Timber Cribs, Pilings & Shoreline Stabilization
The work below the waterline that everything else stands on — new timber cribs, driven pilings, rebuilt banks and erosion control that survives ice, runoff and wake.
What you need to know
A timber crib is an open box of heavy timber, built on shore or on the ice, floated into position and then filled with graded stone until it sinks and settles onto the lake bed. It is the traditional foundation for Lake George docks and boathouses because most of this shoreline is ledge and boulder that will not accept a driven pile. Cribs resist ice and wave loading through mass and friction rather than embedment, and a well-built one will carry a structure for thirty to fifty years — but they do settle, spread and lose stone, and that is when they need us.
What this covers
- New timber crib construction and setting
- Crib rebuild, re-stoning and re-levelling
- Driven, jetted and socketed pilings
- Shoreline retaining walls and rip-rap
- Erosion control and bank restoration
- Barge access for remote shorelines
Cribs & Shoreline Work
Nobody wants to do this work
In-water marine construction on Lake George means cold water, short weather windows, materials that have to arrive by barge or over ice, and agencies that will ask hard questions about what you put on the bed of a drinking-water lake. It is the reason a homeowner can find ten contractors to build a deck and struggle to find one who will rebuild the cribs under a boathouse.
We keep the equipment, the barge access and the crew for it, and we do a meaningful amount of this work in the winter drawdown when the shallows are exposed and cribs can be set through the ice.
Cribs & Shoreline Work
Cribs, pilings, and knowing which
The choice is made by the bottom, and the only way to know the bottom is to go and look.
We sound the depth across your footprint, probe for the sediment-to-ledge transition, and establish how much embedment a pile could actually achieve. Where there is good material and depth, driven pilings are faster, cheaper and less intrusive. Where there is ledge under two feet of sand — which is a very Lake George situation — a pile that refuses early is a liability, and cribs are the durable answer. Occasionally the right solution is a pile socketed into rock, which is specialist work and priced accordingly.
Cribs & Shoreline Work
Protecting the lake while you protect the shore
Lake George's clarity is not an accident and it is not guaranteed. Sediment released during shoreline work, and runoff that keeps arriving afterwards, are the two ways a construction project leaves a lasting mark on water quality.
We work with containment appropriate to the job, stage material so it is not sitting where the next rain takes it into the lake, and finish shoreline projects with planting and grade changes that slow water down before it reaches the water's edge. It is the right thing to do and it is also what keeps permits achievable for the next homeowner.
How it goes
From first call to finished work
No surprises, no vanishing acts between the deposit and the build.
Survey below the water
We sound the bottom, inspect existing cribs and pilings, and identify whether you have a settlement problem, a stone-loss problem, or a shoreline that is moving.
Engineering and approvals
In-water work touches multiple agencies. Depending on scope that can mean LGPC, DEC Protection of Waters, the Army Corps, APA and the town — we identify what applies and file it.
Build and set
Cribs are assembled on shore or on the ice, floated or barged into position, and stoned down onto a prepared bed. Pilings are driven, jetted or socketed depending on what is under you.
Restore the bank
Above the waterline we rebuild with stone, rip-rap or retaining structure and re-establish planting, so runoff stops undermining what we just set.
Recent work
Cribs & Shoreline Work on Lake George
Photographs from our own projects around the lake. Click any image to enlarge.
Common questions
Cribs & Shoreline Work, 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.
What is a timber crib and why does Lake George use them?
A crib is an open timber box — historically hand-notched logs, today heavy dimensional timber and drift pins — that is built above water, floated into place, and filled with graded stone until it sinks onto the lake bed. It works by mass and friction rather than by penetrating the bottom, which is exactly why it suits Lake George: much of this shoreline is ledge, glacial boulder and hardpan that will stop a pile in a foot or two. Cribs also spread load broadly, which matters on an uneven rock bottom.
How do I know if my cribs are failing?
Look for the symptoms above water first: a dock or boathouse floor that has developed a slope, decking that has opened up at one bay, a structure that has visibly rotated or drifted toward shore, doors that have started to bind, or a gap opening between the pier and the shoreline. Below water, the tells are stone spilled out from between the timbers, missing or rotted crib members, and a crib that has settled unevenly. If you can see stone that used to be inside the crib lying on the bottom beside it, the crib is coming apart.
Can a settled crib be repaired, or does it need replacing?
Often repaired. If the timber is sound and the geometry is intact, a crib can be re-stoned, re-pinned and brought back to level by jacking the structure above it and correcting the bed. When the timbers themselves have failed — and the sills below the waterline usually go first — replacement is the honest answer. We photograph and document what we find so you are deciding from evidence.
What permits does in-water shoreline work need?
More than most owners expect. Work on docks, wharfs and moorings requires a Lake George Park Commission permit. Excavation or fill in the bed of the lake or disturbance of the bank commonly brings in the NYS DEC under its Protection of Waters programme, and placing fill in navigable waters can trigger US Army Corps of Engineers review. Because Lake George sits inside the Adirondack Park, APA jurisdiction may apply, and your town will want its own building permit. We map the whole path before work starts.
My shoreline is eroding. What actually stops it?
Diagnose the cause before choosing a cure. Erosion driven by boat wake and wave action wants toe protection — properly sized and keyed-in stone, not a scatter of rip-rap. Erosion driven by surface runoff from a driveway or roof needs the water intercepted and managed uphill, or any wall you build will simply be undermined from behind. Erosion driven by ice push needs mass and a graded transition. Most failing Lake George shorelines have two of the three happening at once.
Related
Often part of the same project
Lake George, New York
Let's talk about your cribs & shoreline
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.