Coop Floor Q's???

[Yardbirds286]

Our coop floor is pressure treated plywood over the 1/2" wire. Should I seal it with something like Thompson's Water Seal? I was going to sprinkle some DE and then a layer of pine shavings. Will that be enough, or would painting it with something help for cleaning? They won't be in it for sometime yet, but I don't want to do it if it could harm them.

 

[GermanChick]

What about putting down some cheap vinyl flooring and pine shavings on top? That's what we are doing, once our coop is done

But cleaning should be really easy that way.

 

[patandchickens]

I am not a big Thompson's Water Seal fan for the coop, as it takes forever to really really dry and I am leery of that around chickens; I would polyurethane (several coats) or honestly just prime and PAINT, myself.

Since you can usually find leftover primer and paint for free or cheap, this may actually end up cheaper than a clear sealer *anyhow*

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[CityChook]

I didn't use Thompson's but I put a good quality Behr waterproofing stain on my coop when it was first built. It lasted ONE WINTER and then started peeling up. Granted, we have tough winters here, but I wasn't very happy. I won't use it again. I used oil based primer and exterior semigloss on my interior and am extremely happy with it's appearance and performance. Better yet, it was FREE since I had primer/paint left over from the walls.

If you paint the floor (prime first and do at least 2 coats of paint) it will be substantially easier to clean. Poo simply wipes off with water. With bare wood you'll be scraping scraping scraping.