Finish inside walls?

[OrpingtonHopeful]

the chicks are getting huge fast- DH is looking to cut corners and has already talked me out of insulation (we are in NC and locals tell me its not necessary).

Do we need to finish the walls inside the coop?

Would love your opinions on both actually....

 

[briteday]

As long as the coop is free of drafts, I don't think you need insulation in NC. Our winters have lows around 0 and our birds don't have insulation or heat. The best they get is a couple of granite river rocks heated on the hearth and placed under their roosts if the temps are to go below 0 overnight.

I do paint the inside of my coops because chicken poop flys everywhere and is hard to scrape off of wood. I would always opt for cheap linoleum flooring under the bedding and roosts as well as at least two coats of the cheapest paint you can find on the walls. I usually pester the neighbors for anything they want to give away or check at home Depot / Lowes for the oops colors that were mixed improperly. I prefer light colors, but have taken anything when choices were slim. The only thing I don't paint is the roost itself.

 

[espressola]

I would finish them. Besides the fact that it will cut down on dust and cobweb accumulation, it would not be fun if you decide to put down vinyl floor to have to make all those little cuts around the studs... also, if you have a smooth edge you can curve it up the wall a bit for added ease in cleaning....

Patty N. ;-)

 

[lux_interior]

First off, you don't need insulation. They're chickens... they know how to deal

Secondly... if you're cutting corners, I'd say the only things you MUST paint, are the floors and the roosts. Because, as previously stated, that's where most of the poo ends up, and yes, it is VERY hard to clean off.

But an exterior porch or floor paint, it dries VERY fast and one or two coats is good... You could paint it in the morning and have them in by evening.

Oh I forgot nesting boxes... I'd paint those two, but those can wait till after your chickies move in

 

[daisy_dukers]

FIL is building my coop. He owns a flooring company and has TONNES of extra vinyl so he is going to cover the inside of my coop with vinyl flooring. Walls and floor will be covered so I should be able to hose the entire thing down. He is even talking about putting a floor drain in and using some pvc to run a "sewer" line out to the compost pile for when I hose it down.

Coop will also be insulated.

As of right now the plans are for 8x16...

Now if it would only stop raining.....

 

[lux_interior]

Quote:
I disagree... that's extra plywood cost, extra work, and extra time, that is totally unnecessary, and the chickens could care less if their studs are exposed.

 

[lux_interior]

and seriously, they do not need insulation.... they need vents to let out moisture, cold air won't hurt them, moisture will.

 

[River Lizard]

I'd recommend 1/4" underlayment and only run it up the sides 2'. This cuts down on cost but also closes up the openings between the studs and will make it much easier to clean in the long run. Run vinyl a foot or so up the underlayment and paint the rest plus the exposed upper area too.
You can cut 2 x 6's to fit between the studs and angle them at a 50-60% slope so the chickens can't roost on the top of the underlayment.

 

[patandchickens]

If it were me I would not bother insulating in NC unless you are on the top of a mountaintop (and you wouldn't strictly *need* it even then).

Honestly I think you're best off NOT putting on an inner wall... it would not provide any meaningful insulation value and will just accumulate dust, shavings, feathers, mold and mice.

It for sure *is* worth priming and painting the whole inside of the coop, though. Not only will it be brighter and pleasanter, you would not believe where poo can get to, and it is far easier to remove from a painted surface than from bare wood.

If you wanted to put down a vinyl floor there should be no conflict with bare studs, b/c the vinyl would just run up to the sill 2x4 of the wall, you would not be cutting around studs unless you've built things weirdly (and if you *did* build things weirdly, filling in with 2x4s would put you back to having an even edge to run your vinyl against).

JMHO, have fun,

Pat

 

[annek]

I did put in insulation in my walls but I didn't use fiberglass, I was afraid of mold and mildew. Instead I used the rigid pink foam board and the silver bubble stuff. The insulation value isn't fantastic but it was not a lot of work and I wanted at least something in there. On the inside walls I put in frp (fiberglass reinforced plastic), the crap wipes right off, which is good because I think they have poop fights all night long.

In SC our problem isn't cold, its heat-the insulation does keep the coop cooler but when the temps are close to 100 and the humidity is matching-not much you can do.