bigragu

Bought my place back in the mid 90’s. Bought it for the two acre pond, as where I live having a source of water is like owning gold. Only thing I hated about the pond, was that the previous owner build a cheap bridge, with 4 x4 posts in the water. In time, the bridge rotted out.

Now, here we are, and for reasons too complicated to explain, I had to drain the pond, and this time I knew how I was going to have the bridge built. I designed it, and had 5” round, schedule 80 galvanized poles sunk in. 8 for the bridge, that spans out 53’. It will finish out at 6’ in width. Meanwhile, at the other end of the pond, wifey wanted a dock, so a 12’ wide by 18’ dock is also in the works.

Even though I’m capable and glad that I have full control of the design, it pains me( pun) that I cannot physically work on the darn thing, due to a recent back fusion. Thank goodness for my son, and some great friends that I have coming up from four hours away, this thing will get done. I just need to keep the work flow going, and the materials ahead of them.

Pictured are the posts for the bridge, and dock, with special 1/4” plate brackets I had custom made by my design, to accept 4x12 treated beams.


In the next upcoming posts, I’ll get the photos up to speed on how it was designed, along with its progress. The photos you see are what’s out there now, and these posts were installed last fall.

The materials are on site, and the build starts this week.

bigragu

Pics of bracket design sketches, brackets delivered and getting primed, brackets welded in place. A transit was shot to establish the water height line. I will be 18” from water to bottom of brackets. My neighbor welded them in for me, and did a great job!

bigragu

More design sketches I drew up. These drawings are aiding me in two ways- using it as a materials take off for order. I was able to get as accurate all the way to the last nut, bolt, and screw. Waste will be zero to very minimal.

Second- making great use of my manpower help. Time is precious to everyone, and I respect that. To avoid the “what we gonna do’s” and “how about we do it THIS WAY”, I sketched out exactly how I wanted it built, so any fussin’ around is minimal. If anything, I want the guys offering their help to have a good time. Anytime “brainless” type work is done, it’s always a good time, I believe.

Kept my 4x12 spans within 12’ or less, and every attachment is using a Simpson Z-Max joist hanger, which are either screwed or lagged in. I figure I’m only doing this once, so I’m going to build it to last. The prices of materials aren’t going down anytime soon, so do the best you can, lol.

The previous owner who built the LEGO bridge that crumbled, spanned 50’ using 2x10 Doug fir as the main beams(one on each side), and spanned 50’ using two sets of 4x4 also in Doug fir. Thatthing bowed and rocketed so bad, any friend I had that was pushing 280lbs in weight wasn’t allowed on the island, lol, for fear of the bridge collapsing under him.

My goal was to build it beefy enough so a lawn tractor or ATV could easily drive over it.

bigragu

Lumber delivered last Friday, I painted all 160 joist hangers, tomorrow I’ve having the posts all painted flat black, all my hardware is on a cart organized, and the build starts this Wednesday.

Will post up more pics to show progression. The goal is to beat the irrigation ditch from filling up the pond before the construction finishes!

Lary Ellis (Top)

Great set up!

Lots of great times ahead at the pond for sure!

bigragu

Thanks, Larry. 3 years ag when I drained it I ended up losing all my fish to cranes and raccoons, as I had no place to move them to. Upset me to have to do that, but the pond sides were leaking due to muskrat and beaver abuse.

Last summer I hired my great neighbor who has years of pond building/maintenance expertise and he took his large back hoe and dug out two deep sink holes about 30’ in diameter at the bottom of the pond, and about 20’ deep. He said now if I ever have to refrain it the fish will all have a place to hang out in. He then used a lot of the dirt, along with the 30 trucks of dirt I had hauled in, to beef up the sides and banks, and compacted them.

When the pond is nice and full I’m going to call on this place in Chico, CA who specializes in restocking ponds. I’m gonna put in the delta catfish, bass, bluegill, and crappie, like I once had.

The catfish that I had in there prior to draining it, some of them were easily 3’ long. For the first year after I moved here I burnt myself out by fishing everyday after work, lol. Now, anymore, I let all my buddies bring their kids over to fish. Some of my friends kids caught their first fish ever on my pond, and those kids are in their twenties now, and some of them turned out to be fishin’ fools, lol!

maybe368

Looks good Augie. I see your vision, i wish I had a pond but I don't think the city or the space I have would allow it. You mentioned refilling when the irrigation hits, do you feel good about getting it finished in time?...Mark

bigragu

It’s an all summer project, for sure, between the two structures

bigragu

Got off to a late start, lol. After all the tools were rounded up, the ******** of lumber begins

bigragu

After 5 1/2 hours, this is where we stopped. This evening we will run the 1/2” thru bolts thru the post brackets to lock in the wood. Tomorrow the cross members go in.

My son did well. Very well.

bigragu

This morning the intermediate beams went in

bigragu

Ok, so tomorrow is joist hanging day, as today took a lot of prepping of the intermediate beams. Again, my son was a trooper, as he worked thru the heat of the day.

bigragu

Well, at 2 pm today I would say we are 95% completed. We just have to fill in that wedge shape at the entry into the bridge. Took my son and I 22 hours from Wednesday to today, or 44 man hours.

Gotta give all credit to my son, who did 99% of the physical work, which included coming to my aid to pick up my layout pencil if I dropped it on the ground. In fact, anything on the ground that I needed to reach, he would come to my aid, all while still staying focused on his tasks.

I figure Sunday we will wrap up that wedge area, apply bitchethane wrap on top of all the framing, then move our set up across the pond to start the dock.

madhat

Real nice. I'm gonna have a giant pond one day too.

oliver foster

Nice looking work.
That will be a great place to go hang out.

I see bitchethane is not just a New England carpentry term.