Coop made from Plastic?

[New Chickadee]

We're still in the designing phase for our first coop, 4' x 4' for 3 hens. Most people seem to use wood, but then we'd have to treat, pre-drill, drill, and paint...and raise the coop off the ground in some manner to avoid termites, pests, etc. But I love the look of wood and it seems most common.

My father-in-law suggested plastic. PVC piping for the frame. Plastic siding. A corrugated roof with space between the top of the coop and the roof for ventilation.

Has anyone ever done this? Does it affect the temperature inside the coop? How thick would the plastic siding need to be to withstand the weight of a nesting box that sticks out from the coop?

Theoretically...
-it could be taken apart and put back together
-it would be more weather resistant
-it would be quicker due to no treatment, pre-drilling
-it could be placed directly on the ground without fear of rotting, etc

 

[New Chickadee]

Hope you don't mind, but I'm going to bump this to try again. We're buying our materials this weekend and would like to know if anyone else has experience building from plastic or if wood is truly the best way to go. Thanks!!!

 

[Mallory]

I'm no help here, but the only thing I can think of is it would sure be heavy!! But I suppose that wouldn't be a problem if you aren't making an chicken tractor.

Good luck, keep us posted!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
1) where do you live. if it gets real cold, PVC is probably not appropriate because even the uv-stabilized outdoor grades get pretty brittle. OK for ornamental or siding purposes, not so ok for structural purposes.

2) I would TOTALLY not count on being able to take it apart and put it back together. PVC has even less sense of humor about repeated removal and reinstallation of screws than wood does, and for stability and security you would almost certainly want to solvent-weld all PVC pipe joints.

3) even good expensive UV-stabilized outdoor-type PVC is not going to last as long as wood does.

4) It is not obvious to me offhand how you would attach the siding and roofing strongly enough to prevent it being ripped off by predators or indeed just by high winds. Possibly this could be solved but I dunno, I suspect it'd always be inclined to be rather weebly, unless you use at least SOME wood in your construction.

Termites... just put the coop up on blocks (cinderblocks, deck blocks, sonotube footings, anything like that, making sure it is anchored well enough for its tippiness and wind load) and build a normal wooden coop above that and you should be utterly fine for a small coop. (For a large shed-sized coop, I could see SOME termites SOME places making those earthen-walled tubes on the 'inner' sides of the blocks where they are hidden, and getting up into your coop without you noticing -- but for a reach-in or small-shed type coop this would not be an issue. They would be highly unlikely to start in such an exposed place and if they did you'd SEE it and do something about it. Or the chickens would, LOL) And you're not going to build a shed-sized coop outta PVC pipe anyhow

JMHO, good luck, have fun,

Pat