I've learned so much here, I figure its time I share something in case it helps someone else. So FWIW here you go....
I decided to build a run just until winter but being temporary I didn't want to spend money. The small city backyard has a decent slope running diagonally from the back corner of the lot. My answer was a combination of salvage items, with rocks and landscape blocks as a base, and oak pallets standing on them, with 24" of chicken wire on top of that. The door is just some 2" pvc tubing with 4 fittings and a "frame and panel" of 2x4 wire fence in the opening.
The property came with a large pile of sandstone boulders and for this project I salvaged a free load of retaining wall blocks. (Which wasn't really free... they were glued together and I removed them on the hottest days of the summer...) Anyway, a place near me often has clean heat treated oak pallets to give away, so I always keep some around, and other bits and bops too. So this project started with my stockpile of salvaged items largely on hand. I might not have viewed the cost savings the same if I had to start from scratch.
To level a pad I hand dug into the slope uphill and brought in a yard of topsoil. The pad will be used for a more permament operation so I didn't mind disturbing the yard. Since it is a warm weather one year structure I just tossed the rocks and blocks on the dirt without worrying about frost heave. This made it super easy to level their top surfaces. For walls, I stood oak pallets on their side.
To keep the walls upright I started at a wood fence running down the property line. The fence makes up one wall of the run. If the neighbors complained there might be a setback issue, but they like eggs so I don't expect any issues raised... my struggling town has much bigger issues! The walls tied to the fence were still still a bit floppy. I had one scrap of rebar lying around so I used that as a stake to tie in a "flying buttress" on one side. That's just a 1/2" pipe clamp securing the ripped piece of oak pallet to the rebar. Notice the end of the wood brace is on a rock to keep it a bit drier than just being in the mud.
For the other side, I was all out of rebar but I had a pile of old ratchet cargo straps collecting dust so I made "dead man". Any stick or rod will do for the tie off, and then you hold that down with a weight on either end. Be sure the guy line does not rub on sharp edges. (This trick works well for tent stakes that won't hold like in rock or sand or snow)
The pallets are only 40 inches wide, so to get a 5ft fence I topped them with 2ft of freecycled chicken wire. I started by ripping pallet boards to 1.5", and cut to 30 inches long. Screwed these upright, then layered up the chicken wire and sandwhiched it to the uprights with another stick, like this
Back up a bit, before I nailed and screwed anything, I had done a "dry fit" of the pallet walls using lots of clamps and braces. So I knew where the free ends would be. After leveling the pad, I dug holes and dropped in oak "stringers" removed from long pallets. Sure, they will rot off eventually. But they will be plenty secure for the six month life of this enclosure. When I stood the pallets in place, they were simply face nailed to these upright stringers. Standing on a short step ladder, I used a jigsaw and an oscillating tool to cut notches for the cross piece just by eyeballing the angles.
So this left me with a not-quite square and not-quite plumb doorframe of dimensions dictated by chance. No problem. I bought two PVC Ts and two PVC 90degree angles and already had scrap 2" tubing on hand. From pallet wood I built a simple oak box for the bottom pivot point, and the top is just held by a bit of pipe strap and a single screw. Its ugly but I can remove the door easily.
The pipes are not glued. Whenever I stop using this door I'll have clean fittings to toss in my supply pile. Mostly the door is held together by the fence webbing (below) but to just give it a bit of extra tender love when we leave it open we do support the free end with a simple pile of rocks.
For door webbing a neighbor gave me some old wire 2"x3" wire fencing. I cut some strips the width of the door. Then I joined them side to side. The cutting was simple with a short bolt cutter. Along one edge of each piece I cut off the long wire, leaving short stubs about an inch long. Using a lineman's pliers these were easy to bend around the adjacent piece to sort of sew the strips together.
The resulting panel came close to fitting inside the PVC frame but was not perfect. and there were lots of sharp bits around the perimeter. To solve both problems I ripped pine pallet wood in order to sandwich the edges. At first I used loops of binder twine to fine tune exactly where each set of sticks would clamp down, then locked them there, first by hammering so the wire would press into the soft pine, and then with zip ties. Finally I used stainless steel wire to lock the frame-and-panel into the open space in the pvc door. This arrangement locks the PVC together so I didn't need glue. I was going to "frame" the top part but discovered it isn't necessary.
In the end, I already had everything I needed except the PVC fittings so it cost ten bucks. If count the time I had invested in scrounging an salvaging materials, it would be a lot more. Either way I'm happy.... I got my girls out of my neighbors garden while I decide what the "real" run will be like, and my kid got lots of ideas for the pallet fort we are going to build for her. My guess is the chickens will be jealous and try to take that structure over also. News at 11.
I decided to build a run just until winter but being temporary I didn't want to spend money. The small city backyard has a decent slope running diagonally from the back corner of the lot. My answer was a combination of salvage items, with rocks and landscape blocks as a base, and oak pallets standing on them, with 24" of chicken wire on top of that. The door is just some 2" pvc tubing with 4 fittings and a "frame and panel" of 2x4 wire fence in the opening.
The property came with a large pile of sandstone boulders and for this project I salvaged a free load of retaining wall blocks. (Which wasn't really free... they were glued together and I removed them on the hottest days of the summer...) Anyway, a place near me often has clean heat treated oak pallets to give away, so I always keep some around, and other bits and bops too. So this project started with my stockpile of salvaged items largely on hand. I might not have viewed the cost savings the same if I had to start from scratch.
To level a pad I hand dug into the slope uphill and brought in a yard of topsoil. The pad will be used for a more permament operation so I didn't mind disturbing the yard. Since it is a warm weather one year structure I just tossed the rocks and blocks on the dirt without worrying about frost heave. This made it super easy to level their top surfaces. For walls, I stood oak pallets on their side.
To keep the walls upright I started at a wood fence running down the property line. The fence makes up one wall of the run. If the neighbors complained there might be a setback issue, but they like eggs so I don't expect any issues raised... my struggling town has much bigger issues! The walls tied to the fence were still still a bit floppy. I had one scrap of rebar lying around so I used that as a stake to tie in a "flying buttress" on one side. That's just a 1/2" pipe clamp securing the ripped piece of oak pallet to the rebar. Notice the end of the wood brace is on a rock to keep it a bit drier than just being in the mud.
For the other side, I was all out of rebar but I had a pile of old ratchet cargo straps collecting dust so I made "dead man". Any stick or rod will do for the tie off, and then you hold that down with a weight on either end. Be sure the guy line does not rub on sharp edges. (This trick works well for tent stakes that won't hold like in rock or sand or snow)
The pallets are only 40 inches wide, so to get a 5ft fence I topped them with 2ft of freecycled chicken wire. I started by ripping pallet boards to 1.5", and cut to 30 inches long. Screwed these upright, then layered up the chicken wire and sandwhiched it to the uprights with another stick, like this
Back up a bit, before I nailed and screwed anything, I had done a "dry fit" of the pallet walls using lots of clamps and braces. So I knew where the free ends would be. After leveling the pad, I dug holes and dropped in oak "stringers" removed from long pallets. Sure, they will rot off eventually. But they will be plenty secure for the six month life of this enclosure. When I stood the pallets in place, they were simply face nailed to these upright stringers. Standing on a short step ladder, I used a jigsaw and an oscillating tool to cut notches for the cross piece just by eyeballing the angles.
So this left me with a not-quite square and not-quite plumb doorframe of dimensions dictated by chance. No problem. I bought two PVC Ts and two PVC 90degree angles and already had scrap 2" tubing on hand. From pallet wood I built a simple oak box for the bottom pivot point, and the top is just held by a bit of pipe strap and a single screw. Its ugly but I can remove the door easily.
The pipes are not glued. Whenever I stop using this door I'll have clean fittings to toss in my supply pile. Mostly the door is held together by the fence webbing (below) but to just give it a bit of extra tender love when we leave it open we do support the free end with a simple pile of rocks.
For door webbing a neighbor gave me some old wire 2"x3" wire fencing. I cut some strips the width of the door. Then I joined them side to side. The cutting was simple with a short bolt cutter. Along one edge of each piece I cut off the long wire, leaving short stubs about an inch long. Using a lineman's pliers these were easy to bend around the adjacent piece to sort of sew the strips together.
The resulting panel came close to fitting inside the PVC frame but was not perfect. and there were lots of sharp bits around the perimeter. To solve both problems I ripped pine pallet wood in order to sandwich the edges. At first I used loops of binder twine to fine tune exactly where each set of sticks would clamp down, then locked them there, first by hammering so the wire would press into the soft pine, and then with zip ties. Finally I used stainless steel wire to lock the frame-and-panel into the open space in the pvc door. This arrangement locks the PVC together so I didn't need glue. I was going to "frame" the top part but discovered it isn't necessary.
In the end, I already had everything I needed except the PVC fittings so it cost ten bucks. If count the time I had invested in scrounging an salvaging materials, it would be a lot more. Either way I'm happy.... I got my girls out of my neighbors garden while I decide what the "real" run will be like, and my kid got lots of ideas for the pallet fort we are going to build for her. My guess is the chickens will be jealous and try to take that structure over also. News at 11.
