anyone used lime as flooring in coop?? Pro/con?

[barnyard betty]

Does anyone have experience with using lime as a flooring for a coop? I heard someone recommend it saying you could lay it down and smooth it out then wet it and it becomes a hard surface easy to maintain. I have my doubts and I really don't know what type of "lime" they are talking about...and wonder about the pros and cons of it. Is it safe? Messy? Expensive?
Any experienced folks out there please give your opinions! Please chime in!!

Also what is your flooring of choice and what have you found that is the LEAST expensive and still relatively easy to clean?? I'm building a coop soon and really need help figuring out what will be best (and affordable)
Thank you for your thoughts!!

 

[PaintedCavalry]

I haven't used it in the coops, but used it in the horse stalls to kill the stuff under the stall mats and in really nasty stalls. If you breathe in enough of it, it will burn your lungs and it does hurt to breathe it in when you're just sprinkling the stuff.

I would rather use shavings or sand if you had to make a choice on cheaper bedding. I am learning though that there's nothing about chickens that stays cheap! LOL!

 

[barnyard betty]

Quote:

Hummm...so what benefit did it serve under your stall mats? I definitely don't need to deal with breathing that stuff in. What is this kind of lime even made of? Is it cheaper than sand? So once you lay it down and wet it or whatever, does it become hard or semi-hard and does it dry out and become a dust issue again?

 

[PaintedCavalry]

This lime is, well, lime. It's a powder. I think I pay around $15/50lb bag of lime last time. It's a fine powder, almost like powdered sugar.

The purpose of putting it under the stall mats and sprinkling the stalls is to basically kill everything there. I just used a cup and sprinkled it over the pee spots or wet spots, then let it sit for a bit before turning it in to the ground and then rebedding the stalls. It's never gotten harder than chalk powder for me, unless it got the wet spots good in which it became clumpy. It's very dusty when you sprinkle it and it really is caustic to your lungs so you have to be careful.

Just get you a load of sand or buy a few bales of shavings. I pay like $5 at TSC for shavings. The bigger ones will go far. Bed it deep and then just freshen it as you go with Sweet PDZ or more shavings. Clean it out a few times a year.

 

[barnyard betty]

Thanks for the advice!
Pardon my ignorance here but what is sweet PDS? LOL! I'm assuming you refer to pine shavings (not cedar) and you mentioned it comes in a large size, do I need to ask specifically for large? About how big is a bale of the shavings?...similar to a small or med hay bale?
As far as sand goes...how much do I need to fill about a 10x10 coop? Not sure how deep it needs to be

So just put a layer of sand down and then use a deep layer of shavings on top of that?...I just wanna be sure on what you said.
My other coop has a wood floor using straw or hay in a deep layer and it tends to mat but is easy to use pitchfork to remove clumps but don't think I want to use wood on the floor of my new coop cause it gets gunky and hard to scrape dried poop etc at cleaning time.
Thank you for walking me through this....

 

[PaintedCavalry]

They're just regular bales of shavings from TSC. I think they expand to 8 cu. ft. so they go pretty far. For a 12x12 stall to bed pretty deep, I end up using around 3 bales, so I would get 3, go as deep as you think and leave the rest to sprinkle as a refresher.

I'm not sure about the sand. I brought in several truckloads of sand to do my stalls, so I have a big pile that I will be pulling from for my sand. You could just use the shavings and not any sand. Or get some cheap leftover linoleum from a flooring place that's excess from other cuts. They let it go cheap, then put the shavings on that. You could put that right over the wood floor. I personally wouldn't tack it to the wood floor with an adhesive, but use a stapler to just staple the linoleum down. That's what we're planning on doing. Then when we clean the coop, we just sweep the shavings right in to a pile.

Here's the shavings I purchase:
http://www.tractorsupply.com/tracto...premium-pine-shavings-covers-8-cu-ft--5027706

Here's the Sweet PDZ:
http://www.tractorsupply.com/sweet-pdz-reg-stall-refresher-25-lb--5065990

 

[barnyard betty]

Oh thanks for the links Painted Cavalry!!!
Once I get closer to building my new coop (starting next week) I need to really decide what I'm going to do for flooring so I may do shavings as you said. Will the chickens dig under the floor a lot if you do have just dirt floor with shavings or sand? Don't want a breech of security as my dogs will be on other side of the coop walls trying to do some recon work of their own...lol...so do you suggest buried wire or maybe rocks or cinder block around the outside perimeter?

I have been looking for some cheap scrap linoleum for my existing coop on CL and at the Habitat Restore in my area but haven't found any yet

(Only need a piece that's abt. 7x11)
I keep telling myself that once I get my kitchen floor tiled and remove the funky 70's butt-ugly linoleum out of there I will have my scrap...but who knows when I will be able to do that project haha!
I see some of that peel and stick stuff cheap but imagine that would be an installation nightmare without putting in a whole new sub-floor and would tend to come up at the seems and generally be a disaster. Has anyone used that peel-n-stick stuff?
Thank you for the tip about not gluing it and just tacking...good idea!

 

[PaintedCavalry]

Post a wanted ad on craigslist of items that you want. The worst case scenario is you don't get any responses, but plenty of people are doing remodels with lots of scrap stuff like that.

You might even check flooring places to see if they have just some regular bits and pieces and just make a bit of a patchwork floor. Make sure you overlap them if you do that so it doesn't go under the linoleum.

I have the peel and stick for my kitchen and it's not bad, just make sure you cut everything specific on the tiles you need to cut. My hubby got a few off and now we have gaps.

 

[barnyard betty]

Thanks! All good ideas. I went out and got the pine shavings from TSC and started using it in my brooder. I will go back and get more to use in my coop once I do a total clean-out here pretty soon. I'm gonna post a wanted on CL and see what I find. We went and looked at the peel and stick and found some that was 33 cents each...but they were out so we are still looking. Thanks again for the ideas!

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Quote: There are different types of Lime
Yours sounds like Hydrated Lime,( Calcium Hydroxide) which is caustic when wet, and is used in mortar and cement

Pelletized Lime is "AG Lime" (Calcium Carbonate), which is pretty much the same substance as Oyster Shell

Ag Lime is about $5 for 40 lbs