About Us
American-made dock hardware since 1999
Dock Hardware has been making dock brackets in Rochester since 1999. Gary Rogers has led the company for all twenty-seven of those years, after twenty-five years in Rochester precision manufacturing — tool and die work, five of them as president of a precision manufacturer supplying cutting tools and machined components to the aerospace and automotive industries.
He came to dock hardware from an industry where a part off by a few thousandths is scrap. The tooling, the drawings, and the standards are ours.
How our hardware gets made
Every steel part we sell starts as flat plate in our Seneca Avenue shop. We cut, punch, press, and weld it here — brackets, corners, connectors, angles, plates, pile hoops, and the hardware that goes into our kits. Finished parts go out for hot-dip galvanizing to a local plant and come back to us before they ship.
Because we control the whole process, an odd dimension isn't a special order. If your piling isn't a standard size, or your framing needs something we don't stock, we make it. That's a normal week here, not an exception.
What we make and what we source
We think you should know the difference.
We manufacture
Our galvanized and stainless steel hardware, made in Rochester — every bracket, corner, connector, angle, plate, pile hoop, and roller assembly, in both 1/4 inch standard and 3/8 inch heavy-duty galvanized, and in 316 stainless.
We source
Flotation, cleats, ladders, rub rail, pile caps, penetrating oil, and the accessories that round out a dock build. Some from American manufacturers, some from overseas. We stock them because our customers need them in one place, and we pick them on whether they hold up.
Hear from dock builders
What contractors and dock builders say about working with us.
Galvanized or stainless
Hot-dip galvanized
Our standard line in 1/4 inch plate and a heavy-duty line in 3/8 inch for larger docks and commercial work. In typical fresh water, galvanized hardware outlasts the lumber it's bolted to.
316 stainless
The full line of brackets, connectors, plates, and angles for salt and brackish water. We specified 316 rather than 304 because molybdenum is what resists chloride pitting. It costs more to make. In salt water it's the grade that does the job.
Complete dock kits
Hardware and flotation matched by dock size, from 4' x 10' through 8' x 20', so you're not working out quantities from a parts list.
Why builders order from us
- We make the steel parts ourselvesCut, punched, pressed, and welded in Rochester, galvanized locally.
- Both material systemsGalvanized for fresh water, 316 stainless for salt, from one supplier.
- Custom work is routineOdd dimensions and one-off pieces are what our shop is set up for.
- Parts, not assembliesReplace a bracket when it needs replacing, rather than a whole section.
- Straight answersCall and you'll talk to someone who knows what fits what.
Where our standards come from
Gary has spent his career in Rochester manufacturing. He's a past president of the Rochester Tooling and Machining Association and an inductee of its Wall of Fame, and the National Tooling and Machining Association has recognized him with its National Member Award.
He also developed training programs now taught at Monroe Community College's Applied Technologies Center, along with youth job programs. Which is to say the trade that makes your brackets is one he helped build the pipeline for.
Rochester, beyond the shop
Gary chairs the board of the Boys & Girls Clubs of Rochester. Nazareth College awarded him the Woerner Kollmorgen Award for contributions to the quality of life in the Greater Rochester community. In 2012 he and his wife Suzette founded The Mia Foundation, an international nonprofit that helps animals born with birth defects.
Twenty-seven years in, the company and the city are hard to separate.
Questions about a build?
If you're sizing a dock, working out flotation, or trying to figure out which bracket fits your framing, call us. We'd rather spend ten minutes on the phone than have you order the wrong thing.
Call 585-266-7920 Read our build guides