As you know, I recently acquired a new-to-me NW Solo canoe. The purchase was a bit of a surprise as I had been combing the online ads for over a year and never had one appear close to me for a good price. I was starting to resign myself to buying one new, and had started planning to perhaps purchase one in the fall once the heat of the summer had subsided. My plan in that case was to slowly get everything ready over the summer so I was ready for a new canoe when it arrived. But the important fact here is that I hadn't really done anything at all up to this point.
So I buy a used canoe, bring it home, and set it up on some sawhorses on my patio. The first order of business was to find a place to store it. A couple years ago I had embarked on a project to clean out my garage, organize it, and get our two cars in there. There are no basements in Florida, so a lot of times garages turn into storage rooms. I have a two-car garage, but it is the smallest garage you can build and still call it "two car." There is living space above it, so there isn't even any "height" to store something above the cars. I wasn't about to kick either car out of the garage since we put so much effort into getting them in, so the canoe was going to be stored outside.
My house is the typical Florida "zero lot line" home, and I don't have a lot of outdoor space, either. But the north side of my house has a six-foot privacy fence about six feet from my house. There are no windows on that side of the house, and nothing "lives" there besides my air conditioner unit. It is out of the direct sun most of the year except during the time around the summer solstice (i.e. now). Seemed like a good place to store the canoe.
I scoured the internet for storage rack designs against a wall, but found very few ideas. Most results turn up kayak storage, but as you know that can be quite a bit different from what a canoe requires. I finally decided on a simple design made from 2 x 4 and 1 x 6 lumber. I used pressure treated wood. Here's how it came out:
As you can see, I followed the time-honored tradition of building canoe racks for n+1 canoes. The second spot is in case my wife decides she wants a canoe of her own, or maybe we buy a tandem canoe for trips together. In the meantime, it will be used to store some ladders I couldn't fit back in my garage after clearing it out.
Here is a closer look at the assembly:
I bought four pieces of 4-foot 2x4s and two pieces of 1x6 lumber. I bought the shorter pieces of lumber just to make it easier to load in my car, but you could obviously start with longer pieces.
The horizontal pieces are 30 inches long, a dimension selected from the width of my canoe. I probably could have made that a bit shorter in retrospect, but I'm comfortable with what I used. I'm not sure of the dimensions of the 45 degree support piece, I just used what worked. All of the pieces were cut to the same sizes.
I countersunk the screws that went into the 1x6 from the back of the board. I had to use pocket screws to attach the upper part of the support piece to the horizontal piece. I glued everything together with TItebond III, a waterproof wood glue.
Once everything had dried, I mounted it on the wall with the top rack at about five feet off the ground. They are held into the wall using Tapcon masonry screws, as the walls of my house are stucco-covered concrete block. I did an OK job getting everything even, but the two horizontal pieces at the top ended up being about 1/4 inch off of level. Close enough.
The two supports are about five feet apart. How did I arrive at that dimension? The canoe is about 15 feet long and I figured it should be supported evenly, so that's about five feet apart. I couldn't find anything specific online, so I figured that was as good as any other distance, and at least I could defend my decision.
Finally, I added a strip of rubber on the top of the horizontal pieces. My canoe has wooded gunwales and I was uncomfortable with wood-on-wood since it would trap moisture. I bought the rubber strips from Northstar Canoe.
I also drilled some holes in the horizontal pieces so I could put a light rope in there to hold the canoe down in case there is an errant gust of wind during our daily summer rainstorms. The canoe is pretty well protected, so it would have to be at the exact right angle, but it has been known to happen so I wanted to be ready.
Here is what it looks like with a canoe on the rack:
I was originally going to build a small roof over the rack, but decided instead to get a cover from RedLeaf Designs. I figured it would be about the same price, but I wouldn't have to spend as much time out in the summer heat.
So I buy a used canoe, bring it home, and set it up on some sawhorses on my patio. The first order of business was to find a place to store it. A couple years ago I had embarked on a project to clean out my garage, organize it, and get our two cars in there. There are no basements in Florida, so a lot of times garages turn into storage rooms. I have a two-car garage, but it is the smallest garage you can build and still call it "two car." There is living space above it, so there isn't even any "height" to store something above the cars. I wasn't about to kick either car out of the garage since we put so much effort into getting them in, so the canoe was going to be stored outside.
My house is the typical Florida "zero lot line" home, and I don't have a lot of outdoor space, either. But the north side of my house has a six-foot privacy fence about six feet from my house. There are no windows on that side of the house, and nothing "lives" there besides my air conditioner unit. It is out of the direct sun most of the year except during the time around the summer solstice (i.e. now). Seemed like a good place to store the canoe.
I scoured the internet for storage rack designs against a wall, but found very few ideas. Most results turn up kayak storage, but as you know that can be quite a bit different from what a canoe requires. I finally decided on a simple design made from 2 x 4 and 1 x 6 lumber. I used pressure treated wood. Here's how it came out:
As you can see, I followed the time-honored tradition of building canoe racks for n+1 canoes. The second spot is in case my wife decides she wants a canoe of her own, or maybe we buy a tandem canoe for trips together. In the meantime, it will be used to store some ladders I couldn't fit back in my garage after clearing it out.
Here is a closer look at the assembly:
I bought four pieces of 4-foot 2x4s and two pieces of 1x6 lumber. I bought the shorter pieces of lumber just to make it easier to load in my car, but you could obviously start with longer pieces.
The horizontal pieces are 30 inches long, a dimension selected from the width of my canoe. I probably could have made that a bit shorter in retrospect, but I'm comfortable with what I used. I'm not sure of the dimensions of the 45 degree support piece, I just used what worked. All of the pieces were cut to the same sizes.
I countersunk the screws that went into the 1x6 from the back of the board. I had to use pocket screws to attach the upper part of the support piece to the horizontal piece. I glued everything together with TItebond III, a waterproof wood glue.
Once everything had dried, I mounted it on the wall with the top rack at about five feet off the ground. They are held into the wall using Tapcon masonry screws, as the walls of my house are stucco-covered concrete block. I did an OK job getting everything even, but the two horizontal pieces at the top ended up being about 1/4 inch off of level. Close enough.
The two supports are about five feet apart. How did I arrive at that dimension? The canoe is about 15 feet long and I figured it should be supported evenly, so that's about five feet apart. I couldn't find anything specific online, so I figured that was as good as any other distance, and at least I could defend my decision.
Finally, I added a strip of rubber on the top of the horizontal pieces. My canoe has wooded gunwales and I was uncomfortable with wood-on-wood since it would trap moisture. I bought the rubber strips from Northstar Canoe.
I also drilled some holes in the horizontal pieces so I could put a light rope in there to hold the canoe down in case there is an errant gust of wind during our daily summer rainstorms. The canoe is pretty well protected, so it would have to be at the exact right angle, but it has been known to happen so I wanted to be ready.
Here is what it looks like with a canoe on the rack:
I was originally going to build a small roof over the rack, but decided instead to get a cover from RedLeaf Designs. I figured it would be about the same price, but I wouldn't have to spend as much time out in the summer heat.
