Currently I have a 100% flat roof. There is no slope at all. For roofing material I have that green corrugated PVC roofing. It has warped from sitting in the sun and now sags between the supports so water pools up there. If you follow the corrugations they run towards the door and the run (design flaws) so water just pours into the run and right in front of the door when it rains. What I would like to do is give the roof an arch /\\ How do you go about doing this? Would I just run 2x4's with 45 degree cuts so that they join in the center and then attatch my roofing material to that? It doesn't need to be hardcore up to code or anything I just want to direct water flow off the sides of the coop. Any ideas?
Why not just raise one side of the roof? Prefereably the side that faces the door and run. That way, the water will run off away from the door and run. I used the same material on mine - here's some pics to give you an idea what I'm talking about:
I think it would be easier to raise one side of the roof, too. Otherwise you have all sorts of angles to worry about cutting- you could add a piece of frame, and slant it up enough to get your run off.
While I have a gable roof, the shed roof (one side high,one side low) roof would probably give you more head room in your existing coop too. With the corrugated rooofing, it would be eaiser to install too. The shed roof design would probably be your best bet. Good luck.
A shed roof is going to be a lot easier to engineer and install on an existing structure. Plus, I think it will make much more efficient use of material. It will also get all of the water exiting in the same direction, so you only have to worry about draining one side. That said, I wouldn't gable a roof 45-degrees. It would make it awfully hard to work on I'd think (I'm having this trouble on a tree house right now). You could flatten it out to say 4/12 pitch (~18.4 degrees) of even 6/12 (~26.6 degrees). I would try to fasten the rafters to a ridge pole in the center and use rafter ties (so I didn't have to cut birds mouths) on the sides. I am not a professional and learn most thing by trial and error, so take my advice with a very large grain of salt.
I have to agree with the others...the simplest/easiest method would be to just angle front to back so water runs off the back of the coop. Of course you CAN do a gabled roof. My main coop roof is gabled, and my project coop has the sloped roof. Both are the @18 degree angle that Mervin mentioned, although we did bird mouth them...
Hi, I was just looking at your chicken home and i am using it to incorporate into my hodge podge "plans" for my newer little shack. Using of course left over materials from previous projects. So, now, do the ( it looks like) 4 x 6s at the corners go all the way up or are they just supports? I am doing it by myself and my major prob I usually have is keeping a big piece of wood upright while I nail other things to it. I have no level surface here to lay things down on. Most of my construction projects have been pretty haphazard which is okay. I like funky (short for functional, I'm sure) but I would like it to be as tight as possible for sure. Trying a new way of doing things like square corners and all. I think I should take a carpentry class this fall. Yuppers. Well thanks for any advice you can offer me. Linda
cackleberrylinda were you referring to my coop (pics above)? The corners are made with 2x4s, set at a 90 degree angle to each other, and they do go all the way up. This makes a square corner for the platform to go into. As for keeping things level, you should by a good carpenter's level (3 or 4 foot). The center bubble is used for making sure things are upright - always check two sides to make sure it is straight up and down. I used a free coop design from the Purina website as the basis for my coop - the original was 4ftx4ft but I needed one slightly larger (for more chickens ) so I made it 4ftx8ft. You can get the free plans here - click on the image for detailed plans: http://poultry.purinamills.com/NUTRITIONMANAGEMENT/HenHouseHutchDesign/default.aspx
