How to Secure Furniture in Your Houseboat

Living in a houseboat is a water lover’s dream. You get to enjoy all the amenities of a modern home while floating on water. Visit your neighbors in a canoe or take a swim right off your balcony or deck. However, since houseboats are susceptible to water currents, wake from passing boat traffic and waves kicked up by strong winds, securing the furniture inside is necessary. There are different ways that you can go about doing this depending on what type of flooring your houseboat has.

Houseboat Flooring

Like a ground-based home, houseboats can be decorated with carpet, hardwood or wood composite flooring. The houseboat may be harbored somewhere protected from most of the elements such as the leeward side of an island or canal. Although immune to most strong currents, interior furniture may still shift. The methods you use to secure it will largely depend upon the flooring.

Secure Furniture on Carpeting

If your houseboat is carpeted, the friction between it and the feet of the furniture will likely keep most of it in place. Only the most jolting movement or smooth-bottomed furniture is liable to shift in storms or a strong current. To secure the furniture with feet, place rubber coasters below each foot of a chair, couch or table. The combination of the weight of the furniture and the friction of the rubber on carpet should prevent everything from movement.

Hardwoods and Composite Flooring

Hardwood or faux hardwood flooring, on the other hand, creates less friction between it and the furniture atop it, especially if the feet are made of metal or wood. Rubber coasters are a must-have in this case. You might also consider affixing the bottom of the coasters to the ground with an epoxy of some kind. This might not be an option, however, if the flooring itself is expensive. If that is the case, or if the furniture is especially top heavy, you may have to consider different measures.

Attach Furniture to the Walls

When you have hardwoods or other slippery surfaces or if some of your furniture is top heavy, you might consider attaching it to the walls via a hook and cord. If the furniture has feet, you can avoid doing any damage to it by stringing a piece of cord individually around the two back feet and attaching each to a hook in the wall. Coupled with rubber coasters, that furniture should be very stable. Furniture that is top heavy, on the other hand, may need support higher up. If you can, avoid drilling into the furniture unless of course the backside of it already has holes. Attach it to the walls in the same way.

Houseboat living is quite a different experience from a standard house. They possess the same amenities, but furniture may be prone to shift in the current or in a storm, so it’s a wise idea to secure it somehow. Using rubber coasters under the feet or by securing it to the wall with a hook and cord are two ways to secure your furniture without ruining it and without doing any structural damage to your houseboat.