A new dock built for the north bank

Where you sit on the water decides the build

North Fort Myers waterfront splits in a way that matters the day you start drawing a dock. Out on the open Caloosahatchee, you are building into tide swing and passing wake, so the deck wants to sit high enough that a busy Saturday on the river stays under it, the framing wants to be stouter than a still-water dock needs, and the boat wants to lie where moving water pushes it against fenders instead of against your new boards. Back in the canals off the river, none of that is the problem.

Canal frontage trades weather for geometry. The water is calm, so the questions become how much frontage you have, what your neighbors already built on either side, and whether the layout leaves honest room to swing a boat in and still walk past it with a cooler. A dock that fits the drawing and not the canal is a dock you fight every weekend.

The other north bank reality is that these are established neighborhoods, so a new build often lands where an old one already stands. Sometimes the existing footprint is worth keeping and sometimes the old pilings are simply in the way of a better layout. The owner tells you which at the free inspection, scopes the build around Lee County dock rules and walks you through the permit steps, and because home base is straight across the river, the barge run over here is one of the shortest we make.