Deck boards as flooring?

[4kidslotsapets]

Has anyone used deck boards as a floor of their coop? We are thinking about it, thinking it would be a lot cheaper! We were also thinking that if we left a little space between each board it would be easy to hose off. We are in Georgia, so it doesn't get as cold, just for a couple of months.

Any suggestions?

 

[patandchickens]

I sure wouldn't.

a) it is only cheaper if you have recycled deck boards to use -- but recycled *plywood* is pretty easy to come by too, and makes a way better floor.

b) if you leave gaps, you will lose a lot of bedding thru them, and it invites rodents to enlarge the gaps a bit with their teeth and enter. Plus, more importantly, you will only be able to hose poo thru the gaps if you do it very very frequently (otherwise, it will simply *crust into* the gaps and require laborious scraping) and if you DO hose that frequently you will almost certainly have humidity/rot problems in the coop.

Plywood is cheap. Plywood works good. Use plywood

Recycled deck boards can be used as *siding* for the coop, assuming they are in good enough shape.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat