Door question

[haunani]

I'm cutting it close on getting the coop ready to get the first 3 girls out before the new batch arrives. I've run into a roadblock on the door, though. I'm converting an old outbuilding to use as a coop, and it has a corner feeder in it that's attached to the building with nailed metal plates. Without having a sawzall or similar, it's not going anywhere, and is blocking part of my plans for the chicken door in the coop.

I wanted to do an interior vertical sliding door, raised up about 12" from the floor of the coop (plan to do DLM). With the layout of the coop/run, I can only do their door on that side of the building. The rest of that side has a workbench (will be roost w/poop board) spanning it, that would limit the ability to have a door slide up.

I feel like interior would be better for weather, so I won't have to worry as much about rain and such as I would with an exterior sliding door, as it would be exposed to the elements on the west side of the building.

I like the idea of the vertical sliding door so I can open/close it from outside the run. I guess another option would be an outside horizontal sliding door, but that would be more difficult to manipulate from outside.

Any ideas that I may be completely overlooking?

 

[eggbert420]

Buy the tools you need. Do it the way you want it, the first time so your not like for the next couple of years.

 

[eggbert420]

Harbor freight sells tools cheep.

 

[Howard E]

Can you post some clear photos.......inside and out?

 

[Ridgerunner]

I agree some photos could help a lot.

I have some external sliding doors, both horizontal and vertical, on a couple of small coops. I operate those manually. My pop door to the run is external and hinged at the top. I also operate it manually. It probably takes less than 10 seconds to go through the human door into the run and open or close it, then lock the human door again. But I don’t know your set-up.

 

[aart]

Can you post some clear photos.......inside and out?

I agree some photos could help a lot.

I have some external sliding doors, both horizontal and vertical, on a couple of small coops. I operate those manually. My pop door to the run is external and hinged at the top. I also operate it manually. It probably takes less than 10 seconds to go through the human door into the run and open or close it, then lock the human door again. But I don’t know your set-up.

X3

 

[WesleyBeal]

I wanted to do an interior vertical sliding door, raised up about 12" from the floor of the coop (plan to do DLM). With the layout of the coop/run, I can only do their door on that side of the building. The rest of that side has a workbench (will be roost w/poop board) spanning it, that would limit the ability to have a door slide up.

Agree with the requests for photos, and in general the principle of getting the tools you need, if it's feasible to do so.

However, if I understand the issue with the workbench blocking the ability for a vertical door to slide up, you could try a hinged door, that swings up rather than slides up, via a pull rope from outside.

Now, this gets to be seriously less than ideal should anything ever get in front (or behind, depending on how you look at it) the door, preventing it from swinging up.

You drill a 3/4" or so hole through the wall an inch above the top of the door, attach a screw eye to the bottom of the bench, coming out from the wall about another inch longer than your door, attach another screw eye to the bottom of your door, tie string to screw eye on door, run through screw eye under bench, continue to run the string outside.....

Would probably work most of the time.

 

[mclanea]

Pictures would really help.

I made a vertical sliding door in my coop, has a little pulley system with a rope on the outside of the run. Comes in pretty handy when you want to let them out into the run without going into the run itself. (Because mine are quick and will follow me out!)

Rather than a sawzall you could use a jigsaw, which are considerably cheaper. I bet if you post it on Facebook one of your friends will hook you up.

 

[haunani]

Sorry I didn't reply sooner, y'all. I ended up breaking down and getting a mid-priced recip saw. It helped immensely! Between that, tin snips, and a sledgehammer, I got that darn corner trough out. It was NOT easy!

I thought of a jigsaw, too, but this trough was far too thick/heavy for a jigsaw.

Now I can do my sliding door easy-peasy.

 

[eggbert420]