We used to have a swing next to the second pond... A contraption build with some cedar trunks that had proven very sturdy, if not aesthetic. Thao did not like it and we decided to build a pier like we had done over the 1st pond, and then a nicer garden swing. The problem was that the liner of this pond was leaking (a mistake of the guy who had build it in the first place). So replacing the swing involved redoing the pond, then the pier then the swing... Quite a project !
This was a simpler project so the Sketchup was rather rudimentary:
The pond has a rubber liner. This is middle TN and the ground is mostly limestone from the Ordovician to the Mississippian periods (roughly between 400 and 300 million years ago-Wikipedia-) with TONS of cracks, sinkholes and caves, and the pond is just over the rocks, so no choice but using a liner.
Because of that, no possible "planting" of posts. They rest on a support to spread the pressure. So it is a bit of a challenge to set a post vertical when neither the post nor the braces can be firmly attached, AND the post is trying as best as it can to float away !
Using the good ol' Quickgrips an almost straight system slowly emerges
The vertical posts are joined by two bearers (one being placed on this image). The bearers need to be horizontal as this is just above water, and a lean would be very visible..
Time to predill for some 1/2" (12 mm) lag screws
The two bearers in place the outer joist can be attached
Danh is verifying the assembly
Clearly the grounds has to be "adapted"...
So I become "Mattock man"
The joists are screwed onto the band board on the ground side
I trust lag screws very much :). Note the elegant tool pocket resting on my belly !
Now the band board can be attached on the pond side
The joists in place and screwed on the pond side
Starts to be sturdy. The joists are now secured on the band, land-side
Starting to put the decking...
A little notch on boards that go over the vertical posts
Progress with the decking
... And here a little miracle happens :)...
All of a sudden the decking is finished, and painted (twice, Thao does not do half jobs!), and the swing is build. The swing actually went so fast we did not have time to take the camera! Of course the swing was also designed in Sketchup. We made it so that when sitting on it our feet don't drag on the deck when swinging. Very comfortable.
The top of one post became a table to leave drinks, snacks or even small pick-nick. The short post became a support for a set of stairs to enter (and exit) the water, so this became our "swimming pond"
We also build a shelve under the pier to store water stuff like the noodles. The turnover of the water is very high in this pond, one water exchange every 5 days, so the water is clear enough to see my toes when I am standing in it (the other ponds have a thriving algae population and one cannot see a hand at a hand's depth. Being so close to the tool shop this is also the ideal place to cool a overheating-covered-in-shavings-and-sawdust woodworker.
The next year we decided to add an arch on which to grow a vine to shade the swing. This is wood we cut ourselves on the sawmill and thus had to protected with Cuprinol, then stain with deck stain
We forgot to take pictures but there are a bunch of transverse bar on top for plants to grow. The clematis is very pretty but in no rush of covering the whole arch :(
