Coatings for Coop Floor and Interior

[kitfoxdrvr]

Just finishing up my home coop, and this is my first coop without a dirt floor. This coop has an exterior-grade plywood floor, with plywood and stud walls. I would like to coat the floor and lower walls with something to waterproof the walls and improve the waterproofing of the floor. My first thought was the epoxy coatings for garage floors, but that is probably overkill (don't need a bathtub!). How about just a spray-on spar polyurethane? Can't imagine this would hurt the girls. I have seen vinyl flooring used before, but stuff always gets under it. Thoughts?

Thanks!

Steve

 

[JackE]

I used Blackjack#57 roofcoat from Lowes. It, IMO, is the best floor coat/protector a coop can have. It has been in use in my coop for over 4yrs, and it looks as good as the day I put it in there. Nothing can get under it to the floor below. It becomes like a permanent part, of the floor. It totally seals all floor joint/gaps, and seals the gap where the walls meet the floor. As far as the wall go, I just used a Porch&Deck paint (White) also from Lowes.



http://www.lowes.com/ProductDisplay...gId=10051&cmRelshp=req&rel=nofollow&cId=PDIO1

 

[Sonya9]

I used Blackjack#57 roofcoat from Lowes. It, IMO, is the best floor coat/protector a coop can have. It has been in use in my coop for over 4yrs, and it looks as good as the day I put it in there.

Based on your advice here I just used that in my new coop too.

Was pretty easy to apply (would suggest having it mixed at the store with their paint mixing machine though, very hard to manually mix that stuff).

Loved the fact it dried fast and had virtually NO odor even when wet! A gallon covered the 4 x 8 floor perfectly.

Unlike linoleum I don't have to worry about moisture between the floor and the linoleum causing mold, harboring bugs, etc... this stuff provides a nice tight waterproof seal!

For the walls I figured if I was going to cover them I wanted something cheery and bright so I went with peach colored interior semi-gloss paint. One thing I learned about painting that patched plywood stuff is that it soaks up paint BIG time! If you have any old leftover light paint to use as a primer that would be good, I should have used cheap stuff as a base before using the $30 a gal latex.

 

[JackE]

Yeah, it's good stuff, but you really have to stir it well. And you have to work at it, because it's kinda thick. Applying it is easy. Just dump a big puddle on the floor and push it around with a roller.

 

[montugirl]

I might try that.

 

[kitfoxdrvr]

I like that idea, plus I am going to Lowe's after work!

Do you think it would be good to use up the walls about a foot as well? Then I can leave the rest of the walls bare wood.

 

[JackE]

I like that idea, plus I am going to Lowe's after work!

Do you think it would be good to use up the walls about a foot as well? Then I can leave the rest of the walls bare wood.

You probably could, if you wanted. I did the whole floor, and slopped it up over the bottom boards of the wall framing. I would recommend painting the walls, with regular latex paint. The roofcoat, great as it is, is not the prettiest floor cover, like some fancy patterned vinyl you could get. But, it's going to be under whatever bedding you put in the coop. So who cares. I painted the inside of my coop white. It helps reflect the light, and really helps brighten the coop. Helps to see things, that should not be in there, bugs, spiders, ect.

 

[Sonya9]

Yeah, it's good stuff, but you really have to stir it well. And you have to work at it, because it's kinda thick. Applying it is easy. Just dump a big puddle on the floor and push it around with a roller.

Yeah it was easy to apply, I taped the base of the wall with masking tape ahead of time to get a fairly even strip across the bottom but still accidentally splashed some blackjack on the wall in a couple of places.

It was soooo thick when it was wet but as it dried it basically "shrink wrapped" itself to the wood foor to the point even the wood grain was visible. I was surprised at that!

Everyone says the chickens don't really mess up the walls (unless the perch is too close to the wall).

 

[kitfoxdrvr]

I plan to use deep litter, so if I can carry this up about a foot, I should be well protected. Thanks for the info , Jack and Sonya! I know what I am going to be doing this weekend!

Steve

 

[topdog24]

You could have used KILTZ from any hardware store, it is a base coat sealer