Docks, moorings and island service on Lake Winnipesaukee

Getting the camp and the waterfront open

We are on the water as soon as the ice is out, and we guarantee spring dock installation dates rather than putting you on a list. Most island and waterfront owners have us do the whole opening in one visit.

• Seasonal dock installation, aluminium crank-out and sectional wood
• Swim raft installation, ladders and covers
• Mooring inspection before a boat goes on it, then buoy installation
• Water system installed and hooked up, electricity turned on
• Summer furniture out, spring yard clean-up

Why it matters: a mooring chain that has corroded over the winter is the one part of your season nobody can see. Our divers inspect the chain, block and hardware before the buoy goes back in.

Keeping it running while you are actually using it

Summer work is the unglamorous half of island living: something breaks, something has to be brought over, something has to be taken away. We carry mooring hardware on the service barge so a repair does not become a second trip.

• Mooring repair and bi-annual mooring service plans
• Dock repair, hardware, decking and ladder work
• Island delivery and moving — appliances, furniture, building materials, firewood
• Trash and recycling removal from island properties
• Lawn maintenance weekly, bi-weekly or monthly; plantings, fire pits, tree work

Docks and rafts out, camp closed, mooring winterised

Removal season books out. We schedule dock removals after your boating season ends, and we photograph the mooring while it is being winterised so you have a record of its condition going into the ice.

• Fall dock removal and swim raft removal
• Mooring winterisation with a thorough inspection and photographs
• Water system drained and winterised, electricity shut off
• Summer furniture put away, fall yard clean-up

Why it matters: ice moves. A dock or raft left in past freeze-up is the single most expensive thing that happens to a Winnipesaukee waterfront, and the repair is a spring job you did not plan for.

Somebody who can actually get to your island in February

You cannot drive to an island house after a storm. Our winter island checkup includes photographs of the home and an inspection of the dock, the dock circulator, the entry ways and — if you want it — the inside.

• Winter island checkups with a written report and photographs
• Dock circulators and ice-eaters, installed and monitored
• Roof and deck snow clearing
• Dock and home monitoring through the season
• Camp made ready ahead of a winter visit — decks cleared, firewood dry, water in

New docks, dock repair and routine dock maintenance

With a 50-foot steel barge we install docks across the Lakes Region, from aluminium crank-out docks to sectional wood-framed docks. The aluminium docks we sell are handcrafted in New Hampshire and built for your specific site. We help with permitting and quote for free.

• Piling dock
• Breakwater dock
• Crib dock
• Aluminium dock
• Wood dock
• Seasonal dock
• Floating dock
• Swim raft

Service and repair: spring installation, fall removal, ice damage repair, regular maintenance, ice-eaters, winter monitoring.

Custom swim rafts too — polyethylene, foam filled, non-slip, with multi-angle back rests, a pop-up table, moulded rope hitches and a folding aluminium ladder. Eight feet by ten, roughly 300 lb, rated to 3,000 lb. Delivery available to the entire Lakes Region.

Mooring design, installation, inspection and repair

We design and install individual mooring systems and whole mooring fields, and we maintain and repair existing ones. Whether it is your first mooring or an association with thirty of them, the system gets specified for your depth, your bottom and your boat.

• Concrete moorings
• Granite moorings
• Swim raft moorings
• Floating dock moorings
• Galvanised chain and hardware
• Stainless steel chain and hardware
• Permit assistance
• Mooring fields

The mooring service plan

Your mooring is only as strong as its weakest link. On the bi-annual plan, certified divers inspect the whole system — chain, hardware and block — each spring before your buoy goes in, and check the buoy and upper hardware again at fall winterisation. Because we stock the hardware on the service barge, anything found faulty is replaced on the spot, with no extra dive fee and no down time.

Mooring service covers Lake Winnipesaukee, Winnisquam, Squam and Little Squam, Newfound, Lake Wentworth, Merrymeeting Lake and the wider Lakes Region.

Telling us the location of your home, the water depth, the bottom conditions, the exposure and the size of the boat gets you an accurate number the first time.

Lakeside and island construction, start to finish

From new home construction, decks, siding and roofs through to interior finish work — flooring, kitchens and baths. Building on an island is a logistics problem before it is a carpentry problem, and we own the boat that solves it.

• Island septic system installation
• New construction and island development
• Kitchen, bath and whole-home renovation
• Additions
• Garages and workshops
• Sheds and bunkhouses
• Decks, porches and screen porches
• Siding — wood, composite, vinyl
• Roofing — metal and asphalt shingle
• Windows
• House levelling
• Hardwood and tile floors
• Shiplap and tongue-and-groove
• Drywall installation and repair
• Drafting
• Permitting

We do the heavy lifting, to the island and into the house

Moving things to an island home is a tough job. Whichever island you are on, we pick the items up, bring them across, and carry them inside to where you want them — appliances, building materials, furniture, televisions. Even on Rattlesnake.

For an accurate estimate, tell us which island, roughly how many stairs there are up to the house, and anything else we will have to get around.

And the other direction: years of accumulated stuff at the island house with no way to get rid of it. We have the equipment to remove and properly dispose of trash and recyclables.

All eight towns on the lake, and every island on it

• Alton
• Gilford
• Laconia
• Meredith
• Center Harbor
• Moultonborough
• Tuftonboro
• Wolfeboro

You do not have to live on an island to use us — we are happy to work for our friends on the mainland across the Lakes Region. And if your island is on another New Hampshire lake or pond, we are mobile and equipped; we have run projects large and small all over the Granite State.

Open Laconia, NH in Maps — mail reaches us at P.O. Box 6261, Laconia, NH 03247. Work is scheduled by phone and by water, not by walk-in.

The full line of services, on Newfound too

Construction, moorings and seasonal dock and raft services across all four Newfound towns — Bridgewater, Bristol, Alexandria and Hebron. Spring installation, fall removal and winterisation, yearly maintenance and repair. Mooring installation, seasonal inspection and repair, with an emailed evaluation and underwater photographs of the block, chain and hardware.

Roofs, siding, kitchen and bath remodels on Newfound as well. Free, no-obligation estimates.

Built by someone who has lived the island problem

Winnipesaukee Island Services was founded in 2009 with one goal: making island living easier. Mike Metcalfe, the owner, has personally dealt with the everyday challenges island life sets, and has a real respect for the amount of forward planning and independence it takes. The services here were designed around those challenges — from putting your dock in and taking it out, to a full renovation, and every step in between.

The crew is experienced, capable and polite. However large or small the job, the work goes out under our name, and the business is built on word of mouth. If we have done well by you, tell your neighbours — that has always been the best advertising we have.

• Founded2009
• OwnerMike Metcalfe
• Barge50-foot steel
• Reply timeOne business day
• EstimatesFree, no obligation
• DiversCertified, in house