarmLife Not to mention they've been known to crack in frozen water. The round barrels seem to lift. Well done on this float!!

Yup! Lots of displacement!

Nice! I hope you enjoy yours as much as we do ours!

Lumber prices have definitely increased, but so have pre-fabbed units and all the components that a contractor would use if you hired one for a custom build. Everything is still apples to apples. If I had to do it all over again I would certainly build it myself.

@@IndyFarmLife neat, how many commercial and or residential docks have they built? As a 22 year dock contractor through the entire eastern seaboard of the US, I’d say your claims are false.