First time building. Advice on sloped terrain?

[CGinJCMO]

Does the run really have to be level? The coop I agree should be but I'm not going to do anything about the ground for the fencing area of my run. I do have a lot of lumps and bumps that I'm going to deal with but with the general slope of the land, I won't. Personally, i wouldn't worry so much about the slope.

CG

 

[Calomel]

Now, with that said, I have a question about Google Sketchup. Free or fee?

and

.

I am very interested in it.

Thanks.

Thank you for the welcome! <3 SketchUp is free for the basic version of the program, which was more than adequate for what I wanted to draw up. There is a pro version that costs $$.

I wanted to make the coop run level out of consideration for my neighbor. It would be my first coop, I'm not sure how the run would drain in the rain or anything like that, or if the sand would just get kicked out along the fence there. I didn't want to be a bad chicken keeper by letting my chicken mess drain off into my neighbor's lovingly manicured lawn when it rains hard or I need to wash out the coop. He loves his lawn. No amount of egg bribery would save me if I accidentally ruined part of it, I'd feel terrible.

 

[BigRooNTN]

I think the whole thing for a successful coop is having happy neighbors. Out of consideration for your neighbor I would put up a plastic barrier along the fence and then although a tough job, haul the fill dirt in and build it up to slope away from his manicured lawn. Your neighbor after the draining from your coop .

You trying to apologize

 

[CGinJCMO]

Well, when you put it that way....I see your point on wanting to make sure nothing kills the neighbor's grass. Although if you could bottle it up for him, "chicken poop tea" is suppose to be a good fertilizer. You might actually make his yard grow better.

Just an idea, don't know if it works and how feasible it would be to implement...on the lower side/corner add a drain pipe to make sure the poop rich water stays away from the fence line. Once the water is out far enough from the coop, you can use pipe that has holes in it to allow seepage so you don't end up with a flood at the end of the pipe.

Hopefully someone else with more technical terms can add to my idea (and say if it could work). I can come up with ideas, but since I'm not a contractor, I may not have the easiest or cheapest idea and therefor it isn't the best choice in the long run.

CG

 

[jamband]

I think the whole thing for a successful coop is having happy neighbors. Out of consideration for your neighbor I would put up a plastic barrier along the fence and then although a tough job, haul the fill dirt in and build it up to slope away from his manicured lawn. Your neighbor after the draining from your coop .

You trying to apologize

A plastic barrier? I am not sure what u mean by that but either way to be fair to the poster.... Hauling and filling that area is going to take a huge amount of dirt and a retaining wall to hold any of it there .....The last thing you need is 30 yrds of fill dirt running downhill.

If the manure runoff is a issue, which really if you keep the run well maintained it shouldnt't be. I see 2 much easier options.
1 build the coop up higher on your yard, and somewhat heavily vegetate the downhill side as buffer.

2 you could run a piping setup to catch any running water and pipe it somewhere......the problem is the somewhere needs to be lower than where it is caught and that could be an issue in that spot

 

[kellanv]

Just looked at the photo again so I'm changing my response. What about digging the non fence side down below grade and use cinder block as the retention/stem wall. That way you can build a berm on that sideto prevent surface water from flowing across the coop. This would require the back to be spaced a bit from the fence.

Secondly many times there is a five foot utility easement along property lines which are no build areas. Check your survey!

 

[Calomel]

You guys are an amazing resource, thank you again for offering your opinions and advice. I dug around a little bit, did some research on cost and what it would take to make that area level enough to put a coop on and the amount of work involved is far, far more than it's worth to just choose a different spot in the lawn or go with a modest tractor. That westward dip into the neighbor's lawn continues down the entire property line. My husband and I discussed our options and based on the input here, we're going to have to re-think our coop location.

Again, thank you all for your advice. It was very helpful!