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Originally Posted by Sunrise Point
"...Pressure treated boards are extremely heavy and not that great for the environment. Has anyone built a dock with cedar framework and decking? Was it worth the extra $$$ to save on weight? I am considering all options..."
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Pressure treated (PT) boards aren't the hazard that they once were, but they are heavy—at least for the first year. If you buy PT one season
early and dry them in a sunny area, they'll be easier to work with. With preservative treatment every other year or so, they can last 25 years or more, as mine have already. Complete immersion by lakewater, such as we've been witnessing recently, is certainly shortening their lifespan. I sometimes wonder if the Lakeport dam operators aren't shareholders in the aluminum dock business!
A neighbor has "edge-grain" fir sections (four-foot sections) in a wood frame that he puts in every year, and has replaced it entirely just once in fifty-five years. Another neighbor built a dock of expensive mahogany, but two seasons of high water and ice pressure has not been kind to it—and it's only two years old.
To do it all again, I'd build a "composite" dock: four pilings driven close to shore outside the reach of ice out to twenty feet or so, with a lift-up aluminum dock attached to it.
A pipe dock, located in your quiet area of the lake, is hard to beat for economy. I'd take
LIforrelaxin's advice on the shorter sections for ease of handling.