This work assesses the importance of nonlinearity in the stability of flows over compliant and rigid walls, and comprises three main parts. The first part considers inviscid flow with a free surface over a flexible boundary. The dispersion relation is obtained, and the conditions for linear instability investigated. The linear dispersion relation is then used to show that the conditions for nonlinear three-wave resonance are often met. In some circumstances, the resonance may be of 'explosive' sort, involving waves of opposite energy sign; but non-explosive resonant configurations are most common. Next, the wave- amplitude evolution equations for three-wave resonance are derived, firstly by a 'direct' approach, and then via a variational (averaged Lagrangian) method. Results agree with those of Case & Chiu (1977) for capillary-gravity waves, and Craik & Adam (1979), for three-layer fluid flow, on taking the appropriate limits. We also consider a nonlinear model for the flexible boundary. In the second part, stability of Blasius flow over a compliant surface is studied. This extension of rigid-wall work of Craik (1971) and Hendriks (appendix to Usher & Craik 1975) determines the quadratic interaction coefficients of three-wave resonance, and complements the linear analysis of Carpenter & Garrad (1985, 1986) and others. First, the linear eigenvalue spectrum is investigated for various values of the wall parameters. Then, resonant triads are located and the quadratic interaction coefficients determined numerically. By way of introduction some rigid-wall results are also presented, extending those of Hendriks.