Chicken coop and run foundation in PA

[mitcherneaf]

Planning a Carolina coop style coop and run. Plan for 8x6 coop with run totaling 8x30 including space under coop. The big question I have is how to run the foundation and “rim joist” to hold in the deep bedding.

I live in pa so frost line is 36”

Wanted this to last a while and ground is fairly saturated so was thinking about placing on piers but not sure best way to do this.

Current idea is to put piers every 10 ft and span those with 2x10s and build on top of that. Also I have dug a trench between where piers would go to fill with rock to help with run off water.

Just not sure if this would actually work or if I’m going to have to do piers every 6 feet and run 4x4s vertically to hold roof and run some 2x8x12s along the outside of those…

 

[Kiki]

@aart
@DobieLover
@Ted Brown
Do you guys have an ideas?

 

[Ted Brown]

"...saturated..." is worry some - year round? particular location?

There is a current thread that came to mind of a coop & run build in a wet location. Worth a read:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-coop-design-and-build-blog.1612130/page-7

 

[aart]

Piers would work to tie coop build below frost lines.

I too am curious about the "saturation".
You want to grade the ground around the coop/run so water does not flow towards it. If site is in a low spot that gathers water you'll want to fill so it's higher.