Looking for Advice on Pier Repair

[carpe diem]

I have a nice semi-circular wooden pier jutting out about 3-4 ft into my pond, and I love it. Unfortunately the boards at the top are beginning to split and break. I'm pretty sure it was put in by the original owner of the house in the 80s when he built the pond.

I'm completely stumped as to how to fix it. Taking the entire pier apart to put a new one in would mean draining the pond. The quote I got from the local pond company was $60-70k since it's about 10,000 gallons. I know maintaining ponds is expensive, but I don't have quite that amount of disposable cash.

The pier itself seems sturdy, so I'm wondering if I could just change out the boards at the top. My questions are:

1. Would it be safe to just fix the top? I don't know how long wooden piers last under water, even though this one seems quite robust. There's no swaying or wobbling, it's just the top that's coming undone.

2. How the heck do I fix the top? The pier is a semi-circle, and if I DIY this, I'm going to make a mess of it. Is there a contractor out there who fixes piers? None of the pond companies I've looked into will do this kind of bespoke touch-up work.

I've attached a couple of photos of the pier so that you can see the basic construction. (Please ignore the tangle of wires, we were doing some aerator work when I took these photos.)

 

[JRS]

Seems like a good carpenter or deck company could redo the top if it is just boards. Once that is off you might be able to get a better sense of the supports and see if there are areas for concern.

 

[mrsclem]

You could always pull the boards off and use them as templates for new boards.

 

[Jhn]

As long as the supporting, post/pile/pillar that is holding up the front of the deck over the water isn’t rotten there is no reason to drain the pond. It all can be done without even making a mess in the pond.

Redecking is easy and very simple, as long as the supporting stringers are intact, if these are rotten redecking is pointless as the screws won’t have anything to bite into.

Still no big deal if the stringers are rotten simply remove and replace them, if the ledger that holds the stringers up is rotten just remove and replace as well. As long as whatever is going into the water isn’t rotten, which is the main support of your deck, you can easily replace it. Even if it is rotten there are ways to make up supports to hold the deck up, may be a little more involved but still doable without draining the pond.

To keep saw dust out of your pond just measure and make your cuts away from the water.

This is what I do for work, build structures over the water, just on a much larger scale, but same principles apply.

 

[GBBUDD]

You could always pull the boards off and use them as templates for new boards.

close

You may be able to sister new joists onto the old joists meaning install one right next to an other and if you have to do that to each joist

The outside band joist is the hardest thing to replace but that can simply be some pine board jost covering the old round that you can use even if rotted to duplicate the shape.

and the inside frame can be stacked between the joists. Like @JRS said it's really nothing a good carpenter can't handle. and if you just add new next to the old screw and bolt them together you can get some more years out of it

 

[carpe diem]

@Jhn and @GBBUDD I had to look up most of those terms (definitely not a carpenter here), but I get what you're saying.

I poked my head under the pier today to see if I could get a good look at the guts of the thing, and a piece of the rim fell into the water. So that's not a great sign. But I'm feeling a lot more positive after your answers. I'm going to get in touch with a decking company and see if they can assess the damage. Fingers crossed that the rot doesn't go too far down!

 

[GBBUDD]

that outside rim has to be a decorative piece of trim. I doubt it's structural . Was it 3/4" thick that fell?
I'm betting the frame it's self has two joists one off toward each side that are doubled up and overhang the water. Then headered off and filled in those will be your main supports. Take a pointed knife and poke at those if it sticks in but doesn't go to far in then your in luck if they go deep they are shot.