making progress on the new floor for my duck hut

[Yetti]

This is a pic of what I am dealing with now. I use sand and have to change it out every couple of days

The new floor is an English design I found a while back. I finaly finished the rough in and now just have to wait for the glue to dry.

when its ready in a day or so I am going to lift the hut off the old floor and re set it on the new one and I'll be done with sand!

 

[Miss Lydia]

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Looks really nice. do you put hardware cloth or anything over the top? Looks like sand is not a good alternative for ducks who like to make everything wet. Looking forward to finished product. Good work

 

[Yetti]

everything I have read said to never use hardware cloth for the floor of a duck hut. its to easy for the critters to snag the webbing in their feet and cut them. plus any kind of wire is subject to rusting with introduction of animal waste. the key to the system is to control the gaps in the boards. I tried to keep them between 12-14 mm so as the gaps would allow waste to pass and feet to stay up on top. if the gaps get any bigger then their feet can push into the gaps and they can break toes

 

[Miss Lydia]

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well it looks great and I am showing this to my dh not for the duck house since it already built with wood floor and linolium over that but I'd like something like this for ourside to help keep the mud down around their waterers. thanks for sharing.

 

[TLWR]

deck boards?


How do you plan to clean it? I'm thinking the poop will be all over those boards.

 

[dianaross77]

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I'm guessing that's what the hose is for? Yetti, are you the one that made the goose house with the floor like that too? It's pretty neat!

 

[TLWR]

Quote:
I'm guessing that's what the hose is for? Yetti, are you the one that made the goose house with the floor like that too? It's pretty neat!

With a half inch between each board it just seems like it would be difficult to get all the poop off the boards.
I hose out the bottom of my duck house each morning and sometimes that stuff just really sticks, even with the hose on full blast and I have direct aim at the poop on the walls/floor.

 

[Yetti]

well assuming the Geese and ducks have the same diet I don't expect their poo to that far different? the floor I built for the goose hut is doing a fine job. you'd be amazed how well it works. the pic below is how much dirt 3 weeks of not washing behind 6 geese can generate.

I am figuring on a hard winter. the last thing I need is to have wet flooring that will freeze and be hard to clean.

 

[Yetti]

well yesterday I spent a couple hours with a belt sander flattening the whole floor. after I got everything down to where I was happy with it my son and I carried it outside to seal.
after looking at everything I had for oils. I couldn't find anything that wasn't toxic to the birds except one. Peanut oil. I just so happened to have about a gallon of used peanut oil from the deep frier. I used a new paint brush and gave the whole thing a liberal coat.
then I let it sit out in the rain all night. we'll see how it looks when the sun comes up today?

 

[Yetti]

well its almost done. I ran out of time siding the front and had to use the old panels, but the rest is all new. the floor is in as is the framing for two new small doors. they just need to be cut out. my son kept me hard at it all day to get it done. I could barely move when I got in the house I was so beat. pics to come.