A Hardwood Roof Deck on a Narrowboat at Angel

The brief

A live-aboard narrowboat moored on the Regents Canal at Angel, with the whole top of the boat sitting unused. A cambered steel roof, mushroom vents and mooring bollards down its length, and no flat surface to speak of. On a boat this size the roof is by a distance the largest piece of outdoor space you have. The owner wanted to turn it into something you could actually sit on, eat on and have people over on, without permanently altering the boat underneath.

Our approach

A freestanding hardwood roof deck, sitting on top of the boat rather than fixed into it. A tanalised softwood sub-frame on adjustable pedestals takes up the curve of the roof and lets the finished surface sit dead level, working around the vents and bollards rather than removing them. Hardwood boards on top and matching hardwood fascia wrapping the sides, so from the towpath it reads as a proper built-in deck rather than something bolted on.

The build

Everything staged in from the towpath side. Adjustable pedestals set out across the roof and dialled in to level, softwood joist grid built on top and packed out around the existing roof furniture. Hardwood boards laid across the frame, fixed off, and the edges finished with fascia cladding down the sides of the sub-frame. A tight, sequenced job with the boat and neighbouring moorings live around us the whole way through.

The result

A flat, generous outdoor room on top of a narrowboat where there was not one before. Deck chairs, drinks, a proper view up and down the canal, and enough space to have people over. Because nothing is fixed into the roof, the whole thing can come off in sections if the boat ever needs to be worked on or moved. The finished deck sits comfortably against the modern waterside flats behind and the run of other narrowboats along the mooring.