Human door: how to attach to the coop

[sashurlow]

My coop is slowly being built. Three sides of the coop are in the run and the fourth side is going to be a door into the coop. My coop is 4x4x5(tall), so the door needs to be 4x5.
How would people attach it and yet have a solid closure that is draft proof?
I don't have a picture yet, maybe tonight after I add some more to it.
Thanks,
Scott

 

[Mahonri]

A picture would really help.

 

[farrier!]

I added a bit of plywood on the outside of the door so that when it shuts it covers any gap. I knew the add on coop would not be square. This is working very well for us....

The hinged side stay tight.

 

[patandchickens]

The easiest thing is to just have the door slightly larger than the opening, so it sort of slams against the edges of teh too-small opening (whcih you can then weatherstrip).

This is not the most secure vs predators; if you want one step up, frame your doorway the correct size but then put good stout doorstop molding (larger than in your house's doors, but the same idea) that the edges of the door will close against in the same way as the previous description.

However I would not recommend making a 4x5' door. That is too wide; not only will it be hard to keep chickens from popping out when you open the door if they feel so inclined, more significantly that is a LOT of long lever-arm on the hinges. You would have to use very serious hinges and have some very serious framing timber for them to attach to.

Make the door 4x3, with the remaining 2' wide section of the wall being fixed. It will simplify your life and make the door last waaaay longer without sagging or hinge-hardware-failure problems.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Casey3043]

However I would not recommend making a 4x5' door. That is too wide; not only will it be hard to keep chickens from popping out when you open the door if they feel so inclined, more significantly that is a LOT of long lever-arm on the hinges. You would have to use very serious hinges and have some very serious framing timber for them to attach to.

Intelligent chickens know they are not allowed to pop out a human door, just as humans know they are not allowed to pop out a chicken door.

Sorry, couldn't resist!

 

[elmo]

I'm building a similar thing right now. Instead of a single door for my access side, I built two doors that open from the middle. That way, the whole side can still be opened up for cleaning out, but I can open only one side for normal access.

My carpentry skills aren't the best, so I discovered when I tried to attach the doors that my frame is out of square by about 1/8 to 1/4 inch. I added shims to the outside of the frame to fudge this problem. On the inside, I'm going to add a removable board as a lip, butting up against the doors, to cover any gap. This will also help keep the bedding inside.

 

[captainmoose]

I would not recommend a door that big. You would need to beef up the hinge corner and have heavy duty hinges, plus it will be very heavy, a lot of weight on the latch end. I would recommend a smaller door mabe 36". What will the door be made out of? I would install it the same way as a door in your house, frame out the opening, attach hinges to the frame, and add door stops to the inside frame.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

Take a look at one of the exterior doors on your house and you will see the easiest way to make a door "weatherproof" by using "door stop" molding

 

[sashurlow]

http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y23/tbdesigns/chicken%20coop/chickencoop1_1.jpg
It looks like that. The opening is 4 ft wide and 5 ft tall. So I might have to add a 1ft panel. I would make two doors, but I'm going to add the nesting box on the door.
scott

 

[faykokoWV]

cover half with a solid piece that has the nesting boxes and the other half be the door. have the opening for the nesting boxes face the door not towards the inside of the coop, then you can open the door and reach around the corner for the eggs. If you put the nesting box on the door, you might open it while a hen is in it and make her not want to lay in it.