Foundation Construction

[mowin]

Have you jacked many other buildings up to level them?

If so, maybe you know things we don't. If not, you might reconsider that plan.

Two observations on it. It is a lot harder to jack up a building than to jack up a car (the only other big thing we have jacked up.) And it is better for it to settle straight.

Ours didn't settle straight. Or wasn't built straight. Or both.

Our foundation was perfectly level. The building wasn't. It was built elsewhere and hauled to our lot where it sat on unlevel ground for a few weeks before he came back to move it on the foundation. The builder got the doors to work by jacking one end up and putting shims under one corner. That made the floor bounce, the blackjack 57 over the floor to crack, some nails in the floor to work out, the windows to not fit, etc.

We jacked it up enough to get the shim out which fixed the floor problems. Then the doors couldn't close. I'd never jacked up a building before. We had a jack designed for similar jobs - not a car jack. I still never want to do that again... trying to get the jack under the building was awful, working the jack under that much weight was awful, reaching under the building to get the shim out was scary, letting it back down was awful.

I think much of the problem is everything built (the frame, the wall sheathing, the roof deck, the roofing, the frame for the roosts, ect) braced the lean and rack of the building. It did NOT want to adjust.

It took a LOT of tries with come-a-longs and braces, to rack the front of the building straight enough for the door to close if the weather is dry. It tended to settle back despite the braces. And far too much shaving of the door and the door frame to get it to close in damp weather. It also popped a couple of the wall boards off the frame (our has board and batten walls), and cracked a couple of other boards.

We left the other end of the building leaning.

It looks like your building is about 10x6? That is about half the size of ours. Hopefully that is enough that yours isn't as awful to jack up. I don't think being smaller will help much with the other problems though.

It's 12x22, and yes, I've jacked and leveled many sheds/garage over the yrs. This one is set in a spot that is all gravel and drains well. Once this one is set on blocks, it won't move.

 

[LittleMamaBigPapa]

Hello BYC!

I am building my own coop and it's time to work on the foundation before framing it out. I feel pretty anxious about messing this up which is why I had initially reached out to a professional for help, but he quoted me $8,000 to put in concrete piers! Madness. Needless to say, I am doing this myself. My husband and I decided to do cinderblock foundation (two rows, offset) with poured concrete and J bolts in the holes because our soil is pretty rocky and I'm not sure we're getting deep enough for piers. The ground is not level, so we need to dig one side out significantly before we can set any cinderblocks down. Below are a few specific questions I have about this process, but I have zero experience with foundations/concrete so any general tips or advice are really helpful. Thanks all!

• Do we need to put gravel or sand under the cinderblocks for drainage purposes? Or plastic? Or a French drain system beside the cinderblocks? (this seems a bit much) Seen a lot of different methods on YouTube and not sure what is necessary here. Also, since the cinderblocks will enclose the entire run, how do we ensure proper drainage of water from inside the run out to the field? The grass inside the run is still sloping towards the field, but unsure how the water will escape from behind the concrete.
• I understand that given our climate and the depth of these cinderblocks, we will have some frost heaving. This is of course concerning, but I'm wondering if there's anything I can do in the construction process to help minimize this?
• Any advice on mixing concrete and dropping in J bolts would also be helpful

How big will your coop be?

 

[mowin]

You could only hope to be.

Everything I build is built to outlast me and that's all that counts. I'm not spending all my time fixing stuff that wasn't built to withstand the environment it's to perform in.

This coop will outlast me. But then again we plan on leaving NY in 3 yrs. Then I'll have to build another one.

 

[Silexian]

That is not the bare minimum in my climate. Only twelve inches is guaranteed to heave every single year. Then, probably because it is more or less midway down to the frost line, it will not go back down evenly. It would be better to lay it on the surface. It will still heave but at least it will go back to much closer to level for the summers and/or be easier to adjust.

I stated that the 12 inches of compacted rock needs to be below the frost line. If the frost line is at 32 inches. You would need to dig 48 inches to have 12 inches of compacted rock below the frost line. Myself, if I was already having to put that much work into it. I would just pour the footing and wall with concrete.

 

[mowin]

I don't think I've ever see a chicken coop/shed with poured footings or on piers in my area. Everyone has them on 4x4 PT skids. Some have a bed of crushed stone underneath. Seen many 12x24 garage/shed on skids no footings or piers.
In my area, you are not digging down 4' by hand. And a 3pt post hole auger isn't going to do it either because the rocks are going to push auger way off point. I had my nephew here with his skid steer and auger to put in my fence post. They had a be 8' OC. The rocks were too big and pushed the bit way off. Ended up using a mini excavator to dig fence post holes.
Bottom line is piers or footings in my area is going to cost you a lot of money. Know one around here is going to put that money into a chicken coop.

 

[Alaskan]

I don't think I've ever see a chicken coop/shed with poured footings or on piers in my area. Everyone has them on 4x4 PT skids. Some have a bed of crushed stone underneath. Seen many 12x24 garage/shed on skids no footings or piers.
In my area, you are not digging down 4' by hand. And a 3pt post hole auger isn't going to do it either because the rocks are going to push auger way off point. I had my nephew here with his skid steer and auger to put in my fence post. They had a be 8' OC. The rocks were too big and pushed the bit way off. Ended up using a mini excavator to dig fence post holes.
Bottom line is piers or footings in my area is going to cost you a lot of money. Know one around here is going to put that money into a chicken coop.

I am sure that that is why skids are so popular.

With skids the entire building moves as one... so if one corner is slightly higher... nothing in the building goes wonky.

 

[CarrollLargena]

If I were in your shoes, I would not save money while raising the coop. If you do not have the knowledge and specific skills, you better avoid your impulses to do it yourself. As time passes, I'm 100% sure the problems that necessitate reparations will appear very soon. I suggest you wait until you have enough resources to hire specialized crews. There are many opportunities to save your time and energy. For instance, while renovating my house, I benefited from a dumpster rental service https://www.dumpsterrentalslafayette.com/ that took my construction waste. Please keep me updated about your decisions and options. Take care of yourself!