Condensation on Door

[junebuggena]

Those gaps for venting aren't nearly large enough. You've got enough of an overhang, you can open up the whole top portion of those walls.

 

[Gammond]

Those gaps for venting aren't nearly large enough. You've got enough of an overhang, you can open up the whole top portion of those walls.

OK. and I'm assuming that opening the top is better than the bottom? We have yet to put the run door in and my husband was thinking of taking a small sheet of plywood off on the opposite wall and screen it in.

 

[junebuggena]

OK. and I'm assuming that opening the top is better than the bottom? We have yet to put the run door in and my husband was thinking of taking a small sheet of plywood off on the opposite wall and screen it in.

You want venting in as many walls as possible. Lower vents pull in air. Higher vents exhaust air. And you want to make the vents as big as possible. Roosts should be positioned at least a foot below the lowest vents, to prevent the birds sitting in drafts.

 

[Gammond]

O

You want venting in as many walls as possible. Lower vents pull in air. Higher vents exhaust air. And you want to make the vents as big as possible. Roosts should be positioned at least a foot below the lowest vents, to prevent the birds sitting in drafts. 

Thanks! We will take some of the top plywood away and also add some lower holes. What's your opinion on the huge circles people drill in near the roof?

 

[junebuggena]

O
Thanks! We will take some of the top plywood away and also add some lower holes. What's your opinion on the huge circles people drill in near the roof?

If you choose to drill holes, they need to be at least 6 inches in diameter, and you need a LOT of them.

 

[Gammond]

We were thinking of opening up the wall about 6" from the top on the tall side - while leaving the other sides closed.

 

[junebuggena]

If you add venting to the top, you need to add more to the low wall too. Bigger 'exhaust' vents won't do much if you don't have enough lower ventilation to pull in fresh air.

 

[Howard E]

Rule of thumb I've seen in old poultry books for ventilation was stated as 1 SF of ventilation for each 10 SF of floor space. That was the minimum. The Woods coop, which sets the standard for "well ventilated", runs nearly double that and that is just from the south facing openings under the scratch shed. With four additional windows to open, it can be way more than that.

In a coop, the warm moist air will rise and move on out, but has to be replaced with outside air. A low vent, with baffle to limit the wind chill from drafts would be best. If you do open things up to allow more ventilation, make sure your openings are on the south facing side so any winter sun shines through. Any little bit of solar gain will help warm it up and warming it up any at all helps dry it out and the extra light extends the period of time the birds are active and feeding and moving around.

Second part about the low vents that is often overlooked is that in addition to the warm moist air rising, the CO2 the birds give off when the exhale is heavier than air and sinks to the bottom of the coop, so low vents help that flow on out. So the three detrimental things hanging in the air that the birds themselves create are moisture, ammonia and CO2. Ventilation is needed to vent all that to the outside.

Is that a metal roof? If so, are you getting condensation on the inside of that as well? Does that condensation drip down from above?

Also, I hope those snow shoes are for decoration? If the birds need those, that looks like a rough place to winter!

 

[Edward Charette]

Some consider condensation as a negative element. Usually condensation is harmless but there are times when it needs to be addressed at the earliest. Though some assume the reason behind condensation could be faulty gaps in the caulks and frame, reasons could be different. The difference in the dew points inside the house( in this case the enclosure ) and the air outside is the leading factor for condensation. Check this article for some tips to reduce condensation https://www.clerawindows.com/blog/is-window-condensation-a-negative-element-in-the-home/ . Low E glass coatings would definitely help you reduce the condensation. The improved insulating value of your windows would help you reduce condensation.

 

[Howard E]

Had an interesting observation about condensation today. Talked about it in this thread I started on the topic:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/1144174/metal-roofs-and-condensation

At the time, humidity outside was running close to 100%, so things were generally wet all over and not drying out at all.

What I failed to mention was what was going on with my Woods house. When I went to check on it, the windows in it......inside and out.....were soaked. Water was dripping from them......and that was windows right next to the wide open front. These windows are hard vinyl plastic frames with glass panes. Plastic frames were wet too. Painted exterior of even the vertical walls was wet and water running down them. But inside and above the birds? Painted surfaces were moist and damp, exposed wood was dry, more or less.

Outside, everything metal and a lot that wasn't was soaked. Metal screens on a wide open screened in porch were soaked and you could not see through them for all the liquid water that had formed on them. That had nothing to do with birds or ventilation and everything to do with materials. Metal, glass and hard plastic items that were dense enough to hold the cold were wet. The temp of these materials remained below the dew point as temps around them was rising so water vapor in the air was condensing on them. Same basic concept as liquid water forming on the outside of a glass of ice water on a warm summer day.

If you want to eliminate a lot of this inside the coop, again key is ventilation........give the additional moisture the birds create a clear and unobstructed pathway out of the coop. Humidity inside should be no greater than it is outside but just know that when humidity of both is running close to 100%, things are going to be damp and wet.

Second part is to eliminate a lot of the hard cold objects that will condense moisture. If not, one way to eliminate this to isolate the object with insulation. If there is a valid reason to use insulation inside the coop it is to moderate the amount of condensation you get. That is important if you use metal for your roof and /or siding. (seem my link above). Even a lot of the 100 year old chicken house designs (mainly those that lacked enough ventilation) included waterproof tar paper roofing material on the inside walls, between the birds and the walls to separate the two with a material that would not result in condensation inside the house or at least keep it off the wood walls if it did. Those houses were mostly made of wood, so if they were getting condensation inside and thought they needed tar paper to curtail it, what they really needed was more ventilation.