Gaps in coop floor

[Mouthpear]

My current coop floor is made of pine lumber, 1" x 4" boards (treated with wood preservative). Due to the lumber quality, some boards being slightly bent etc. there are some gaps between them.

Tiny pieces of wood chips fall between the gaps and so I have to refill wood chips more often and remove the accumulated mess below (the coop is standing on concrete deck blocks and there is some space underneath).

Just thinking out loud what would be the best way to fix this? Cover the pine boards with thin plywood (since plywood here wouldn't be structural)? I hear rubber mats are not great for coops.

Thanks!

If it is not structural then why not just us vinyl flooring or vinyl wall paneling? Or 3mm Rubber floor mat. if the coop is small enough maybe an office chair mat.

 

[theoldchick]

I used a super heavy duty silver tarp in the bottom of my coop with wooden floor with 1/2 in gap between board. That was over 13 years ago and the tarp is still in very good condition. I think it was secured with roofing nails but I'm not sure.

 

[RaesChicks]

This post has been interesting for me. We actually built our floor out of decking for the purpose of drainage and air flow. We keep a deep bed of pine shavings in place and they seem to have done well filling the gaps most of the bedding under the coop is from when they fly out into the yard for free time and knock a ton out. They track it under the coop on their way back into the run. Plus wind gets a fair amount spread everywhere.

 

[perkolator]

Looking at your pic, I’m wondering why you chose the raised floor design for the entire run? That’s an odd choice to me, can an adult human even stand on those 1x4 pine boards to do coop maintenance, once they’ve aged, without falling through? My solution is to remove the floor boards and let the wood chips be in contact with the ground, use a hardware cloth anti-dig skirting on the perimeter.