We build and repair docks on a reservoir that barely moves. That single fact shapes everything below — where wood fails, how high a deck sits, and what TVA will approve.
The organizing idea
Lake Guntersville runs roughly 593 feet in winter drawdown and 595 feet at summer pool. A two-foot annual swing is small for a TVA reservoir, and it means the wet-dry cycle on your pilings happens inside a narrow stripe rather than spread across six or eight feet of timber.
Wood rots fastest where it is alternately wet and dry with air present. On this lake that zone is a band. Pilings hourglass there. Stringer ends soften there. Fasteners rust there first. Everything above it usually looks fine, which is why a dock can pass a walk-around and still be losing its structure.
So we start at the band. Every inspection, every quote, every argument about repair versus replacement begins with what the wood is doing between winter and summer waterline.
What we hold ourselves to
TVA §1304.204(d) requires the deck of a fixed structure to sit at least 18 inches above the normal summer pool elevation. Builders who ignore it hand the owner a structure that can be ordered modified. We design to it and say so on the drawing.
A TVA 26a approval is a real review, not a formality — plan on roughly 100 to 120 days and a $1,000 application fee for a typical residential dock. We tell you that before you make a schedule promise to anyone.
When more than about half the framing is compromised, repair stops being the cheaper answer and permitting treats the work differently. We will show you the count of members rather than round it in our favor.
How we work
We publish market cost ranges on the cost guide so you can sanity-check any bid on this lake, including ours. Your quote depends on depth, access and scope.
What we won't do
Tell us what the wood is doing between winter and summer waterline. That one answer usually tells us whether you are looking at a repair or a rebuild.
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