Broke ground on house and run (COMPLETED - Updated Pics)

[krcote]

Looking good! I think it always takes a little longer than we thought!

 

[eds500]

Spent about 5 hours yesterday installing the hardie panel siding on the house. Finally looks like a house and was a big milestone for the project. The yellow is the factory prime coat. The striping is from where the hardie panels were installed smooth side out to save material and cost. The house will be painted light blue with white trim. This coming Saturday will be for roofing and ventilation and searching for a 5'x5' linoleum remnant for the floor. Getting there, slowly.

 

[Lollipop]

Cool beans, Ed. I like the Hardie Panel siding. Great idea.........Pop

 

[crosbygroup]

Quote:
I looked all over for a scrap or remnant piece of linoleum and could never find one cheap. I went to Home Depot and bought their least expensive linoleum (12 feet wide). They sell it by the foot. I bought a 4x12 foot piece and it was much less expensive then any remnant I could find. I now have 2 - 4x4 pieces that fit my floor and 2 - 2x4 pieces that fit my poop board.

Sometimes it is cheaper to buy new.

Just wanted to give you something to think about before you spend as much time a I did.

 

[elmo]

Nice looking coop....but I don't see your ventilation. Is it on the other side? The usual rule of thumb is to shoot for at least one square foot of vent per chicken, and it's nice to split that between two walls (usually up at the top to avoid drafts over the chickens as they roost in the winter) so you can get some cross ventilation going.

 

[eds500]

From above...this coming Saturday will be for roofing and ventilation. I plan to use the space between the rafters front and back as the vents. The front of the house faces southeast so I'll have cross ventilation moving from northwest to southeast as the roof slopes upward in that direction. The rafters are 2x6's spaced at 18 inches which gives me 270 square inches of vent space on the back and front walls assuming 5" tall because of notching by 18" wide x 3 gaps on each side. 270 square inches per hen as I plan to have 6 hens is more than 1 square foot per chicken but I can always close the vents individually as needed. Also, I've got places on the side walls that I can cut for more ventilation. So I think I'm good with what I can do.

 

[drumstick diva]

Are you planning to free range or just confine them to the runs? It would be safer if you cover the entire run area, part could be just wire mess to protect from raptor attack, or predator climbing up the sides, and maybe the other half(?) solid cover to give some shade, protection from rain and snow. Beautiful job so far. I wish we had coop tours out here, I'd love to go.

 

[eds500]

Didn't get to the roofing as I expected so I've worked on the exterior of the house. The house and windows have been trimmed, painted and caulked, the nesting box cover hinged and trimmed though not painted and ventilation at the top and sides added, though not all of the ventilation has been put in. I also blocked in the studs 7 inches high along the floor of the interior to prepare for deep litter method. Unfortunately, I haven't had large blocks of time to work on the roof but the hour here and there throughout the last 3 weeks have helped get to the detail work.

The paint color is Airy Blue (550C-1) by Behr from Home Depot.

 

[mcostas]

tag

 

[eds500]

Made progress this past week and weekend. Set the posts for rest of the run, framed the doorway, put up two walls of hardware cloth and got the tin roof installed. I'm going to trim the tin on the front overhang when I tie in the rafters for the front half of the run.

This week's plan, if the weather works with me, is to get the rear and right-side containment finished. Then the weekend will be for installing the predator-deterring apron surrounding the run. Goal is to have the run move-in ready the weekend of October 16th.