Advice for roof on run

[Beamgang]

New chicken mom looking for suggestions on a permanent roof for my run. I have 4 6x10 panels and it corners up to vinyl fencing. There are two pop up frames inside with vinyl tarps. A recent storm in Idaho made it clear tarps were not the way to go. I’ve seen posts for pvc pipe and making an arch but not sure how to secure it on the vinyl fence side? My thought was to make an arch and cover it with polycarbonate sheets to help with rain and snow run off? Thank you for any suggestions!

 

[Firemandivi]

It would depend on your budget and your goals. If you are just looking for shade then you could make something to hold up the tarps and that could work. If you are looking for something more permanent to protect from predators then singles or even a metal roof would work. If you want to collect the rainwater for your chickens to drink I wouldn't go signles and would go metal. Just my $0.02.

 

[Beamgang]

It would depend on your budget and your goals. If you are just looking for shade then you could make something to hold up the tarps and that could work. If you are looking for something more permanent to protect from predators then singles or even a metal roof would work. If you want to collect the rainwater for your chickens to drink I wouldn't go signles and would go metal. Just my $0.02.

I would like a way to collect rain water. I have rain barrels but not sure how to do that? Add a gutter or something?

 

[Firemandivi]

I don't have rain collection yet but I have my coop designed so I can add it later. Yes you will need some kind of gutter collection system and a screen to keep debris out of your rain barrels. Then if you can elevate your rain barrels you can let gravity take the water to our chickens. If you are located where the temperature drops below 32f you will need to take that into consideration also, by adding a heater and a pump depending on your setup.

 

[MidtexChikChik]

You can buy 10' galvanized pipes (that match the ones in the run) and also buy brackets designed to attach the pipes in a T shaped joint. The 10 footers will go across the shorter 10' dimension of the dog run. The brackets allow you to run one pipe into another pipe at a right angle without welding or drilling, quickly creating a T joint. Once those pipes run across the top, you could attach nearly anything to the new "rafters" you just installed -- even solid panels of whatever material you like could be attached by drilling into the new poles crossing the expanse of the coop. Be sure to use washers (waterproof variety to keep it from dripping in the rain) and bolts to hold it down securely.
Then, use the tarps along the sides, attaching them with zip ties or carabiners.
If the tarps you place along the sides billow and snap and pop too much in the wind, causing them to tear away or just make too much noise, you might choose to run some kind of cord or other material from side to side, spacing it at intervals up the side of the tarped wall, trapping the tarp against the chain link walls. Or drill holes into plywood sheets and bolt it on to the frame of the kennel walls.

We used those galvanized pipe across the top of our dog-kennel-turned-into-chicken-coop and are really glad we did.

We need to keep predators from going over the top of the run, as it backs up to a tall concrete block wall, and they can get on the wall and drop into the run. So we bought hog panel fencing from Tractor Supply (the one with smaller holes dia approx 3"x6"), cut it in pieces to fit, placed them on the roof resting on the newly installed cross pipes and zip tied the hog panel to the top of the walls and the cross poles, which now act effectively as rafters. This provides a very strong barrier against predators, even birds, being able to go over the top.

We bought 80% shade cloth (Tarps PLus or Amazon) and using zip ties, we strapped the shade cloth via the grommets along all 4 sides of the shade cloth, around the 4 sides of the perimeter, on the top of the run. Although the rain gets thru the tarp, it doesn't pour down on top of them, pelting them with big rain drops. We have an elevated hen house with perches underneath, so they can stand under it or go inside when its really wet -- which doesn't happen much around here.

But then, one day we needed more shade so we draped tarps over the top of all the other stuff and using bungee cords, pulled downward, we attached the tarp to the chain link walls with the bungee cords, like you did. We used a tarp that only gave us a 1 foot overhang. We would use one bungee strap for every two grommets by threading the strap through the chain link from one grommet to the next, placing the strap far enough below the edge of the tarp to pull it tight and reduce the amount of give on the bungee cords (but not too tight because the top edge of the chainlink can rub and poke holes into the tarp in places. ) That also placed the bungee cords up high out of our way. Possibly, the "rafters" we installed also limited the tarps from snapping as much and that helps keep the in place. Anyhow, it's worked for us so far and we have managed to hold down the tarp and it stays down even in the strong Texas winds.
Good luck and best wishes for an easy solution!

 

[Beamgang]

You can buy 10' galvanized pipes (that match the ones in the run) and also buy brackets designed to attach the pipes in a T shaped joint. The 10 footers will go across the shorter 10' dimension of the dog run. The brackets allow you to run one pipe into another pipe at a right angle without welding or drilling, quickly creating a T joint. Once those pipes run across the top, you could attach nearly anything to the new "rafters" you just installed -- even solid panels of whatever material you like could be attached by drilling into the new poles crossing the expanse of the coop. Be sure to use washers (waterproof variety to keep it from dripping in the rain) and bolts to hold it down securely.
Then, use the tarps along the sides, attaching them with zip ties or carabiners.
If the tarps you place along the sides billow and snap and pop too much in the wind, causing them to tear away or just make too much noise, you might choose to run some kind of cord or other material from side to side, spacing it at intervals up the side of the tarped wall, trapping the tarp against the chain link walls. Or drill holes into plywood sheets and bolt it on to the frame of the kennel walls.

We used those galvanized pipe across the top of our dog-kennel-turned-into-chicken-coop and are really glad we did.

We need to keep predators from going over the top of the run, as it backs up to a tall concrete block wall, and they can get on the wall and drop into the run. So we bought hog panel fencing from Tractor Supply (the one with smaller holes dia approx 3"x6"), cut it in pieces to fit, placed them on the roof resting on the newly installed cross pipes and zip tied the hog panel to the top of the walls and the cross poles, which now act effectively as rafters. This provides a very strong barrier against predators, even birds, being able to go over the top.

We bought 80% shade cloth (Tarps PLus or Amazon) and using zip ties, we strapped the shade cloth via the grommets along all 4 sides of the shade cloth, around the 4 sides of the perimeter, on the top of the run. Although the rain gets thru the tarp, it doesn't pour down on top of them, pelting them with big rain drops. We have an elevated hen house with perches underneath, so they can stand under it or go inside when its really wet -- which doesn't happen much around here.

But then, one day we needed more shade so we draped tarps over the top of all the other stuff and using bungee cords, pulled downward, we attached the tarp to the chain link walls with the bungee cords, like you did. We used a tarp that only gave us a 1 foot overhang. We would use one bungee strap for every two grommets by threading the strap through the chain link from one grommet to the next, placing the strap far enough below the edge of the tarp to pull it tight and reduce the amount of give on the bungee cords (but not too tight because the top edge of the chainlink can rub and poke holes into the tarp in places. ) That also placed the bungee cords up high out of our way. Possibly, the "rafters" we installed also limited the tarps from snapping as much and that helps keep the in place. Anyhow, it's worked for us so far and we have managed to hold down the tarp and it stays down even in the strong Texas winds.
Good luck and best wishes for an easy solution!

 

[Beamgang]

Do you think the polycarbonate sheets would work over these? The storm we had ripped the tarps from the grommets that were secured to the sides. I don't think I want to do tarps again. Could those be secured to these pipes? I would like to do the hardware cloth on one side so that they do get some sun. My other concern is how to run the pipes etc around that tree and secure it from predators.

 

[mowin]

What is your snow load? Where in general do you live, it will help us help you.

 

[SandyRiverChick]

Is the chain link run your coop? Or is there a coop (house,) inside the run or a plan to build one? Best long term solution is move chain link run and coop with roof inside run out a bit beyond the tree and in front of the vinyl fence enough that with a pitch of coop roof high enough, you can extend the coop roofing over the chain link run for runoff and snow load dump. I use water barrel for catchment with a gutter and chain into the barrel. It works great with installation of water cups.

 

[perkolator]

Do you think the polycarbonate sheets would work over these? The storm we had ripped the tarps from the grommets that were secured to the sides. I don't think I want to do tarps again. Could those be secured to these pipes? I would like to do the hardware cloth on one side so that they do get some sun. My other concern is how to run the pipes etc around that tree and secure it from predators.

No, not without a piece of wood in between, to screw the poly panels to. Could be as simple as a stick of 2x lumber fastened/screwed or strapped (like plumber's tape/hanger strapping) to the conduit pipe structure, then screw down your roof panels with roofing screws. Personally I'd go for opaque metal panels, they're not much more investment over the clear ones in my local stores, but I know for sure they'll last longer being galvanized metal.

If you get snow load or if those trees dump a lot of leaves when the weather is wet, I'd consider using a more beefy support structure than metal conduit pipes.

As for attaching to the poly fence - you could put just a few anchor points mounting something like the conduit pipe or a 2x lumber "rail" for you to mount your stuff off of.

The tree will be an issue with the rigid roof panels, I don't have any good suggestions on that sorry - thinking may be leave a rectangle cut out and fill that gap with metal fencing material. In my run I used chicken wire overhead to keep the local bobcat out, the chicken wire allowed me to get up on the tree with something that will move as the tree grows or sways. The idea of doing solid roof on one half of that run space, up to one side of the tree might be a good idea, and use fencing for the rest to resolve that issue. Overhead fencing will need support too, or it will sag, so likely your support structure would be on the whole thing not just under the roofing.