Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[mindylee]

Mindylee,

How many inches of crushed asphalt do you plan on adding?  Are you at all worried that they will dig up the crushed asphalt just like they do to the dirt?

No worries.
I willbe doing about 6-8 inchs. What i get is ultra fine crushed asphalt like my driveway which is harder to get then just crushed asphalt. But hubby has a buddy with a asphalt business so we do trade deals for it since hubby is his macanic.
But when i get it, smooth it out and then heat it up with a propane jumbo torch that way it binds from the tar in the asphalt. Works like a dream! And it dont take much heat to bind it. And back about 50 yrs ago when the local nut house/community (Oakdale) here in Lapeer was destroyed, a lot of the bricks was buried on my property. So no i have tons of them city bricks that line my walls of the barn and coop. So that also will keep the asphalt off the wood barn walls near the floor.

 

[bigmrg74]

No worries.
I willbe doing about 6-8 inchs. What i get is ultra fine crushed asphalt like my driveway which is harder to get then just crushed asphalt. But hubby has a buddy with a asphalt business so we do trade deals for it since hubby is his macanic.
But when i get it, smooth it out and then heat it up with a propane jumbo torch that way it binds from the tar in the asphalt. Works like a dream! And it dont take much heat to bind it. And back about 50 yrs ago when the local nut house/community (Oakdale) here in Lapeer was destroyed, a lot of the bricks was buried on my property. So no i have tons of them city bricks that line my walls of the barn and coop. So that also will keep the asphalt off the wood barn walls near the floor.

In other words, the good stuff. The county road commission recently stripped off a layer of the road out in front of our place here and we ended up getting a couple of loads of that from them for free. working pretty good so far for our driveway now that we got it all spread out and pretty smooth. did think about getting a roller in to compact it some, but it seems to be compacting pretty good with us just driving on it. even with some larger chunks of asphalt and rocks in it.

 

[RaZ]

In other words, the good stuff. The county road commission recently stripped off a layer of the road out in front of our place here and we ended up getting a couple of loads of that from them for free. working pretty good so far for our driveway now that we got it all spread out and pretty smooth. did think about getting a roller in to compact it some, but it seems to be compacting pretty good with us just driving on it. even with some larger chunks of asphalt and rocks in it.

I have a tow behind roller. Fill it with water and it is around 900 pounds. It's yours if you want it.

 

[bigmrg74]

I have a tow behind roller. Fill it with water and it is around 900 pounds. It's yours if you want it.

might have to take you up on that offer.

 

[Folly's place]

Wild Goose overload!!! The Canadas left for a while after the babies fledged, but yesterday they came back. There were three families, totaling 31 babies. Here's what is here now! Mary

 

[OldMissionChick]

How many people have insulation in their coops & what did you use? We are 80% finished with the exterior and now I need to start planning the interior. We are thinking 1" blue foam board between the tin & the plywood walls. I hope it wont be as cold as last winter, but prepare for the worst & hope for the best.

 

[bigmrg74]

How many people have insulation in their coops & what did you use? We are 80% finished with the exterior and now I need to start planning the interior. We are thinking 1" blue foam board between the tin & the plywood walls. I hope it wont be as cold as last winter, but prepare for the worst & hope for the best.

whatever you do with the insulation, be sure that you can seal it up to where they can not peck at the foam. They will tear it all up if they can reach it.

 

[OldMissionChick]

whatever you do with the insulation, be sure that you can seal it up to where they can not peck at the foam.  They will tear it all up if they can reach it.  

It will be between the interior & exterior and between the studs so nowhere they can peck at it

 

[ChickenLady2014]

How many people have insulation in their coops & what did you use? We are 80% finished with the exterior and now I need to start planning the interior. We are thinking 1" blue foam board between the tin & the plywood walls. I hope it wont be as cold as last winter, but prepare for the worst & hope for the best.

We used the standard pink fiberglass stuff between the exterior & interior sheeting. It helps a lot, we don't use heat lamps. Very minor frost bite on a large comb roo before we made a minor adjustment of our ventilation.

 

[aart]

How many people have insulation in their coops & what did you use? We are 80% finished with the exterior and now I need to start planning the interior. We are thinking 1" blue foam board between the tin & the plywood walls. I hope it wont be as cold as last winter, but prepare for the worst & hope for the best.

Not sure insulation really does much for cold if you have adequate ventilation, unless your walls are 'leaky'.
Maybe insulating the walls on windward side of coop would help with cold infiltration.

My shed floor was insulated already, shed was here when I moved in and coop is just part of shed space.
Shed is a couple feet off ground and I think the floor insulation may help.
This year I added 1/4" foam board to the bottoms of the roof rafters on the south side, no shade there after noon or so.
Think it helped some to slow the (over)heating of the shed...I also block the south windows during heat waves.
Will remove foam board from rafters and put it on top of 7' tall coop structure over roost area to block wind/snow coming thru copious eave venting in winter.