Best roof

[buffslat]

I'm in the planning stages for my new coop. What roof is better a traditional peaked roof or a slanted roof? Which one would provide the best ventilation? I'm planning on using metal for the roof. Feel free to ask questions if you have any.

Thanks
Steve

 

[ScottM]

Where do you live, and what temperature are the summers and winters? Is it a med or small coop u are planning? How many birds?

I don't think that the roof matters as much as the ventilation options does.

 

[ontimeborzoi]

Its easier to build a slanted shed roof, with a single plane. I'm a girl and build all my coops by myself, and a nice sloping shed roof is easy even for me. : )

 

[Ole rooster]

Scott's got a good start on questions. Where you live, amount of snowfall to contend with, amount of heat to ventilate. But for me I like the conventional roof. I like that cuz I like the ridge vent. To us here a sever snow is 4 inches and I can pull that off pretty easy. I get good ventilation for the chicken poop and the coop stays pretty comfortable. One thing I still have to get done is gutters. I don't care for the rain going where is wants too.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The best roof for ventilation is a peaked roof with slope of each side between 4:12 and 6:12. This slope allows fresh air to enter on soffit and mix with coop air before exiting gable vents. If the pitch is too steep the air shoots through without mixing and if too shallow a pitch doesn't create a vacuum to pull air in.

Anywho, without boring you too much with the physics I can say that if a pitched (gabled) roof with 4:12 to 6:12 pitch and being ultra conservative allowing for no wind you would only need 2.5 square inches of venting in each eave and total gable vents per chicken. That's to say if you had 4 chickens you'd need a vent in each eave end of 10 square inches (i.e 1X10, 2X5, etc.) and each gable end of 5 square inches.

A slant roof requires significantly more venting area.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

I couldn't find the edit option...

What makes the eave vents super easy is to simply cut the wall sheathing an 1" short, leave the inch space along the roof line. Then gable vents can be made or purchased, many shapes and sizes for vents making sure it meets the minimum area requirement for number of chickens the coop can hold.

 

[buffslat]

I live in Southeast Missouri. Winter temps upper 20's to low 30's. Summer temps upper 90's. Although we do sometimes see below 0 and over 100. Coop will be 8 foot by 8 foot with 8 foot walls. 2 or 3 birds to start ending up at 12.

 

[carladababe]

Hello, I live in Dixon, up near Rolla where it is presently snowing for the first time this year. I bought my metal over wood frame coop and run in Freeburg. So far no accumulation on the roof. The picture was taken earlier in the winter, guess I should take a picture in the snow but it's COLD out there! Good Luck on your coop project.

 

[buffslat]

Which type of roof provides the best ventilation is what my question is all about.

 

[perchie.girl]

Which type of roof provides the best ventilation is what my question is all about.

Its not the roof that provides the ventilation its the openings in the eves that do. The type of roof that you do depends on your skill level and the amount of slope to the roof you need. If you live in a high snow area you need a higher slope No matter the peak style. The kind of roof with no peak that is just a flat roof is called a Shed roof. They are totally fine to use anywhere.

When you ask questions its really important to let people know where you live. Because construction for climates with snow differ greatly from the desert. It helps people answer your questions.

Oh and .....

from the San Diego High desert.