Green Docks and Piers: Coming Soon?
by Joyce Deaton

With a growing environmental awareness among homeowners, marina owners and dock builders, the momentum for using green marine building materials and techniques is steadily growing.

To find out what’s going on in the marketplace, Pilot talked with Mark Clements, owner of Clements Marine Construction in Hampstead, and Gary Bowers, general manager of Sound Marine in Wilmington. These experts see different ends of the market. Clements builds docks, piers and sea walls for residences, marinas and community docks, while Sound Marine manufactures floating docks at its Wilmington facility for installation at large commercial operations along the East Coast from Maryland to Georgia.

The real villain in marine construction, from an ecological point of view, is the chemically treated lumber used for pilings. Though the chemicals have improved from mostly arsenic to mostly copper, they still pollute. “This hasn’t changed in 25 years,” says Clements. “Since the pilings are in constant contact with the water, it’s by far the most important factor.”

Within the past few months, Clements has learned of a new type of treated wood for decking boards, however. The new product is still treated lumber, but it’s treated with far smaller amounts of chemicals. “It actually looks better than the treated lumber we’ve been using,” he says. Other alternatives for decking have been on the market for some time – composite boards that last longer and are more environmentally friendly. These are marketed under the names Trex, WeatherBest and others.

“Composite decking has been growing in popularity,” says Clements. “It’s sort of like the process with vinyl sea walls. At first, people were skeptical of them, but after they began to see a few of them, they liked what they saw. Now we build most of our seawalls out of vinyl.”

Though composite materials are unquestionably longer lasting and more environmentally friendly, their cost (roughly three times that of wood) keeps many homeowners and marina operators from choosing them. “When they consider that a dock or pier around here is subject to being blown away in a hurricane, some people are going to decide not to spend that extra money,” Clements says. “Then too, when you consider the effect of the treated pilings, your choice of decking material doesn’t really make that much difference.”

But help may be on the way, says Bowers of Sound Marine. A new glass-impregnated lumber, which could replace treated lumber, is just hitting the market under the brand of TimberSIL. “The fibers of the wood are wrapped with glass, which protects it from damage and decay,” he explains. “It looks very promising.”

Bowers’ company has been working to design and build green docks for a couple of years. “It seems a shame to put things that are not environmentally friendly in the water because it affects everybody,” he says. Up to now, their best effort has been to build a hybrid dock that’s partly recyclable aluminum and partly wood, which keeps the cost down. “It’s hard to isolate the aluminum from the corrosiveness of the lumber, so we’re hoping this different type of lumber will be more compatible,” he says. “That will enable us to build a dock that’s cheaper, stronger, heavier and completely clean.”

Other new materials are also emerging. ArmorDock manufactures PVC piling sleeves that can be filled with concrete and reinforcing bars and can extend upward to adjust to high tides. “These are very good in residential settings and present no harm to the environment,” he says. “We’ve also been using Pearson fiberglass pilings, which can be constructed with a single piling mount in the center instead of two. Both of these products are more expensive than traditional treated pilings, but in some situations their cost is mitigated by easier installation.”

While most newly developed and environmentally friendly products cost more than treated lumber, Bowers says many of his customers are interested and are willing to pay more for a product that is greener. “We’ve been trying to educate ourselves and our customers, and people are certainly listening. After all, it’s pretty expensive to have our waterways slowly ruined, too.”