Ideally I would have my own smoking room with beautiful hardwood floors on which I can place my hookah and know it’s not going to tip. Well, I currently sit in my carpeted apartment and contemplate my lack of funds while enjoying some hookah. I may worry about money but I never worry about my hookah tipping. Read on and learn my amazing techniques for hookah stabilization!
It’s not really all that amazing. It’s actually pretty simple. When you get down to it you’re looking to create a stable surface on top of the carpet and my favorite way to do so is with the large slab of granite that you see above. It’s wide and extremely heavy, which makes it both a hassle to move around and an amazing foundation for my pipes.
If you’re lucky you can get scrap pieces of stone (marble, granite, etc) from counter top companies but one of the easiest options is to hit up Home Depot. You won’t find slabs like the one I use on their shelves but Home Depot does sell 12″ marble tiles for a fairly affordable price. One of those tiles will do a damn fine job without costing a ridiculous amount.
If you ask nicely you may be able to snag a chipped or cracked tile that is just going to be thrown out anyway and you might get for free. I like marble or granite because they are so heavy and most often have a smooth surface for the hookah to sit on but any type of stone will work so long as it’s not overly textured.
Your next stop on the shopping tour is IKEA. Go to the kitchen section and take a look at the large cutting boards. I bought the above cutting board on sale for around 12 dollars. It’s sturdy, stable and looks damn good while keeping my hookah upright. You also get the bonus of having a good cutting board in your house. It’s not as heavy as the slab/tile option but the super wide footprint makes up for that easily and helps catch dropped coals or sparks.
If I’m really in a bind at a friend’s house I’ll grab a ceramic plate to put under my hookah. I don’t want to lug around a massive slab of rock and most people have at least some basic plates in their homes. Ceramic is what you’re looking for as plastic doesn’t have the weight to compress the fibers of the rug. The plate improves the footprint of the hookah a bit but it’s by far not my first choice.
The only shortcoming of these options is that they help prevent tipping but don’t do anything for dropped coals. I’ll go over that in more detail in another article but a simple solution is to place down a towel under the tile. Any dropped coals or sparks should hit the towel first and give you extra time to extinguish them before you end up losing your security deposit.