metal shed conversion

[wyoDreamer]

Perfect! Hope your project goes well!
The wood inside will also give you something to attach roosts and nest boxes to. just remember to attach stuff to the wood, not just the metal. the metal will not support much weight hung on it and nails/screws will rip out of just metal.

 

[aart]

I've added a double door to one of those sheds, used 2x2 and 2x4 framing screwed in from the outside...and a metal cutoff blade on a angle grinder to cut the shed walls.

Not sure about windows, might be better to add them on the inside so water will shed off better. Might depend on the window, but keep that in mind.

 

[Maugwa]

Hi all!

We are picking up a free used 8x10 metal shed tomorrow, and will be converting it to a coop for my 7 hens - it will be divided, one half for the coop, one half for storage of chicken supplies.

I would love some advice on how to go about cutting and framing windows and ventilation in a structure like this - general placement, and also specifics on the process. Of course, all openings will be covered in hardware cloth. I have some old large windows (2x3') that I plan to use, so that the windows can be closed down at times (although I plan to leave them open in all but the worst weather); I would also like to incorporate some higher-up ventilation openings. Pictures of what others have done would be appreciated!

FYI, we live on Vancouver Island, where the weather is generally mild - warm, dry summers, and cool rainy winters.

Thanks!!

I can't see the interior structure of your shed, so I'll imagine it's a lot like one a neighbor gave me years ago that I made a few changes to to make a better tool shed out of. These are just some ideas to think about, not instructions of what you must do. I'm sure no two people would ever fix this the same way.

Well for starters, I am 6'4" tall and my free shed wasn't, it also had some rust on the piece of square tubing frame that contacted the ground. I poured a small concrete pad mostly 4" thick, but around the perimeter inside the form it was dug deeper to 8" or 10" for a square shovel width (about 10"), and poured a monolithic floor/footer combo like this. The shed was light and would of been fine on a pad, but I was going to use some block too. When I'm not herding chickens, I am a mason, so I always have plenty of block, brick, and stone around anyway. I laid one coarse of block around to set the shed on 8" taller, and rather than make new doors, and figure out how to redo the tracks that the door slid in the bottom, and all that, I chose to run the block right through the door opening and step over the 8" at the bottom of the door. This was no problem, I just wished later, that I'd of went two coarses, 16", for head room. Getting the bottom of the frame up off of floor level also keeps it away from the moisture that rusted it in the first place. (I had went over all this with a wire wheel on a grinder, and repainted it with Rustolium spray paint).

The shed that I had was on the flimsy side already, I was concerned with snow load and wind. It turned out that, I never had problems here, but the way I saw it, there wasn't that much integrity in the structure to begin with, they build these bare minimum, so I reckoned I'd best not cut into any framing at all, or if I did, to over build a replacement. For more light, instead of windows, I replaced a couple of tin sheets on the roof with green house type transparent panels. I just bought them the width that I needed to screw them right back in place, and only had to cut lengths.

Also, it got hotter than heck in my shed, and the factory ridge cap leaked like a sieve when it rained and a small breeze. The roof wasn't very steep, and the ridge cap only covered a few inches on each side. I made a new one, 2' bent in the middle, that overhung 1' each side of the ridge. The original roof sheets didn't meet at the top, and someone before me had shot a lot of that sticky spray foam in there and just made a mess that still leaked. I scraped all that off and cut a few vents about four inches wide and a little less than the length of between roof structure. I didn't cut any framing, just some tin off at top between framing structure. These holes were about an inch under the new ridge cap that was spaced above the old roof. The ridge cap was over 8" wider than the vent holes in the peak. They still leaked only once in a while, not as much as before, and only with more wind and more rain. The wind had to push water uphill to the vents, but it had to push it 8" first. A down pour wouldn't leak a drop without a good wind. If I'd of only put the end of the building rather than the side into the prevailing winds, I'd have eliminated most of this, hindsight. But still it's concrete and metal inside and only drips occasionally, so nothing is really getting ruined when it does drip a bit.

I didn't make that shed for chickens, but I think the same ideas could make plenty of vents. The ridge cap could be a lot wider, it could be spaced further from the roof, all the spaces between all the roof trusses could have vents cut, and the vents could be wider, all without having to cut the shed frame or fabricate new structure to strengthen where such cuts were made. If you have a double sliding door, you could probably figure out how to put windows, or plexiglass, or hardware cloth, on them, as long as nothing protruded into the place that slides over the smooth fixed wall, or you may decide to use smaller windows than you have, that fit between framework of shed. Not that it can't be cut, but I just think cutting the frame may turn into a lot more work and/or integrity issues than it's worth. If it were me, I'd avoid it as much as I could, and try to work within their frame rather than fight it, and keep my eye open to spots where it could be beefed up while I was working on it.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Very good advice about not cutting into the actual framing of the shed. Aslo good advice on the venting along the ridge of the roof.

 

[Jonessa]

*Pic heavy post!*
Well, it turns out that the shed is actually plastic, which I'm kinda happy about! It's a neat design - the whole thing, walls and roof, is made out of 10" wide vertical panels that are double-walled and hollow inside. Each panel slides into grooves in the next, so you start at a corner and just keep sliding the next panel in from the top down; they sit in a metal runner at the bottom. The roof is made the same way, although when we dismantled it we left each half intact. The roof edges slot over top of the walls and are screwed in place, holding the whole structure together. Bonus is that it came with a two layer plastic tile floor. I'll caulk the seams and it'll be good to go. We had it up in less than an hour, and it seems quite sturdy.
We have it oriented so that the doors face south, as that made the most sense with the spot we had to use. The run will be attached to the west end of the coop. I'm thinking now that I will put one large window on the west wall, under the run roof so that it is protected from weather and can stay open 24/7. Then I'll put another window on the east wall. I just picked up some used window shutters with adjustable louvres today; they'll go on the outside of the east window to keep the rain out, as there is next to no roof overhang. There are two tiny existing vents in the back (north) wall, with a grill on each side. I have to have a closer look at them, but I may remove the inside grill and replace it with hardware cloth and a frame for extra security.
We picked up some pallets to make a base for the coop. The space under them varies from 6-11", as the ground was uneven. Should I be adding a hardware cloth apron around the entire coop, or would it be sufficient to do that just on the run side? I'm leaning toward doing the entire coop...

Here are some pictures:

And these are the shutters I bought:

Here's a little drawing of what I have in mind. With this window placement, there will be a protected area in the NE corner of the coop, which is where I'll place the roosts and nesting boxes - although the windows will likely be well above roost height anyway. I'm open to suggestions on design changes! Except that I am certain that I want the structure divided (not necessarily exactly in half, though) - I need a little storage space for feed, etc, and I don't want to have to worry about chickens escaping every time the main doors are opened!

 

[aart]

Huh, don't think I've ever seen one like that.

Right off the bat, the dip in the ridge of roof make me nervous.
Hope it's gonna rain hard soon there so you can assess if roof leaks before building out.
Do you live where it snows?(add location to profile please)
Have had metal shed roofs(with beam support) bow and/or collapse with snow load,
this roof looks weaker. Your partition wall might somewhat support the roof.

I see no internal framing, so be very careful to put some in where you plan to cut holes in the walls.

Nice layout sketch...some dimensions would be nice.
I'd go 5' feet for birds and 3' for storage.

 

[wyoDreamer]

It is nice that it has the two greenhouse panels in the roof already! Those will make it nice and bright in there all day.
You may want to rotate your roosts 90 degrees - I have my roosts set up like you have them drawn and my birds have problems getting down without hitting the wall - they like to fly down from the roosts and even though mine are only 3' tall, the chickens all line up and fly off the end of the roosts toward the popdoor because there is more floor space there for landings, lol.

 

[Jonessa]

Huh, don't think I've ever seen one like that.

Right off the bat, the dip in the ridge of roof make me nervous.
Hope it's gonna rain hard soon there so you can assess if roof leaks before building out.
Do you live where it snows?(add location to profile please)
Have had metal shed roofs(with beam support) bow and/or collapse with snow load,
this roof looks weaker. Your partition wall might somewhat support the roof.

I see no internal framing, so be very careful to put some in where you plan to cut holes in the walls.

Nice layout sketch...some dimensions would be nice.
I'd go 5' feet for birds and 3' for storage.

The bow in the roof occurred as a result of a branch falling on it a couple of years ago, but hasn't seemed to cause any water problems - it rained the night before we picked up the shed, and it was dry inside. I'm planning to caulk a lot of the seams, though, just to be safe. It snows here a few times through the winter, but it's small amounts and only stays for a matter of days - typically it rains all winter.
I didn't add dimensions to the coop, as I'm still working out the details. But the coop is 10' along the front and 8' along the sides. In the sketch I divided the coop in half, but I like your suggestion to make it 5' and 3' instead. There will be three nesting boxes, each 1' wide plus lumber. I will make the window under the run roof, on the west wall, as large as I can; the window on the east wall will be 20x24", which is the size of the shutter opening. I have two shutters, so I could potentially add a third window, either on that same wall or perhaps on the back wall.

 

[Jonessa]

It is nice that it has the two greenhouse panels in the roof already! Those will make it nice and bright in there all day.
You may want to rotate your roosts 90 degrees - I have my roosts set up like you have them drawn and my birds have problems getting down without hitting the wall - they like to fly down from the roosts and even though mine are only 3' tall, the chickens all line up and fly off the end of the roosts toward the popdoor because there is more floor space there for landings, lol.

Yes, it's amazing how much light those panels let in!
You make a great point about the roost position, I hadn't considered the flying factor. The reason I was going to put the roosts along the back wall was because I worried that having them on the east side wall would interfere with access to the nesting boxes. I suppose it depends on the height of each, maybe it would be fine if the roosts are well above the nesting boxes. I also haven't decided if I want to do one longer roost (which would only work along the back wall), or two tiered roosts (which could work in either location). Thoughts?

 

[Jonessa]

Thinking, thinking.... I could move the man door in the divider wall a little closer to the east end, and then put the nesting boxes on the other side of the door, which would free up the whole other end of the coop for roosts and roost access. I don't think that would put the nesting boxes too close to the pop door?