Construction Ideas?
 

We are going to be making a 200' boardwalk and need ideas for the materials. The boardwalk goes over a wet area and will flood occasionally. We currently have a raised boardwalk there with posts cemented in and pressure treated wood, etc but the ground is too mucky and the boardwalk tends to warp over time due to the posts rising out the ground.

I am thinking something that will float when needed but will be on the ground most the time. Styrofoam is out the question because the rats and squirrels would have a field day with it

Do any of you know of any material or some sort of company that makes something like this? Thanks

Get some old barrels and seal them for flotation. you could even fill them with foam or something to make sure they don't spring a leak and sink. If you seal the outside nothing will be able to get to the foam inside.

Forgot to add this has to be ADA compliant (wheelchair accessible)

You either need to remove all the wet area and fill in with good dirt or drive post far enough to hit solid earth. Driving post/piles would be way cheaper.

x2 with composite deck boards screwed to a frame with ceramic coated screws. then anchor floats some how with cement blocks that are wide so they have a bigger footprint which will cause it to settle less

The area is a wetland and we may go with a new anchoring system (helical anchors?) and keep it raised up instead of floating (like you said its much cheaper), Pox what composite boards are you speaking of? I would like to get something more durable than wood if possible and looking at recycled plastic even but hear that rodents really enjoy that

Not knowing the magnitude of your problem it is had to offer solutions. Can you post a picture?

But.....if this is just a "wet area", why not get a few loads of dirt [60/40 clay] to form a "raised" walking path. If you need to allow water to get past, use some PVC pipe as culverts. If rain water is a BIG problem, this may not work.

This would take about 35 cu. yards of dirt to make a 4 foot wide x 1 foot high and 200 feet long path. This should cost under $ 500 plus the cost [labor] to spread the dirt. Putting rocks to cover the surface, would cost more.

No filling in of wetlands, no no!:grinpimp: This is going to be for a walkway through a wetland in Grand Isle actually. Its a marsh area that rises at times of heavy rains (not tidal though). I am thinking we are either just going to use helical anchors and a raised boardwalk or there is a company called EZ Dock that looks pretty good actually that may work

Update and more questions
 

The floating boarwalk was out of the price range, we are now going to use a helical anchoring system and set the boarwalk up 3' and use either 5/4 treated wood or another material. Someone had recommended using fiberglass grating like in the picture below. I saw a guy on Grand Isle that had the floor of the camp deck made out of this and he also used this instead of boards or expanded metal to make a really nice ATV trailer

Questions:

1. Do any of you have any experience with this fiberglass grating?
I think its common in the oilfield

2. Are there any types of helical anchors that can be installed by a hand held auger? Only having luck finding ones that have to be installed with a machine like a Bobcat


thanks, not trying to hijack from the 'Inchspinner vs W' thread