There is no national dock code. Here is what we size to instead.

Every dock claim sits on one of three rungs, and mixing them is how dock software ends up sounding authoritative about nothing.

These caps decide the dock’s width and footprint before any engineering starts. 6 of the rows below are wired into the estimator: tell it the state and the kind of water and it checks your dock against that authority’s numbers and names the office behind them. The other two are reference — federal Corps authorisation applies everywhere, and the submerged-vegetation guidelines apply by habitat, so neither can be selected from a state.

17 numbers decide a dock takeoff. 8 are sourced to a published document, 3 are partial, and 6 have no published source at all — those are labelled Gap here, on the line item in your takeoff, and in the engine’s own code comments.

Catalog buoyancy is a full-submersion figure — a drum rated 500 lb delivers 500 lb only when the dock is awash — so the rating is credited at design submergence, and the dock’s dead load alone is what rides there.

1. 01 · Dead load

   One 8′×20′ section, aluminum frame and aluminum decking: 3.0 psf frame + 1.5 psf decking = 4.5 psf, or 720 lb over 160 sq ft.

2. 02 · Required flotation

   The worst of three: dead at 45% submergence (4.5 ÷ 0.45 = 10 psf), the reserve-buoyancy rule — dead plus FULL live load with 2″ of the 16″ drum still above water, so (4.5 + 20) ÷ 0.875 = 28.0 psf — and the published 28 psf residential floor. Here the last two tie at 28.0 psf. On a heavier dock the reserve rule governs outright: a pressure-treated frame and deck (8.5 psf dead) asks (8.5 + 20) ÷ 0.875 = 32.6 psf.

3. 03 · Drum count

   160 sq ft × 28 psf = 4,480 lb ÷ 500 lb per drum = 9, rounded to 10 so the drums pair across the width — 5,000 lb of catalog buoyancy, or 31.3 psf, inside the published 28–35 band.

4. 04 · Where it floats

   720 lb of dead load against 5,000 lb of buoyancy = 14% submerged at rest, which puts a 16″ drum near the top of the 14–24″ dead-load freeboard band in CA DBW 2005 §C3.

Live load is carried by an explicit rule, not by an assumption. UFC 4-152-07 §6-3.3.2 states it geometrically — at least 2″ of the pontoon stays above water at dead load plus full live load — which is a stronger criterion than the manufacturer submergence practice and is what governs on any dock heavier than a bare aluminum frame. The two agree where they overlap: the published 28–35 psf totals were written for wood docks at 10–15 psf dead, and putting those through the same reserve rule gives (10…15 + 20) ÷ 0.875 = 34–40 psf — the top of the published band. Comparing loads against full-submersion catalog ratings instead, as this engine once did, lands at ~21–23.5 psf: below everything published, and invisible unless someone states the basis. UFC 4-152-07 §6-3.3.2 · Ameren App. B §7.7.1 · Dock Builders Supply

12 site conditions stop the quote and say why. The text below is generated by running the engine, not written for this page — so a check that stopped firing would disappear from here rather than become a claim nothing backs.

The DOCK-BP prefix is deliberate: these are best-practice checks, not code checks, because there is no code to check against. Past documented practice the engine flags and stops rather than extrapolating a size it cannot support.

Every source we rely on, with the file facts that let you verify our transcription against your own download.

ASCE MOP 50, Planning and Design Guidelines for Small Craft Harbors, is the marine engineer’s standard of practice and is paywalled. We name it as what an engineer designs to, and we never quote a number from it that we have not verified in a document we can hand you.

Three limits worth knowing before you lean on a dock takeoff, stated plainly because finding them out later is expensive.

• →Jurisdiction coverage is 6 authorities deep, not fifty. The measurement captures your state and water body and checks the caps above where we hold them — Wisconsin, Minnesota, Washington fresh water, Florida, New York tidal waters, and TVA reservoirs. Everywhere else the estimator states plainly that it has no rules on file and names who to ask; it will not invent a cap, and a checked cap is still not a permit.
• →Freeboard is not checked. The published bands (CA DBW 2005 §C3: 14–24″ dead-load-only, 10″ loaded minimum; 12–18″ residential practice) are reference here, not a rule the engine enforces on your entry.
• →This is estimating, not engineering. Nothing here is stamped, and light-duty residential practice is the whole scope — marina loading, open water, boat lifts and vehicle traffic belong with a marine engineer.

Is there a building code for docks?

There is no national dock code. Unlike a deck, which has the International Residential Code and the AWC DCA 6 prescriptive span tables, a residential dock has no national standard and no prescriptive table. Authority is split three ways: rules with legal force (your U.S. Army Corps district under Section 10 / 404, your state waterway agency, and local shoreline zoning), published design guidelines (California Department of Boating and Waterways, Layout and Design Guidelines for Marina Berthing Facilities, 2005 — citable by section but not law), and documented manufacturer practice (published flotation methods, minimum water depths, pipe-dock limits). Any dock product claiming code compliance is describing a code that does not exist.

How much flotation does a floating dock need?

Published residential practice puts total flotation at 28–35 psf of deck area, counted at catalog buoyancy ratings (Dock Builders Supply; American Muscle Docks gives ~30 psf as the round number). The critical caveat is that catalog ratings are measured at 100% submersion — a 500 lb drum only delivers 500 lb with the dock awash — so flotation is sized at a design submergence of roughly 40%, never past 50%. Our engine sizes so the dock's dead load alone rides at no more than 45% drum submergence, with a floor of 28 psf, and the 25 psf uniform live load from CA DBW 2005 §C2.2 is served by the reserve above that.

How deep does the water need to be for a floating dock?

EZ Dock publishes 2–3 ft as the minimum, with 3–5 ft typical; we size to 2.5 ft of depth at seasonal low water and flag anything shallower. Depth is not only a performance question: Washington prohibits floats grounding out at all (WAC 220-660-140), so in some states a dock that touches bottom at low water is a regulatory problem rather than a nuisance.

How steep can a dock gangway be?

California DBW publishes TWO slope limits, and both reference the water rather than the dock: 3:1 at or above 0.0 MLLW and 2½:1 below it (§F2.9.1), or inland, 3:1 for at least 90% of the time and 2½:1 for no more than 10% (§F2.9.2). Neither a tidal datum nor an exceedance duration can be derived from a seasonal high and low typed into a form, so the estimator checks the STRICT 3:1 arm only and states that limitation on every gangway — a 2 ft swing needs at least 6 ft of gangway. Also from the same section: 36" minimum clear width (§F2.4), guards 42–45" with no 4" sphere passage (§F2.6.1.2). Gangway live load depends on the design basis — 30 psf residential (Ameren App. B §7.9) or 100 psf marina (DBW §F2.2). These are published guidelines, not law.

Who issues a permit for a residential dock?

Usually three offices, and you need all of them named before you quote: the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers district for the waterbody (Section 10 / Section 404 — the 2026 Nationwide Permits run 2026-03-15 through 2031-03-15, and NWP 2 covers only structures in artificial canals within residential developments, so most new residential docks ride a district Regional General Permit or an individual permit), the state waterway agency (Wisconsin DNR, Minnesota DNR, Florida DEP, Washington WDFW, New York DEC, or TVA on its reservoirs), and local shoreline zoning. Their dimensional caps — pier width, total square footage, distance from shore — shape the dock before any engineering starts.

Which states’ dock size limits does deckpro.studio check automatically?

Six authorities, because six are what we have retrieved and checksummed against the agency’s own document: Wisconsin DNR (exempt pier 6 ft wide, loading platform 200 sq ft), Minnesota DNR (no permit where no part exceeds 8 ft wide), Washington WDFW under WAC 220-660-140 (6 ft over the first 30 ft from shore in fresh water, and floats may not ground out at all), Florida DEP under Fla. Stat. 403.813(1)(b) (exempt to 500 sq ft in Outstanding Florida Waters, 1,000 sq ft elsewhere), NYSDEC tidal-waters guidance DFW-6 (catwalks 4 ft, floating docks reviewed in tiers at 200 sq ft), and TVA on its reservoirs under 18 CFR 1304.204 (1,000 sq ft, 150 ft from shore, walkways 6 ft). Record the state and the water body on the measurement and the estimator compares the drawn dock against those numbers and names the office behind each. For any other jurisdiction it says it has no rules on file and points you at your waterway authority — it does not guess at a cap, and it never tells you the dock is permitted.