EZ Frame Chicken Coop Build

[kurby22]

You're Genius!!! THIS is like the one I need to do to add on to my big coop as a lean-to!
Thanks Kurbs!!!
Ya wanna fly out here n gettherdone?! Lolol

Wouldn’t we have fun ??

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Wouldn’t we have fun ??

Fo sure!!!

 

[kurby22]

Got some big steps done today!! My worry about getting the hole for the door to work…was not unfounded. My husband didn’t quite get it straight and so we had to fiddle with the jigsaw a bit to shave the side down without breaking things haha. Two sides are attached, some holes cut and all the dividing panels in place. It’s getting closer!

 

[NatJ]

Two sides are attached...

The plastic connectors stick out a little from the wood framing pieces. Does this cause trouble when attaching the siding?

 

[littlecoopnextdoor]

Got some big steps done today!! My worry about getting the hole for the door to work…was not unfounded. My husband didn’t quite get it straight and so we had to fiddle with the jigsaw a bit to shave the side down without breaking things haha. Two sides are attached, some holes cut and all the dividing panels in place. It’s getting closer!

love the little chicken footprints inside hehe

 

[Gammas Bearded Babies]

Lookin amazing Kurby!!! Excited for yall!
Atleast yall were able to correct the door.

 

[Egg Snatcher]

Can’t wait to see the final product!

 

[Auntiejessi3]

 

[kurby22]

The plastic connectors stick out a little from the wood framing pieces. Does this cause trouble when attaching the siding?

Yes they do and so far hasn't been a huge issue. As you screw the siding its very snug. I am finding the most frustrating part is measuring the cutouts on the boards when the connectors are wider than the posts.

They also can be a bit annoying in the corners when attaching the siding and other things, however the drill goes straight through them when needed. On the whole, they have been very handy and made things much easier when measuring and such--but there are definitely some annoying things about using them. The instructions don't cover some of the little things to know about the joint pieces - they just say to do them all the same way or the measurements are off. You have to interpret with that means. They also don't tell you to pay close attention to where the holes of the joint pieces face for securing them to the studs. We did have to add holes to the corner pieces for the back siding and for the flooring which wasn't a part of their kit so there was no consideration for adding that to your design. Not an issue, but for those of us that are not long time builders, it's a bit frustrating. We had to screw holes and then rescrew things once we figured out the issues, but in the big scheme of the whole thing, it's been useful enough I would consider buying them again. Gonna wait on longevity and sturdiness first haha.

We also decided to scrap the clean out doors near the top of the roof. The siding is too thin and the frame is too small I think. We decided it might impact the integrity of the siding too much. Also the feeder I bought, while it will work I think exactly like I planned...will be super heavy with the 50 lbs of feed in it, so we are planning to make sure it has something solid to sit on, like the cinder block I'm using currently. Between the skinnier studs and the thinner siding, I am not doing to test the strength of my craftsmanship haha.

 

[CliftonQuail]

Another trip to Lowe’s today! Bought hopefully all the rest of the wood needed for the coop and run! Still probably gonna need one more trip for hardware and a couple other things, but I’m almost ready to cut siding and attach!

Lowe’s also had cheap pre-cut metal sheets that are the perfect size for the roof! So I bought some Krylon Fusion black spray paint and roofing screws. It’s hard to fit stuff in our vehicles so this was a great solution! I’m really happy how it looks! Now I just have to figure out a ridge cap. Lowe’s apparently won’t cut metal after all and I don’t need a 10 ft long ridge cap—nor wud it fit in our SUV! I might as I buy it and sit cutting it down in the parking lot…haha. So gonna work on that.

Got a bunch of hardware too—some from the decking area and some from the gate hardware section. I also found nice 2x2x3 ft redwood decking balusters to use to connect the feet on the coop so I can attach hardware cloth. I plan to paint them black, but since they will be making ground contact, redwood was the best option! They don’t readily stock the severe weather wood as 2x2s and I needed to cut some cost where I could so we shall see how things go! They were $3/each and the severe weather ones were $6/each so it works!

My hardware cloth arrives tomorrow, so that’s probably my next big chore! And the husband will be cutting wood! I wanted the black cloth instead of regular and Lowe’s had the best price but I had to ship it!

I know it's a little bit late to be mentioning this, but it might help someone else who decides to build an EZ frame. I just looked at Lowe's and a 2x4x8 is $3.35, where a 2x2x8 is $3.38. For essentially the same price as one 2x2, you could buy one 2x4 and rip it on a table saw to make two 2x2 boards. For your purposes, I'm not sure that Lowe's would rip the board, so it's probably just as well, but for anyone with a table saw, they could cut their 2x2 wood costs in half.
I haven't made all the way through this thread, but I'm enjoying what I've seen so far.