About Dockside DIY

Twenty Years on the Water

I’m Trent Hollis. I’m not a licensed marine contractor — I’m a waterfront property owner on the Gulf Coast who got completely obsessed with docks, seawalls, and boat lifts after my first DIY dock repair turned into a two-weekend nightmare. Two decades later, through hurricanes, through salt, and through every kind of shortcut a previous builder left behind for me to discover on my own and my neighbors’ properties, that kind of hands-on tinkering is just who I am now. If it bolts to a piling or lives half-submerged in brackish water, I’ve probably installed it, fixed it, or pulled its corroded remains out of the bay myself.

Why I Write for DIYers Now

Two things I saw over and over among waterfront neighbors: people paying contractor prices for repairs they could have done in a Saturday, and people attempting projects that were doomed from the first board because nobody told them about galvanic corrosion or their county’s setback rules. The gap between those two situations is just information, and that’s what this site is — the walkthrough I’d give a neighbor leaning over my transom asking questions.

What I Cover

Dock framing and decking choices that survive real water (and the pressure-treated grades that don’t). Fasteners and hardware — where 316 stainless is worth it, where hot-dip galvanized will do, and why mixing metals underwater is how you buy the same hardware twice. Boat lift maintenance, seawall inspection, piling repair, storm prep that actually happens before the storm, and the permits most waterfront owners don’t know they need until the county notice arrives.

A Straight Word on Safety and Permits

Water makes construction unforgiving — loads are bigger than they look, and mistakes float away or sink. When a project needs an engineer, a licensed pro, or a permit, the guide says so plainly. Check your county’s rules before you build; I’ll keep reminding you.

How the site is funded: advertising plus occasional affiliate links to hardware and materials I’d use on my own dock — small commission, no extra cost to you, zero influence on what I recommend.

Get In Touch

Planning a build or staring at a leaning piling? Contact me here.