We live in central Florida, the only bad or extreme weather we get is heat, rain during summer, and the occasional hurricane, though they are usually weak by the time they get this far inland; for that reason we're going to anchor the coop to the ground, and the run as well, as well as definitely tarp over part of the run, at least 1/4 - 1/3 of it
You might think it's entirely too much wood, but you might appreciate the sturdiness in a windstorm. If I were you, I'd cut that 24-ft section in half so it's more manageable. Make the 16' sections, and two more 12' sections. Stand one of the 16' sections up, and brace it by attaching 2x4's at an angle on one or both sides, like this:
Then stand up a 12' section on each end of the 16' wall, brace them, then attach securely at the corners. Make sure the open ends of the 12' sections are exactly the same distance apart. You now have a U-shaped section that will stand on its own. You can take down the braces. Then stand up the next two 12' sections, brace and attach to the ends (making 24' long walls), and stand up the last 16' section between them, and brace it. Line everything up, screw it all together, and done. You can give it some better stability by adding some 2x4's at an angle across the walls, kind of like this:
It will stand on its own for years and withstand high winds. Remind dear ol' dad that it's NOT going to support a roof, so you don't need so many vertical studs. You should be able to remove some of the vertical studs to reduce the weight of the walls. You should be making the distance between vertical studs at exactly the same width as your hardware cloth. Plan ahead so you don't create a headache later in trying to attach the hardware cloth.
You COULD sink some posts into the ground just at the four corners, and maybe where the 12' sections meet in the middle, to give it permanence and even better bracing against weather. 2' into the ground is not enough if you plan to do this. Rains soften the ground to the point that they're useless as a support post. Go 3' deep at least, or don't waste your time. Use treated lumber or 4x4 posts so they won't rot off - NOT ordinary boards.
We have pasture fencing with hedge posts (hedge is a wood that's naturally rot-resistant; free and abundant in our area). They're only holding up barbed wire and livestock fencing. But we have those posts sunk 4' into the ground at a minimum. On outbuildings we've constructed - and for corner posts in the pasture, we sink the post into the hole, dump in a couple bags of dry cement mix, dump a bucket of water on top of them, then fill the hole with dirt. Ain't going nowhere soon. You could do the same in the corners and where the 12' sections meet, and your heavy walls will stand and hold just fine.
Hope this helps.
Triple thumbs up, very helpful! I'm sure other parts of your comment will come in handy as well, thanks!
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that sounds like my run, although I do not have the predator issue that you have in the united states....
This is VERY similar to what we are doing!
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Might want to go further than 6".
Luckily where we live we don't have very many predators, but I'd rather be proactive just in case, though we're on a budget- thus we have this heavy gauge hardware cloth to use as a skirt, but probably only enough of it to go six inches underground. If we can find a good deal somewhere we might go deeper, but for now that is all funds will allow for.
Best just to copy and paste the URL of your build thread:
