Styrofoam for a float?

B

bob Petritsch

Active member
I live on a bulkheaded property where the waterway go down to 3-4 feet below the bulkhead top. Getting into a canoe, rowboat or even the sneakbox is a dicy situation. I've been thinking of putting in a floating dock I could stand on and enter and exit the boats from there.
I've been told that 4 feet wide is a minimum, 12 foot long helps with tippy ness.
My question is can I use the same styrofoam blocks I've been getting for free from Tractor Supply. I am not sure it wil not adsorb water and lose its floatation capabilities.want to keep expenses to a minimum.
 
Googled my question and am more confused. Styrofoam, I thought was the stuff that looks like little white beads stuck together. Sand it and your covered in little white beads of foam.
When I googled foam boat floats the foam they talked about was the blue more solid ,type of foam. I use that foam for the side of my decoy heads. Much firmer, sands well, doesn't get holes chipped out. I bought a single sheet of this material,makes a nice decoy but isn't free and I can get 12X12x 19 blocks for free.
What is the proper names for the different foams? No googled clips used the white bead type foam. The clips all called the blue solid foam as styrofoam but I always called that polystyrene. Which is right?
 
which ever one you use, it needs to be closed cell to keep it from absorbing water.
 
Hello Bob,

I think with any foam, if it is exposed to the water continuously you will be disappointed in it's performance.

Here is a site that specializes in foam and foam coatings: https://hotwirefoamfactory.com

You might be advantaged finding a local small food manufacturer. They may have oil jugs or plastic drums. The jugs are 5 gal, the drums are 55 gal.

It will take some sleuthing, but I anticipate you could get them for next to nothing, if not free, if you can find a source.
 
I've made a few docks and swim floats using boat dock sponsons. Muskrats burrowed up into them and made a nice den. They pushed the micro sized pellets out and covered the lake shore.
I went to black plastic dock floats 2x4x1.
 
I've made a few docks and swim floats using boat dock sponsons. Muskrats burrowed up into them and made a nice den. They pushed the micro sized pellets out and covered the lake shore.
I went to black plastic dock floats 2x4x1.
Click to expand...
I have also discovered muskrats like the blue foam dock billets too. After hollowing out the centre they have a cozy insulated waterfront condo.
 
Good morning, Bob~

The blue stuff is indeed best known as "dock foam". I do not know - but always thought it was closed-cell polyurethane. As others have mentioned, muskrats will chew it up if not enclosed within wire-mesh et cetera.

It's fairly common as flotsam on Great South Bay. Good decoy bodies!

All the best,

SJS
 
I would not use the foam you describe. It will not hold up and will become messy, and you will have to replace it quickly. Get 2 billets of the blue dock foam, it is not free, but it will work properly, and provide you more years of trouble free service than anything else. Not to sound like a smart aleck, and I don't mean to, but if that foam was good, everyone would use it for building docks. Everyone can get it for free somewhere. The blue dock foam is the only thing to use. We don't always think of products like foam as highly engineered for specific purposes, but they are. Those billets are designed to be in the water all of the time as dock floats. You'll be happy you did.
 
around here, I can scrounge all the blue dock foam I want, it comes from derelict, and broke floating docks. You may have the same stuff if your on salt water, look around the high tide wrack line.

As for size, yes, 4' is minimum width, but you'll be happier with 5 unless your a member of the Flying Walendas. :) ,
 
OK you convinced me. Spend some bucks and either go for the blue stuff or special purposed plastic floats. Thoughts about the Admiral falling into the canal from my cheapo dock gives me chills.
 
Make sure you check state regs on what you can use for dock floats. A lot of states don't allow exposed styrofoam for reasons listed above. Also, some states don't allow empty barrels, i.e. you have to fill them with some sort of foam so they won't sink.
 
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The entire docks system where I work during the summers in Alaska are all floated on plane old styrofoam blocks.

The oldest docks are (17) seventeen years old and have been told the styrofoam has never been replaced (though throughout the summer a small piece or two would break off and float way).

There's even a family of sea otters living in one of the sections.

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IMG_2240_zpsemvrubfj.jpg

 
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