Boathouse Construction & Restoration
New timber-frame boathouses, sympathetic restorations of century-old structures, and the crib and piling work underneath that decides whether either one lasts.
What you need to know
On Lake George, a boathouse is tightly defined by regulation. The Adirondack Park Agency treats a boathouse as a covered structure with direct water access used only for storing boats and equipment, with no sanitary plumbing, a single story — the roof rafters must rest on the top plate of the first-floor wall — a footprint of 1,200 square feet or less and a height of 15 feet or less. The Lake George Park Commission separately caps anything built on a dock at 16 feet above mean high water. Where the two differ, the more restrictive rule governs. We design to that envelope from the first sketch.
What this covers
- New timber-frame boathouse construction
- Historic boathouse restoration
- Crib and piling replacement underneath
- Sundecks, stairs and railings
- Roofing, siding and tongue-and-groove interiors
- APA and LGPC compliant design
Boathouses
The structure is underneath
Every boathouse conversation on Lake George eventually becomes a conversation about cribs.
These buildings sit on timber boxes filled with stone, or on pilings driven into the bed of the lake, and those supports are working every day against ice, wave action and a century of freeze-thaw. When a boathouse door starts binding, when a floor develops a slope, when a roof line goes wavy — the carpentry is almost never the cause. Something below the waterline has moved.
We assess boathouses from the water up. That means diving or wading the cribs, checking stone loss and timber condition, measuring settlement across the footprint, and telling you what is actually happening before anyone quotes shingles.
Boathouses
New builds inside a tight envelope
The regulatory envelope for a new Lake George boathouse is genuinely small: 1,200 square feet, single storey, 15 feet tall. Designing well inside it is a craft.
The moves that make the difference are proportional. Roof pitch and overhang set the character of the building far more than square footage does. A tongue-and-groove pine ceiling with recessed lighting turns a boat bay into a room. Board-and-batten siding, real timber framing left exposed, and a sundeck detailed with cable railing rather than a wall of pickets — these are what separate a boathouse that belongs on this lake from a garage over water.
Boathouses
Restoration without erasing the building
Some of the finest structures on Lake George could not be permitted today at the size they already are. That makes restoration a legal exercise as much as a construction one: the goal is to renew the building without triggering a review that resets it to current limits.
We have done enough of this work to know where those lines sit and to sequence a project so that a boathouse comes out sound, dry and structurally new underneath while remaining, on paper and in fact, the same building.
How it goes
From first call to finished work
No surprises, no vanishing acts between the deposit and the build.
Condition survey
For a restoration we start underneath — cribs, pilings, sills and floor framing. For a new build we survey the site, confirm depth and establish your buildable envelope.
Design to the envelope
Footprint, height, roof pitch and deck area are worked backwards from the APA and LGPC limits so the design that excites you is also the design that gets approved.
Permits and approvals
APA jurisdiction, LGPC dock and wharf permit, DEC where the bed of the lake is disturbed, and the town building permit. We file and track all of it.
Build and finish
Structure first, then roof, siding, tongue-and-groove ceilings, lighting and the sundeck. Most boathouse projects run across a winter and finish before the season.
Recent work
Boathouses on Lake George
Photographs from our own projects around the lake. Click any image to enlarge.
Common questions
Boathouses, answered
The questions Lake George owners actually ask us. If yours is not here, ask it directly — we would rather answer than have you guess.
Can I put living space above a boathouse on Lake George?
No. Under the Adirondack Park Agency definition, a boathouse must not exceed a single story — specifically, the roof rafters have to rest on the top plate of the first-floor wall — and it cannot contain sanitary plumbing of any kind. It is for storing boats and associated equipment. Structures with habitable second storeys exist on the lake, but they generally predate the current rules and are treated as pre-existing non-conforming. If you own one, that status is valuable and easy to lose during a rebuild. Talk to us before you touch it.
How big can a new boathouse be?
A footprint of 1,200 square feet or less, and a height of 15 feet or less, to stay within the APA boathouse definition. You may add up to 100 square feet of combined deck and porch footprint attached to the boathouse without it counting toward the footprint, provided those decks and porches are not adjacent to a dock. The LGPC's own 16-foot height limit above mean high water applies to structures on docks and wharfs.
Can I add a sundeck on top of my boathouse?
Often yes, and it is one of the most-requested projects we do — but it interacts with both the height limit and the single-storey rule, and the answer genuinely depends on the existing structure and its regulatory status. A sundeck on a pre-existing non-conforming boathouse is a different conversation from a sundeck on a new build. We work the numbers before anyone gets attached to a rendering.
My boathouse is a hundred years old. Repair or replace?
Start with what is holding it up. Many of the lake's older boathouses have sound framing sitting on cribs that have settled, spread or lost their stone. In that case you are looking at marine work below and carpentry above — expensive, but it preserves a structure that could not legally be rebuilt to the same dimensions today. When the sills and floor framing are gone as well, the calculation changes. We give you a straight answer with photographs, not a sales pitch.
Do you work on the cribs under an existing boathouse?
Yes — it is a large part of what we do, and it is the least visible and most consequential work on the lake. We jack and support the structure, rebuild or replace failed cribs and pilings, re-stone, and set it back down true. Much of it happens in cold water in the winter drawdown, which is exactly why so few contractors offer it.
Related
Often part of the same project
Lake George, New York
Let's talk about your boathouses
Tell us the property, the shoreline and what you have in mind. We will tell you what is possible, what it involves and roughly what it costs — before anyone commits to anything.