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- #11
Today on my coop build I did the following:
Finished the white trim on the roof.
Screwed the coop to the pressure treated base.
Installed the ramp and the little corner perch in the run.
Installed the nest box on the west side.
Examined the inside and determined where I need to add trim pieces to seal up gaps and where the ideal placement should be for the roosts. (That one's going to need some more pondering. Need to decide if I want two shorter roosts going front to back, or one long one going side to side. Either way, it will require the addition of some wood for supports.)
I made a mistake on Monday when I built the base. I went by the dimensions listed on the box. Now, I knew that the two nest boxes accounted for some of the width, so when I was at TSC, I measured across the front of their display model so I would know exactly how wide the actual run was. But I didn't bother measuring front to back. Turns out I forgot to account for 3" of roof overhang on both ends. My base ended up 6" too long!
The back of the base is dug into the dirt, so I had to push the coop into position over the back part, and cut away the excess from the front, which was not buried. Then reinstall the front cross piece under the front of the coop. Then I was ready to attach the coop to the base. The first screw split the wood, so that taught me to predrill the rest of the holes. Oh, and the thin little ridge cap also split even though it came predrilled, so now I'm going to have to caulk the ridge trim of the roof. Fortunately, it's over the run and not the sleeping part.
Oh, and I deviated from @grohfrog 's base that I was going to copy, in that I skimped on the wood. Lowe's won't cut 4x4 lumber for you, but they will cut 2x4. So I went with that. And I'm glad I did, because I got pretty worn out trenching in the 2 by, and I know that it would have been really hard for me if I had been trying to wrestle with the 4by which would have been twice as heavy and require twice as much digging.
I'm going to hit submit now and put my interior photos in the next post.
Finished the white trim on the roof.
Screwed the coop to the pressure treated base.
Installed the ramp and the little corner perch in the run.
Installed the nest box on the west side.
Examined the inside and determined where I need to add trim pieces to seal up gaps and where the ideal placement should be for the roosts. (That one's going to need some more pondering. Need to decide if I want two shorter roosts going front to back, or one long one going side to side. Either way, it will require the addition of some wood for supports.)
I made a mistake on Monday when I built the base. I went by the dimensions listed on the box. Now, I knew that the two nest boxes accounted for some of the width, so when I was at TSC, I measured across the front of their display model so I would know exactly how wide the actual run was. But I didn't bother measuring front to back. Turns out I forgot to account for 3" of roof overhang on both ends. My base ended up 6" too long!
The back of the base is dug into the dirt, so I had to push the coop into position over the back part, and cut away the excess from the front, which was not buried. Then reinstall the front cross piece under the front of the coop. Then I was ready to attach the coop to the base. The first screw split the wood, so that taught me to predrill the rest of the holes. Oh, and the thin little ridge cap also split even though it came predrilled, so now I'm going to have to caulk the ridge trim of the roof. Fortunately, it's over the run and not the sleeping part.
Oh, and I deviated from @grohfrog 's base that I was going to copy, in that I skimped on the wood. Lowe's won't cut 4x4 lumber for you, but they will cut 2x4. So I went with that. And I'm glad I did, because I got pretty worn out trenching in the 2 by, and I know that it would have been really hard for me if I had been trying to wrestle with the 4by which would have been twice as heavy and require twice as much digging.
I'm going to hit submit now and put my interior photos in the next post.
We built the same one this past weekend, BUT we painted over it (3 coats!) and our son put ventilations holes in the back (8 holes) and in the front side
(The instructions also say to bring the coop inside if you expect to experience extremes in hot or cold temperatures. (?!) They really seem to have themselves covered for the lack of durability in their product. 
)
What about 'wet' conditions?
