Building Outside pen on unlevel ground, Help!

[daytonfarm]

I Just got in our new shed/chicken house and we had to build a level spot for it to sit. now I want to put the outside pen attached but not sure how to go about doing this. I want it to be very predetor proof in case I get home late. Any Ideas on how to manage the slope?

 

[rrgrassi]

The area for my pen is sloped and uneven as well. I followed the contour of the ground.

 

[gallinamama]

Quote:
I put mine on blocks.. but something must of settled because it isnt quite level... my husband has to jack the one corner up and fix it. When .... I don't know....

I have to finish putting blocks all the way around... I still want to put in some brick ..for pavers in the front part.. so it will be easier to maintain.. I have a whole slew of left over brick from when we tore down some old step we put in temporarily. The bricks are heavy duty... they are from an old road in Port Huron Michigan... from the 1800... they made bricks very heavy and thick back then...

 

[gallinamama]

Quote:
That is one beautiful shed... Is it painted or is that a vinyl siding?

 

[karl E lutz]

Block it up as was suggested by gallinamama. You can use a long pole or a johnson bar to lift 1 corner at a time slide the blocks under. Start from the highest corner and work it in. It would have been a good I dea to prep the spot before thew coop arrived but I'm sure you are aware of that now. You will need to shim the corners to the right hieght with some type of treated lumber,or you can add dirt under the block to raise it to the right level. Good luck!

 

[bobcatridge]

Hi,

We too are in the planning stages of building a chicken coop & run on unlevel land. We have no flat land - our house is built on the top of a knoll on the only flat spot. We plan to build the coop on the edge of the very small backyard but it slopes at that spot. We have purchased The Garden Coop plans from My Pet Chicken - it is a much smaller coop & run than your set-up. We have been brainstorming ideas on how to handle our slope. Our latest idea is to dig/trench around the to be run area and install railroad ties - more of the railroad ties would be exposed on the lower part of run and less on the top of the run. The railroad ties will be anchored into the ground with rebarr posts. We plan on leaving the ground inside the run at its natural present slope. We are planning on concreting in 4x4 as posts on the 4 corners. We get rain and strong winds in the winter - everything not firmly anchored blows down the hill. The coop will be elevated inside the run & attached to two of the corner posts. We considered building retaining walls but then we discovered that we would have to do major excavation to level the land and the cost of the walls would be prohibitive.

I have done a lot of looking on the internet for information about building chicken coops and runs on unlevel land. It is hard to find. It seems most people level the land. At any rate, I don't know if this will help. I will definitely post as we progress.

Carol

 

[daytonfarm]

The Shed is level and we thought we had enough gravel for both the run and shed but not so. It is the run area that I need suggestions for. The pop doors will come out below the windows and I want a secure pen for them when I'm not around. I call this my "Martha Stewart Chicken House" I didn't start out looking for something this big but we needed storage space also. Our big 4 stall horse barn with a loft burned down in the winter and I need a replacement. Not having horses any more I wanted just a coop for the chickens well one thing led to another and this is what I have. There are interior stairs that go to storage area in the top. I put alot of extra windows in for ventilation. The siding is painted T-111.

 

[Baymule]

You have quite a slope there. You could get all ambitious and rent a trencher and trench an outline of your run, then build concrete forms level, stepping down like stairs as you go down the hill. Put in the rebar, set posts where you want them and pour concrete. You could buy the redi mix bags. Or you could use cinder blocks instead of concrete. Your coop/storage building looks so nice, you might not want to redneck it up with an outline of scrounged, used tin, LOLe

 

[Omran]

Well the best way to do it in your case is to get some clean fill dirt and build a pad beside the coop, and then build your run, you don't have to make it super level, but you have to get red of the drop of 4" I see in the picture, and I am sure who ever came and leveled the pad for the shed will be happy to come back and work a little more.

 

[ScaredOfShadows]

Just follow the contour of the land and make the back end at the bottom of the slop as tall as the rest - if your looking for something to walk into. Say 6' starting at the coop, and say the slope goes down 2 ft lower level so the posts on the back will be 8ft tall from the ground to make it still able for you to stand in. This will be MUCH simpler than trying to level the ground somehow and less expensive.

Though if you want to level it out, I have a suggestion that should do it... take cinder blocks (the ones with the double holes not cement block) lay them out like a foundation, and mark with spray paint your line on the inside of the 'outline' of the cinder blocks... then decide where you want your posts to be - dig your hole and make sure you can drop the pole either in one of the cinder block holes OR on the outside of the cinderblock foundation. (outside may be best - added support for the foundation) if your doing the posts inside the cinder block - have it all set up poles in holes with you fill the holes up with cement to seal them like mortar. the others that aren't holding poles need to be mortared/cemented between as well as filled in. Once your foundation is good and dry add in fill dirt to make it all level and pack it down good. You could also use railroad ties, 4X4 or 6X6 posts to work on making a foundation/outline for the fence line.

Good luck!