construction sand questions

[chickfan]

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I've seen an example of the dust generated, when I've had chicks in the brooder in the house, on pine shavings. Good grief! LOL
Supposedly with this polyurethane in the paint on the floor, water won't hurt it. We'll see. Live and learn, I guess. Now I'm realizing we need something on the walls too, since the dust will be on them also.
Thanks for the dust reminder! I'm getting such good info from all of you...stuff I hadn't thought about yet. You don't think we might be able to do it all right the first time, do you? Nawwwww...... LOL
So what kind of construction sand do you have? Maybe people don't even really know....maybe you just order "construction sand" and don't specify what kind? Wow...I have more to learn than I thought!

 

[Maren's Marans]

Maybe ask the man you will be getting it from to bring you a ziploc bag of it so you can figure out what you will be dealing with?

 

[chickfan]

Quote:
I had seen this link before, but didn't remember where it was! Thanks for this...the reminder of the slilca is something I don't want to forget about. I have some masks here, but need to buy more and get in the habit of using them when I go out to change water or feed inside the coops.

 

[chickfan]

Maren's Marans :

Maybe ask the man you will be getting it from to bring you a ziploc bag of it so you can figure out what you will be dealing with?

Excellent idea! He works for a construction company, so that should be easy enough.
At least I found a site that tells me how much sand I will need for the two 5x8 coops and the one 5x20 run. (180 sq. ft. total) I can find out how much I need for each inch of depth..like if I put the sand 4 inches deep, I'll need 2.22 cubic yards. I can't visualize 2.22 cubic yards, but I will find out. This is all a new learning experience for me. I never had a reason to know how much a cubic yard was, until now. DH is finally making moves on getting all this set up. He has problems with lower back, and does NOT need to be doing this heavy stuff....moving these 500 pound coops, digging holes, etc., but he is absolutely too stubborn to let me just hire someone to do it all and be done with it.
The big problem is that this as planned, will accommodate only 20 fowl. Once our babies are out with the others, we will have 37 (including 3 ducks and 4 guineas). And I don't want to get rid of any of them!!! However....some of the roosters need to go. At least we have a lady at the feed store who will sell them for us, and guarantee that they are not being bought for food, but for pets. And we've told her to give the money she gets, to the local FFA. She is as crazy about chickens as I am, so I trust her when she says she will be careful who she sells them to.​

 

[elmo]

Quote:
It's just plywood, painted with Kilz, then painted with some leftover semi-gloss enamel that we had.

 

[chickfan]

Thanks! I was hoping someone besides us didn't have linoleum! LOL

 

[elmo]

There's dust and there's dust. Most of the dust in my coop seems to come from the chickens themselves: feather dust. When you run a finger over the roof struts, for example, you can tell it isn't sand up there.

The other day I cleaned out the coop by sieving all of the sand through a collander, and that process did kick up some sand, but it settled very quickly. I imagine the finer the grade of sand, the more problem you'd have with it being dusty.

 

[chickfan]

We hatched some babies about mid February, and had nothing but dust covering the whole room. There was pine shavings over newspaper in the brooder. Some we hatched last year did not produce dust, and some we've had since Easter are making no dust. Where in the world would so much dust have come from with the ones in Feb? It was awful!

 

[DaveD]

chickfan, let me start by saying you seem to have a smart DH, so listen to him more. He said not to worry about the water becaue of what he is putting on the floor. If he is sealing it with poly, then it's sealed. meaning that the water wont go through into the wood. You should certainly put it on the walls, at least up past the point that will get wet when you wash it. Us men can certainly bungle things up, but when we talk about making stuff - we're in the zone

I know absolutely nothing about using sand in the hen house - My first set of chicks are 2 weeks old and my coop is nothing but a few sticks sticking out of the ground right now.. I will tell you what I do know about. I saw a guy on this sit that used an epoxy, which can be used to seal garage floors, on his coop. I know that is the stuff I want. The poly is pretty darn good too, as that is what you might find in bathrooms. There are many different ways to skin a cat (or dress a chicken?)
And your dh is picking a good one - whether you use sand or something else, since cleaning the coop with water or something is usually a good idea at some point. So let him do what he does. As for the sand over the other florring options, I will be quiet, since I dont know what's best.

-David, a little tipsy, but talking sense

-ps - someone remind me to not reply to people when I cant see the key board

 

[chickfan]

LOL! Thanks, David. Do I dare tell DH someone thinks he is smart? I don't think he painted up the side of the walls....I haven't looked inside the coops since he finished fixing the floors. So I'll tell him to do that if he hasn't already.