Large elevated pole coop build

[ewerbos]

I've asked a couple of questions about our coop (specifically sealing the floor), but I thought it might also be fun to share progress pics.

General idea: 8'x10', elevated off the ground to allow an under-coop area for chickens (we will add 10'x20' run after it is complete, focusing on the coop for now). We currently have 8 chickens, plan to increase to about 20 over time (if we can figure out what to do with all those eggs).

It took us many weeks to get the ground laid out--We thought about lots of different ways of doing it, but ended up just using posts because the ground was so unlevel, and we would have needed a ridiculous amount of dirt to fill it. As it was, we needed 36" stakes so that we could have batter boards at the same level on all sides of our 8'x10' coop:

Deep holes:

Posts in the ground, leveled with furring strips--At this point, they were in with some concrete and some dirt. We did this part inaccurately, so although we were super precise with the batter boards, some of the posts were a bit off:

We added in floor joists with 2x6 floor (in retrospect maybe 2x8 or more would have been better, but it feels solid enough now):

Floor installed (23/32 tongue and groove OSB; I started with the rough part up, but then my husband wanted it to be smooth up--you can't tell the difference now after we finished it with shellac, this picture was before we finished it):

Top sill installed, it was starting to feel more solid after this (2x6's again):

This is the view from our back deck and across the pool to where the chicken coop will be situated. We think it looks nice framed by the trees:

This is the basic wall framing up, which we completed last weekend. We ended up screwing on all the lumber (we nailed the floor joists) since it was easier, and we thought that because of the post barn construction, the framing isn't taking as much of the shear as typical framing would:

This weekend we had other things going on, but ended up filling in some of the gaps on the outside to make it more solid (overbuild) and make it easier to tack on the plywood. Hopefully we'll be able to finish that up during the week today and get the plywood sheets on, so we can work on the roof next weekend!

 

[ewerbos]

The middle holes on the back three sides will all be windows, covered with hardware cloth and acrylic at an angle to keep out the rain; the middle front is the door, the two side holes are for egg boxes (one) and storage/electrical (two).

 

[Then I Will]

Very interesting! I clicked on this post thinking this was going to be a very tall coop that a person would not be able to walk into- like a tree house coop, one on stilts.

I noticed it looked like OSB being used for the floor. Are you covering that with plywood?
With the floor support boards the flooring looks very sturdy. As far as sealing- they do make this spray/paint on rubber people seal their basements with. You could probably find something similar that you can paint/roll on to prevent the wood from rotting under chicken droppings. Or even a laminate that goes up around the walls a couple of inches- like the splash boards in doctors offices and operating rooms to make mopping easier. That way, you could actually hose out the floor and allow the water to funnel out the door of the coup without touching any of the wooden surfaces.
I don't know what direction you're intending to go with the floor, but it sounded like you wanted to seal the floor boards from moisture.

 

[Dmontgomery]

First off I would like to congratulate you on the most perfect looking hole (photo #2) I have ever seen.
Have you been able to compensate for the posts being slightly off square? Or are you going with a slant roof so it won't really matter?
It looks super sturdy. Should last you forever. Good job so far.

 

[ewerbos]

Very interesting! I clicked on this post thinking this was going to be a very tall coop that a person would not be able to walk into- like a tree house coop, one on stilts.

I noticed it looked like OSB being used for the floor. Are you covering that with plywood?
With the floor support boards the flooring looks very sturdy. As far as sealing- they do make this spray/paint on rubber people seal their basements with. You could probably find something similar that you can paint/roll on to prevent the wood from rotting under chicken droppings. Or even a laminate that goes up around the walls a couple of inches- like the splash boards in doctors offices and operating rooms to make mopping easier. That way, you could actually hose out the floor and allow the water to funnel out the door of the coup without touching any of the wooden surfaces.
I don't know what direction you're intending to go with the floor, but it sounded like you wanted to seal the floor boards from moisture.

I was considering other things--But my husband is super (over?) careful about toxicity of substances with chickens, so the only thing he's comfortable with is shellac, which we used. I saw the roof coat stuff and I think it would probably be fine, but he looked up the MSDS and is worried. The shellac should be fine if we periodically re-do it, so I'm not going to fight that fight! Some folks sounded irked at me in that thread that we weren't taking the advice for roof coat, etc.

First off I would like to congratulate you on the most perfect looking hole (photo #2) I have ever seen.
Have you been able to compensate for the posts being slightly off square? Or are you going with a slant roof so it won't really matter?
It looks super sturdy. Should last you forever. Good job so far.

Hah! I forgot to say the hole is 42" deep--it looks much more shallow in the photo. That may not sound like a lot to you, but it sure felt like a lot digging it! (we were going to rent a thing and decided it wasn't worth it for four holes, but *wow*...)

We have a plan for how to compensate for it--not sure yet how well it will work (we are planning a gabled roof). We will make the front and back rafters flush to the walls, and make the interior rafters square--It's only off a bit so hopefully it will work. Length-wise, we plan to make the notches in the rafters a little long/long enough for the longest part, so we can cut them the same and they'll all rest on the upper sill.

 

[Then I Will]

Oh my! I didn't even think of the safety of the floor coat. I figured if the substance I was thinking of was safe for people's basements, it would be safe enough for chickens. Something for roofs though may contain harmful substances- but if in a shady chicken coop I don't think those harmful substances would be too big of a problem if it sat a while before the chicks moved in. Still- it is up to the coop's engineer!

My coop floor is concrete- and not entirely by choice. We are converting a garden shed on the property into a coop, instead of constructing a new building.

 

[Dmontgomery]

42" deep post holes? I didn't know Maryland had a problem with earthquakes. I've never gone deeper than 24". And that was using a power auger. I don't have the energy to mix that much cement.

 

[sfgwife]

Are you sure the person makin this plan is not named the same as my mister? Lol! Mine is makin ours right now and this thing is to code a person could live it as a tiny house.

 

[ewerbos]

Are you sure the person makin this plan is not named the same as my mister? Lol! Mine is makin ours right now and this thing is to code a person could live it as a tiny house.

It would have to be a really short person!!! But yeah, we're probably overdoing it. But it will be great if it can last a while!

 

[ewerbos]

Finally got the walls up! And my husband started sealing. The last of the framing took way too long, since we doubled up pretty much every space (which is like 4x as many cuts as the original frame). Now for the roof...