# Building a dog walk



## wildo

So today I decided to start a dog walk build. I'll use this thread to create a "how-to DIY dog walk." My main goal was to design a dog walk that anyone could build, meaning- no welding. Well, to be fair- you'll probably need to be a bit brave, and certainly will need your significant other to help with muscle power, but otherwise, you should be able to make this no problem. Anyway that meant I needed to find a material other than aluminum for the frame. After some thought, I settled on a standard 2x12 (12' long to meet regulations) for the planks. The problem is that a board this long is very flexible and once my 75 lb dog starts sprinting across it, it simple will be too wobbly. My solution is to use a piece of galvanized steel unistrut. This material can be found in the electrical aisle at your local home improvement store. So follow along if you like. This will be a multipart process...

*Material List:*

3- 2x12x12' pressure treated lumber
4- 2x4x10' pressure treated lumber
4- 2x4x8' pressure treated material
3 - 12 guage 10' Unistrut
15 - 3/8" Unistrut cone nuts
15 - 3/8" x 2 1/2" bolts
15 - 38" flat washers
8 - 3 1/2" brass hinges
8 - 1/4" x 2" bolts
8 - 1/4" x 2 1/2" bolts
16 - 1/4" lock nuts
16 - 1/4" flat washers
16 - 1/4" fender washers
4 - 3/8" o-rings




















*Task #1 Plank Stabilization*
We need to stabilize the 2x12's so that they won't be so wobbly with our heavy GSD's sprinting across them. To do this, we can bolt a piece of Unistrut to the board.

First, find the center of the 2x12 and the unistrut, and mark the 2x12. You since the wood plank is 12' long, and unistrut only comes in 10' lengths, you should measure in 1' from either side on the board. Then center the unistrut width-wise as well:









Then you want to mark five equidistant holes through the unistrut (so one at both ends, one 2'6" from either end, and one at 5'). Mark these holes with a pencil. Then you can drill a small pilot hole at the center of each mark:









Next, you will need (hopefully) the only specialized tool you'll need for the build- a forstner drill bit. This is a special drill bit much like a hole saw, except that it drills a flat-bottomed hole. We are essentially using it to countersink a bolt head You should use a size equivalent to the size of the flat washer (which was 7/8" for me):









Once the hole is drilled, it will look like this. Note the flat bottom. This can only be accomplished with a forstner drill bit:









Now that the countersink is complete, you can complete the hole for the bolt- 3/8":









Next, put the flat washer on the 3/8" bolt:









And pound it through the hole:









At this point, you can turn the board upside down and see the bolts sticking through:









Finally, you just need to slide the cone nuts into the unistrut, flip it onto the bolts, and tighten it down. This is basically nothing different than a really heavy erector set:









You will need to make three of these assemblies.

So how effective is this, you ask? Well- see for yourself:





You can see that the board by itself is very wobbly and wouldn't work well for a dog walk. But with the strut attached, it is very secure. Note that it does rock back and forth parallel to the board, but that is just the 2x4 blocks I have it sitting on. Also note that while it still deflects with me standing on it- it isn't wobbly our bouncy any longer. It's very, very strong and secure. Finally- when both Pimg and I are standing on it in the video- that's a whopping 355 lbs standing right in the middle of the board! It's VERY strong! (And also very heavy, as you can see.)


Tomorrow I will build the legs.


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## TaraM1285

Exciting! I'm so jealous that you have space for a full-sized dog walk at home!


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## wildo

I measured my backyard a couple days ago, and it came out to basically 82' x 90' of more/less usable space. Well- as long as it doesn't rain. I have practically no grass at all back there, and it turns into a giant mud pit when it rains... I have just shy of .5 acre in the city. Here's my yard on 11/18/07 when I actually DID have grass (what happened to it all!?)









The backyard is 95' to the back fence, and 87' wide


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## TaraM1285

Nice! I'm moving this summer and will be looking for a place with a nice sized yard like that to work with, if so I'll definitely be revisiting this post for dogwalk plans.


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## MaggieRoseLee

Great job! You gonna copy/paste it into the DIY (Do it Yourself) Sticky? Please!! 

Though we need a completed shot...


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## Lin

wowwwww, nice yard! And the building a walk stuff is way over my head :crazy:


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## AgileGSD

Good luck with your dogwalk - I'll be curious how it works out being reinforced with steel. IME wooden dogwalks generally warp pretty quickly and it doesn't seem to matter how they are kept.


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## wildo

*Task #2 Legs/Middle Assembly*

Well, I took a ton of pics during the process but since I was making it up as I went, a lot of them showed inaccurate measurements. So I'll be a bit more general in this series of pics.

Cut two boards the width of the 2x12:









Line the hinges up at the ends of these two boards. This allows you to mark the holes. The outermost holes can't be used since they land so close to the edge of the board. This shouldn't be an issue:









Drill the holes and insert the 1/4 bolts. Be sure the backs of the hinges are against the boards:



























Next we can start building the legs. I did a lot of measuring plus trial and error to get the leg length right. I ended up at 50" long with a 15 degree angle. I put the boards out on the floor, marked and drilled the hinge locations, and assembled the hinge assembly to the legs:


















With the legs bolted together, I added the chain stays at the bottom. I put these 7" from the bottom, and again cut the ends to 15 degrees. To match the angle of the legs. Not shown in the pic is a second set of braces 8.5" from the top of the legs. You'll see them in later pics.









I drilled a 3/8" hole in the chain stay for the eye bolt:









Next I turned my attention to mounting the legs to the top board. I notched the hinge assembly as well as the cross pieces. This is called a lap joint. I just used a jigsaw for this. Had I thought this far ahead, I would have cut this prior to assembling the hinges.



























Finally, I was able to screw the leg assemblies to the top board:


















...And test it out:









It is extremely rigid and adjustable from 20" to 48". I was able to stand on it at 20", but with the legs splayed so far out like that, I didn't push it. I am comfortable standing on it from 24" up. Here's a video of our progress today. Before anyone says anything- I know it's a big no-no to ask Pimg to enter from the side. Yeah, yeah... I just was trying to get her on it to show how strong it is- nothing further. I was a bit surprised at her reluctance to jump up. I assume it is because it's something new, and relatively small surface area...


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## wildo

Very, very excited to say that I finally figured out how attach the ramps to the main center section. Despite the fact that you can get a set of ramp hinges here, they supply no info on the size or durability of the hinges. That is not acceptable in my book. So, for $5 more, I made my own. I used a set of gate hinges, but modified them by drilling a 1/4" hole through the male end to receive a hitch pin. This will ensure that the ramps are secured onto the center section.

Here's the male end of the gate hinge and hitch pin:









And I put the female end into the center section:









The ramps will be able to simply hook right onto the center section with no fuss:









And with the hole I drilled, I can secure it with a washer and hitch pin:









So the final product looks like this:









So all that is left is to bolt the unistrut to the ramp sections, and drill the holes for the male end of the gate hinge in the ramp ends. Well, there's painting too- but it's made 100% out of pressure treated material so I am not too concerned about that. I guess I do still need to figure out if I want to do the sand/paint thing for traction... I haven't really come up with any other options.


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## wildo

*Completion!*

Finished the dogwalk tonight (omitting painting). Enjoy the pics...

I created a filler using PVC for the gap where the ramps meet the center section:









You can see the filler is pretty heavily modified in order to fit around the mechanical fasteners. It wasn't that difficult to cut though, and I think it was well worth it for safety:









Here you can see what the fasteners look like locked in place:









And here you can see how the hitch pins work:









Finally, a shot of the gate hinges without the hitch pins in place:









And a couple overall shots:


















Lastly, I made a video showing Pimg on the dogwalk at 24" and 48" as well as how the hinging system works for the ramps. Enjoy! This sure was an extra fun project to build!


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## wildo

*Task #3 Surface texturing*

Last weekend I got really tired of waiting around for the pressure treated lumber to dry out. I figured it was probably dry enough- and decided to go ahead and prime it (and that took all freakin weekend!). So tonight I decided to go ahead and paint the contact surfaces. So I picked my colors and started painting away. Here's how I did it.

I started by painting the base color and letting it get tacky. Then I put one more wet layer on top of that:









(Note- I have two 450W gymnasium lights in my garage. They are incredibly hard to get the white balance correct on for my photos. The color is your typical bright blue/yellow- not purple.)

Next I sprinkled sand over the surface- entirely covering the surface. I just used a coffee mug to distribute the sand:









I covered the whole board:









This is the sand I used. I heard that you need to be sure to use sandbox sand because it doesn't have stray glass pieces in it:









After this had set at least 30 mins, I turned the boards on their side to let the excess sand fall off. I was left with this:









Next I rolled another thick coat of paint over the sand. You need a lot of paint- the sand absorbs a lot:









The texture turned out really nice. Much better than I expected!









And that's about it. I got all three boards done, though I think I will put another coat on them:









Hopefully I'll be able to finish painting this weekend. I am sick of this thing taking up my garage space!! I also added up all expenses and found that I spent $357.11 on this dogwalk.


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## wildo

*Completion! (FINALLY!)*

Finished the painting this weekend and got the dogwalk setup outside. It's a pretty gloomy day for photography, but I think the colors are accurately represented. I also forgot to put the joint covers over the two joints prior to taking the pics. I think I will also pull it out away from the bushes a bit so I can run down both sides. Anyway- enjoy the pics:























































"Dad- I'm not _supposed_ to stop up here. Take your stupid picture please..."


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## Rerun

Very impressive. It looks HUGE set up in the yard like that.


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## wildo

Rerun said:


> Very impressive. It looks HUGE set up in the yard like that.


...It _is_ 36' long... :rofl:


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## lylol

Willy... can I borrow your design for the legs/base? I have just been using old saw horses that I cant change the height on more than an inch or two... good project for my hubby.


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## wildo

Of course! That's why I posted it here- hoping to inspire someone to give it a shot! Overall, they adjust really easily. I'm very pleased with them. Now... if it would _just stop raining_ in Indy, we could actually use it! lol


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## MissChristina

I wish I knew some basic building or advanced building guidelines ... or just knew how to build period... I want to start making my own agility course for my AnnaBelle so bad!!!! She just loves the class we go to but its only once a week and the exercise she gets from it is more than any walk could ever do for her... I need to go make some male friends!!! See if they can help me


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## Lin

Just go for it! Building that is, I'd start with something easier though. How good are you at following directions? Can you program your own stuff or do you generally have someone else do it? Also, how good are your spatial skills? 

I've never been taught how to build anything. I made a really fancy rat cage before though, basing it on instructions online (dapper rat grotto cage.) I'm a very visual person, so I go from there. I looked at all the directions, and then sketched out my own plans for it. That allowed me to be able to see how everything came together. I also sketch out patterns on paper to make things like dog coats. 

Just have to put yourself out there and try! And not be afraid to screw up. I'm female, and there was this one time years ago when I asked a male friend over to my new place to help me install a new faucet. The night ended up being him sitting at my table turning the directions around and around while I laid on my back under the sink looking and fiddling with everything until I figured it out. I did get sprayed with water a few times in the process, when I thought I was finished but found out I wasn't when I sent my friend to turn the water back on


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## mikemullaney

Willie,

This posting is fantastic and I'm looking to build this for my dog. I have a couple questions that I'm hoping you can shed some light on, although I know you did this in 2011. Anyway, any help on the following will be appreciated. Basically, I'm looking for a little more detail on how you attach the top board to the legs via the hinged board and lap joint.

1. I get notching the hinged board and it looks like the cut out there is about 2" wide by about half the 2x4 deep, right?
2. In the next two pictures I see you measuring and fitting the piece that fits the hinge board in an upside down U to form the lap joint. My question is, what's the material there? Is that two joined 2x4s? What length? I'd think that the board that makes that joint can only extend one foot on the top board so it does not interfere with the unistrut on the bottom of the horizontal -- is that right?
3. In terms of affixing the top board board to the legs, you mention you screwed them together. Are those just deck screws through the top of the top board? Do those go through the hinge board, the top of the lap joint or both? Would something like 3" construction screws work?

Thanks a million -- this is really an awesome post and design and I can't wait to tackle it!

Mike


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## wildo

mikemullaney said:


> 1. I get notching the hinged board and it looks like the cut out there is about 2" wide by about half the 2x4 deep, right?
> 2. In the next two pictures I see you measuring and fitting the piece that fits the hinge board in an upside down U to form the lap joint. My question is, what's the material there? Is that two joined 2x4s? What length? I'd think that the board that makes that joint can only extend one foot on the top board so it does not interfere with the unistrut on the bottom of the horizontal -- is that right?


Correct. It's just a lap joint. What you're calling the hinge board gets two 2x4s lapped in forming a "+" configuration. The length is such that it doesn't hit the unistrut, as you observed.



mikemullaney said:


> 3. In terms of affixing the top board board to the legs, you mention you screwed them together. Are those just deck screws through the top of the top board? Do those go through the hinge board, the top of the lap joint or both? Would something like 3" construction screws work?


Yes, I just used deck screws- but I really regretted it about a year later when they rusted and I had to sawzall the pieces apart. I would use lag bolts countersunk in. This thing was heavy as  and I would take the top center board off the legs to move it. Using deck screws made this a PITA- especially if one stripped.


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## mikemullaney

1,000 thank yous!


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## Slamdunc

Wow, that is an awesome build and great instructions. Thanks for taking the time to lay that out and be so specific. Your explanation and details are outstanding. we just build a new obstacle / agility course for our K-9 unit. I appreciate the time and effort that you put into this. 

Well done!


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## carmspack

fantastic craftsmanship .


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## wildo

Haha! This is a really old thread. But thanks guys for looking!  I don't really come around here too much any more. Just check up on the agility section and that's about it...


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