Great docks are designed before they are built. Jordan Marine Construction provides custom dock design across Greater Houston, Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston, and the Texas Gulf Coast — engineer-led plans that account for your water depth, bottom conditions, level fluctuation, wind exposure, and how you actually use the water.
With 40+ years of construction experience behind our team, we design docks that pass permitting the first time and perform for decades: pile layouts, framing specs, decking and accessory placement, lift and boat house integration, all drawn to your site and delivered as a buildable plan.
Request Your Free EstimateOur Custom Dock Design Process
- 1
Site Assessment
We measure depth, bottom conditions, level swing, and exposure, and walk through how you'll use the dock — boats, PWCs, swimming, entertaining.
- 2
Concept & Layout
We develop the layout — slips, walkways, platforms, lifts, boat house — sized to your vessel and shoreline.
- 3
Engineering & Drawings
We produce dimensioned drawings with pile layout and material specs, ready for the permitting authority.
- 4
Permitting & Build Handoff
We coordinate SJRA, TRA, City of Houston, or USACE/GLO review — then build the design in-house, or hand you a plan any competent builder can execute.
Design Standards
Every design specifies marine-grade materials matched to the water — 2.5 CCA-treated timber for saltwater, .60 for freshwater — with pile embedment, framing, and hardware sized to real marine loads. Designs are drawn to the controlling authority's requirements so permitting is a review, not a fight.
Design Is Where Dock Money Is Made or Wasted
Every expensive dock mistake we're hired to fix was locked in at the design stage: a deck set too low for the lake's real high-water history, a slip oriented so the prevailing wind works the boat against the structure, a layout that can't accept the lift or boat house the owner wanted two years later. Design is cheap; rework over water is not. With 40+ years of construction experience informing every drawing, we design docks the way we'll have to build and stand behind them.
A real dock design starts with measurements, not templates: water depth across the footprint, bottom composition, the waterbody's level history, wind fetch and wake exposure, and an honest conversation about how you'll use the structure — boats and PWCs today, and what might join them later. From those inputs come the decisions that matter: fixed pile versus floating, deck elevation, slip dimensions and orientation, pile layout, and material specifications matched to the water.
The deliverable is a buildable, permit-ready plan: dimensioned drawings with pile layout and material specs, prepared to the standards of your waterbody's controlling authority — SJRA on Lake Conroe, TRA on Lake Livingston, City of Houston on Lake Houston, USACE/GLO on the coast. Because we run those permitting processes constantly, the drawings anticipate what reviewers ask for instead of discovering it in rejection comments.
Design Details That Separate Good Docks From Regrets
Deck elevation is the classic one: set from the lake's actual recorded swing rather than the water level on the day of the site visit, so the dock stays dry in high water and usable in drawdown. Slip orientation is another — a slip aligned with prevailing wind and wake lets a boat load easily single-handed; one set against them turns every docking into a fight. Pile layout determines what the structure can carry forever: lifts, covers, and boat houses need their loads planned into the foundation even if they're phase-two purchases.
We also design for the add-ons that always come: conduit paths for future electrical, framing that accepts a lift without surgery, and clearances that leave room for the boat you'll upgrade to. A dock designed with that foresight absorbs a decade of upgrades gracefully; one designed to the minimum fights every change.
If we build the design — and most clients have us do exactly that — accountability is seamless: the designer, permit-runner, pile-driver, and builder are one team. If you take the plan elsewhere, it stands on its own: dimensioned, specified, and permit-ready.
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Where We Build Custom Dock Design
We build custom dock design for waterfront communities across Greater Houston, Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston, and the Texas Gulf Coast. A few of the areas we serve:
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Custom Dock Design FAQs
Do you design docks you don't build?
Our designs are buildable plans and we're happy to build them — that single-team accountability is the point. But the drawings stand on their own for permitting and construction.
What does a dock design include?
Dimensioned layout, pile plan, framing and decking specs, lift and accessory placement, and the documentation the permitting authority requires for your waterbody.
What does dock design cost?
Design scope scales with the structure — a straight-walk pier needs far less engineering than a multi-slip boat house complex. On projects we build, design is folded into the project. Contact us with your site and wish list and we'll quote the path that fits.
How do you know how high to set my deck?
From your waterbody's recorded level history — not the level on survey day. Conroe and Livingston both swing with rain and releases; the design uses the real range so the dock stays dry at high water and launches boats at low.
Can you design around my future boat house or lift?
Yes, and you should insist on it: pile layout and framing must carry future loads even if the lift or cover comes later. Designing the capacity in now costs a fraction of retrofitting it under a finished deck.
Will your drawings pass SJRA review?
That's the job — we draw to each authority's submission standards and run these reviews continuously. SJRA, TRA, City of Houston, and USACE/GLO each want different things, and the drawings anticipate them.
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Get a Free Custom Dock Design Estimate
Tell us about your project and we'll provide a detailed, no-obligation estimate. Serving Greater Houston, Lake Conroe, Lake Livingston, and the Texas Gulf Coast.