Get on board with cedar
The main reason we go to the cottage is to spend time in the great outdoors. And if you plan to spend much of that time lolling about with your feet dangling off the edge of a dock, it only makes sense that the platform you're resting on is constructed with a natural material.
Cedar is the most dimensionally stable of the standard lumber choices-important, given the constant wet-dry cycles a dock faces-and is the least likely to twist and cup. But the best reason to choose cedar for dock building is its natural rot- and insect-resistance. Untreated, a cedar dock will weather to a silvery grey and should last about a decade (or longer if you're lucky). You can retain that golden hue and double its life expectancy with a regularly maintained protective finish. (If you do opt to stain it, be sure to do so well back from the water's edge and to allow everything to dry thoroughly-for at least 72 hours-before you launch your dock.) The dock shown in this project was finished with an environmentally friendly water-based stain made by Sansin (www.sansin.com).
Stainless steel is the ideal choice for screws, bolts and other hardware, both for durability and aesthetics. (The zinc coating on galvanized hardware leaves black stains on cedar.) Just make sure you don't mix stainless steel with other metals, as the dissimilar materials will have a corrosive reaction.
The only real drawback to cedar is cost. It retails for as much as twice the price of pressure-treated lumber. You can lower your dock budget a bit by using cheaper pressure-treated wood for the framing members, and then covering them with cedar. Remember to treat all cut ends of the pressure-treated wood with preservative. As with staining, do this away from the water, and allow the treatment to dry completely before putting your dock in the lake.
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