Put the depth back under the boat
A silted slip announces itself slowly: the prop stirs mud in October, the lift sits crooked, the pontoon that always floated starts touching at winter pool. The fix is mechanical and permanent enough to forget about for a decade. We sound the slip, file the Alabama Power and Corps paperwork, float a suction dredge to your boathouse, and pump the accumulated sediment to dewatering tubes on the bank. A typical single slip runs $2,500 to $6,000 off our published table, takes one to two days of pumping, and no excavator ever crosses your yard.
Why slips silt in, and why yours is not unusual
Lake Martin was flooded in 1926 over Piedmont hill country, and its watershed sheds red clay with every hard rain. That clay travels until the water slows, and the water slows in exactly the places people build: coves, creek mouths, and the still pocket inside a boathouse. A slip is a settling basin with a roof on it. Most were dug once when the boathouse went up, thirty or forty years ago, and have been collecting quietly since.
The pace depends on where you sit. Open shoreline near the dam might take twenty years to lose 2 feet. The Blue Creek and Sandy Creek arms can do it in seven. Yates and Thurlow, being run-of-river lakes, load faster still. The pattern shows up in our soundings every week, and it is why every area page on this site talks about its own water rather than repeating lake averages.
What a slip job includes
Everything from the first sounding to the closeout depth report: the survey, the shoreline and Corps filings, mobilization, turbidity curtain, the pumping itself, tube dewatering, and the spoil decision. When the flat has crept past your boathouse mouth we quote the approach lane in the same job, dredged to 4 feet at winter pool so the way out stays open the whole year. The written quote itemizes each line against the public table, and the invoice matches the quote.
Slip questions, answered
My pontoon drags bottom at winter pool. How shallow has my slip gotten?
Probably 18 to 30 inches shallower than it was dug. Lake Martin eases down roughly 7 feet to winter pool, so a slip that was comfortable in summer and drags in December has lost its margin to silt. A sounding tells you exactly, and it costs $300 to $800, credited against the job.
Will the dredge tear up my seawall, lift, or dock pilings?
No. The suction head works between and around structures, and because the rig floats in rather than driving across the lot, your seawall, landscaping, and irrigation stay untouched. We dredge the scour pocket at seawall bases routinely.
Can my neighbor and I split a job?
Yes, and you should. An extra slip at the same boathouse or the dock next door adds $1,500 to $3,500 instead of a full job price, because the mobilization, tube staging, and permit run once. Half our slip work books as two or three neighbors at a time.
How long before the silt comes back?
On open water, 10 to 20 years. Near a creek mouth, closer to 7 to 12, because the creek keeps delivering red clay. We dig a few inches past target depth so the slip absorbs inflow before you notice it, and a maintenance pass on a slip we have mapped costs less than the first dig.
Start with a sounding
Auburn Dredging checks the depth, shows you the sediment, and quotes in writing off the public table. Book before Labor Day if you want the winter drawdown window.