Coop on pavers?

[aart]

This whole slope thing might bring the plastic flooring back into play

I just realized who you are:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/constructive-feedback-on-coop-run-design-idea.1318149/
I would build that coop 'off site'.... then move it into place.
Them maybe 'level' the whole thing with a few bricks if needed.

 

[Cryss]

Wood chips from chip drop? Excellent! Wood chips on ground would be my decision. Wood absorbs water. People using the Back To Eden method of gardening know that wood chips absorb excess water and releases water as needed by the soil which is why they don't need to water their garden much. A nice deep layer of wood chips over dirt will keep it all dry and the wood will compost into the dirt. If you garden just dig up some of the soil under the wood chips in the fall and spread on your garden. Then refill the run with fresh wood chips. That would be my way. Actually it is my way. I use wood chips.

 

[zinnia5117]

This whole slope thing might bring the plastic flooring back into play

I measured the actual difference in slope and apparently I am terrible at eyeballing. It’s only a 3/8” difference in elevation over 10-11’. My dad thinks it should be okay as long as I make the horizontals and verticals square with each other and check frequently (he builds a lot of things). But tell me more, I haven’t put the Formica on Craigslist just yet.

 

[mowin]

Patios are supposed to have a pitch away from the house.

I think you should build the coop, with a floor, on the pavers. Then the run off the pavers with sand and chips.

That way your pavers are protected, and the run will be able to drain.

 

[zinnia5117]

Just wanted to provide a quick update. The coop has been on pavers since August, and I’m using sand as the material on the run floor over the pavers and inside the house minus the nesting box (straw). The girls free range all day outside in our suburban fenced backyard (meaning on rainy days like this they mostly hang out under the people house overhang, but hey) so the tiny coop is fine. Sand has been AMAZING and even with the wet days, no big bad smells. I just use a flat bottomed kitty litter scoop and clean out the poop from the sand in the coop daily or every few days. I haven’t needed to clean it out from the run sand. For whatever reason they rarely poop there. Probably they just eat their food quickly and get outside. They do poop on the pavers some, but it seems to be less than when they were younger. Maybe they now don’t feel like they need to stay as close to the coop during the day.
I just spray the pavers off about once a week. Now I’m somewhat regretting having tried to redo the sand between the pavers by the coop, because the cracks filed with moss on the other side naturally keep everything out, but the whole patio seems to be doing fine.
I’ll try to update again in the summer when I plan to move the coop to the side so I can replace all the run sand. Then I can see if there’s been any damage to the pavers.

 

[aart]

Just wanted to provide a quick update. The coop has been on pavers since August,

Cool Beans!!

How about some pics @zinnia5117 ?

 

[Cryss]

Cool Beans!!

How about some pics?

X2!

 

[zinnia5117]

So, maybe this is a weird first picture to post, but I was suddenly required to move the coop as we have some guys coming to replace the deck starting tomorrow and I didn’t want to take a chance of anything falling on the coop while they are working. I had put a lot of time into coop design and then it wasn’t getting built and we ended up just buying a used small prefab one for $120. After giving it a nice cleaning with Oxine, it has been great, albeit cramped. But that doesn’t matter because the hens free range all day. And even though it’s only 10 ft square, it’s technically legal in our city. (Crazy!)

I ended up putting river sand down in the run part and inside the coop (there is a pull out tray) and then straw in the nesting boxes. The sand inside the coop lasts for several months. You just scoop out the poop every day or few days, whatever you need to do. Use a kitty litter scoop. In the run I did not change the sand at all in the last ten months. So, I swept away the sand today when I moved the coop. The run has a completely open bottom so the sand was directly on the pavers. So in this picture, you can see the wet outline of where the coop/run has been sitting for the past ten months. Tomorrow the forecast is just cloudy, not rainy, so once it’s drier I want to inspect it more closely to see if there’s has been any damage to the pavers from sand (which was probably usually wet) sitting on them that length of time. I will try to take a closer picture tomorrow and a picture once the coop is back in place.

On a side note, poor chickens tonight! Even though they saw where I moved the coop, they just went right back under the deck. I didn’t realize they are such creatures of habit! I had to manually move them.

 

[mowin]

I'm interested in the effects on the polymetric sand in the patio joints. Although 10 months isn't several years, I hopefull it's good news.