Guidelines for building permanent sand-based foundation for coop & run.

[perchie.girl]

I saw your pictures From your description the water is going to flow by underneath the sand through the gravel right? If that is true then you have it right by putting a non water permeable layer between gravel and Sand to keep the sand dry. Just make sure you didn't accidentally make a ten inch deep gravel filled pond. With a layer of plastic on top and a layer of sand on top of that. If the water cant flow by or sink in it will begin to stink. and or create a humidity problem. with all the health issues associated.

If you think you did make a container for the water it would be a simple matter to dig out one end on the low side and let the water flow from the gravel there. Which can be done later.

Those feed sacks are not water proof if that is what you wanted.

deb

Deb--
Thanks very much for sharing your knowledge! The French drain system sounds very effective.

I'm not sure I understood the last part. Would you mind looking at my photos on pg 1 & letting me know if you foresee problems with how I'm doing things?

Bed:
The bed is dug down about 10 inches.

Gravel:
There is about 4 inches of 1-inch gravel in the bottom of the bed inside the bed and about 7 inches of gravel & large rocks supporting the walls. The bed extends at least 10 inches all the way around the exterior of the run & almost all of that exterior dug-down area is filled just with gravel, though we will put a thin layer of dirt on top of some of it.

"Landscape Fabric" (sort of):
I've now stitched together feed sacks similar to landscape fabric and attached them loosely wall-to-wall inside the run, to form a sort of flat pouch to put the sand in. I attached them to the bottom of the walls using trim boards. I poked some holes in the sacks throughout the floor, and extras where rain might come in, plus the stitching between the sacks holds them pretty loosely together.

Sand:
We'll be putting 8+ inches of sand inside the coop in a couple days.

Slope:
The run is on a fairly high place. The natural ground level is about 6 inches higher at the highest end of the run than at the lowest. We have compensated by building up the lower end with extra rocks & gravel. I'm hoping the gravel trench area on the upslope above the run will funnel any water from there down and the water will just flow through the gravel BELOW the landscape cloth.

Thanks for any helpful additional input.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

There is a product called Earth Right that will help water drain. I believe it is some type of enzyme. The product is sprayed on the ground and treatments have to be repeated every so often, but it does work and in fact can drain a pond if enough is used. It is found with the gardening products.

 

[Hunter0704]

I agree with the french drain idea....what a great suggestion!!!!

Or, another idea, as you say your run/coop is located on a hill. You could build a berm on the hill above the coop/run to direct water away from the coop/run and have water flow around it. To build the berm you would need to make a large pile of dirt, with the width of it extending about 2-3 feet wider than the width of your coop run so water will run around it. Possibly some gravel mixed in to give it more weight.

Good luck with your water problems!!!!

 

[PoultryPedia]

Thanks, ChickChickChicky & Hunter for passing on more good options!!

There is a bit of a berm on the slope above the coop from when we dug the bed--Maybe I'll leave some of it. Thanks for that idea!

One concern I've thought of was where two feed sacks overlap--if it gets wet there whether it'd dry quickly enough to prevent mold growth or not.

I trimmed all the sacks so there's no overlap except 3-6 inches at seams. There's be the gravel layer below with all the air space between the big pieces of gravel there, and several inches of usually dry sand above, so I'm thinking things will dry quickly enough.

I have a sack of Diatomaceous Earth, which dries things out, so I'm going to sprinkle some of that along the seams to hopefully avoid any problems.

 

[ChickChickChicky]

Here is a link to Earth Right at Amazon, although it is sold at many local garden centers and I think even at Walmart. At least the link gives you a little more info and some reviews.

http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Right-Soil-Conditioner-Gallon/dp/B0007LTTM2

There also is another enzyme-type product that I've used (not for water problems, but just for soil improvement & seed germination & plant growth). Nitron does fantastic things for growing plants, but I'm not sure if it also works well with water problems (I think it does, but can't remember).

http://www.gardeniq.com/store/product/Nitron-A-35,150,93.aspx