Homemade Kayak Storage

Between trips to the river you're going to need a place to put your kayak. Unless you want to fish out snakes and bugs every time you use your boat, you'll need a storage place up off the ground. Getting plastic and fiberglass boats out of the sun will preserve hull strength which can degrade with prolonged exposure to the sun and excessive heat.

  1. Dimensions

    • Supports for the kayak should strike the hull about a third of the way from either end. Avoid suspending kayaks between the points of the bow and stern to prevent the hull from distorting and sagging in the heat of the summer. When setting a kayak on a flat support, cut two short pieces of foam swim noodle and fold them over the cross-members at a point where they will strike the curve of the hull close enough to suspend the hull above the cross-member without touching it. Use a zip tie to secure the noodle in place.

    Garage Storage

    • If you have some room in your garage you can use a couple of kayak storage solutions. You can attach L brackets to the walls and screw 2-by-4s to them. Wrap them with padding and shelve your boats along a free wall. If wall space is scarce, it's relatively simple to build a sling arrangement and hang your boats up close to the ceiling. This leaves your wall space and walkways clear for work and getting in and out of your car. A chain threaded through the hollow center of a foam swim noodle and attached to ceiling hooks works well for this and is cheap to make.

    Outside Walls

    • You can also use L brackets and 2-by-4s to create a kayak shelf arrangement attached to the side wall of the house or garage. It's relatively simple to create a frame over the top of the boats from which you can hook a tarpaulin to protect the kayaks from the sun and elements. You can screw U-shaped brackets to the walls to hold kayaks up against the wall by turning them sideways and slipping the point of the bow into the saddle of the U. Shove a foam noodle over the hook to improve padding. Wrap the kayak in a small tarp to protect it from the sun.

    Free-Standing Racks

    • A variety of free-standing kayak/canoe rack solutions are available that you can build yourself. An A-frame rack provides storage for three kayaks. Built from wood in the shape of an old-fashioned backyard swing set, the canoes sit on their sides on the outside of the frame with a third set on the crossbrace of the A.
      A T frame is built upon a single post with a series of T crossbraces about 2 feet apart running up the height of the post. Angle braces make the crossbraces sturdy. You can stiffen the framework with transverse braces and strengthen the posts by pouring concrete into the holes you set the post into. Provide protection from the sun by building the rack in the shade and/or tying a tarpaulin over the boats with bungee cord.