Dock Corner Brackets

Dock corner bracket should be considered in every dock building project. Typically they are used in at least the four outer corners of the dock, however they should be considered at every structural joint intersection.

Galvanized Dock Corner Brackets

Dock corner brackets are either made of 1/8 or 1/4 in bent plate. If you are using 2″ x 6″ construction materials you would consider the 5″ x 6″ bracket on the inside or a 5″ x 8″ bracket on the outside. At Richardson Docks we like to use the heavier 1/4″ galvanized plate on all the inside corners. You should always consider using galvanized brackets and galvanized nuts, washers and bolts. They will last for ever and always look good over time. Square backing plates are a good idea especially if you are not using carriage bolts.
Dock corner brackets can also be found as a joining bracket combination. These obviously would be bolted to the outside corners of two adjoining dock sections.
When you are using dock corner brackets on the inside cross pieces you can get away with 2″ galvanized angle brackets. These can be lag bolted as apposed to regular bolts.

Dock Corner Brackets as Attachment Points

When we build a dock or raft that we want to put a transom on we like to employ an eye bolt in place of one of the regular bolts. This can be used as a safety tie for the motor.
In addition to this you can also consider attaching an anchor bracket to the one of the dock corner brackets.

From an engineering perspective dock corner brackets used through out will prevent your dock from racking and flexing causing corners to want to pull away. They also give that additional strength required when attaching larger boats or aircraft.

At Richardson Docks all of our do-it-yourself packages come with the appropriate dock corners and attaching hardware. We pre-drill the holes so all you have to do is bolt it together. For more information on our DOY project see our dock projects page.

Don’t forget to visit our face book page as we will be posting projects this year that might help you with some ideas.