My DIY Chicken Coop

[Dduell2]

Thanks for the update.



Yeah, looks great. Love it.

Not to over think anything here, but since I also have an elevated coop, I had some "door fit" issues that I had not fully appreciated until my first winter. My coop is built on the frame of an old boat trailer, about 6X12 feet. Although everything was nice and level when I built it in the summer, come winter, the ground had shifted a bit, and my large doors did not shut properly. I had to tweak them a bit, cutting the door panels a bit smaller, allowing for seasonal shifting, and put some wood strips inside the door frame to fill the gaps. From the outside, everything looks like it fits perfectly. But I have almost an inch of play with those backdrop boards covering the gap.

Just wanted to mention my situation because you stated that you had to shave and sand the door to make it fit. It might not fight later on with the seasonal changes in humidity or if the coop shifts when the ground freezes. All I am saying is that if you have a perfect, tight fit door right now, you may have a problem come winter as the wood expands/contracts and/or the ground freezes and knocks the coop out of level. In any case, you might want to think about that possibility and have a game plan for correction if needed.



Yeah, been really hot and humid here the past few days, with punishing thunderstorms and high winds causing damage. We were out of electricity for about 12 hours yesterday, most businesses in town were shut down for the day. There are still a few people we know that don't have electricity restored yet, after 24 hours, and are hauling lake water to their house for washing up and refilling toilets. It's like camping indoors, I guess.

I had a bunch of projects that I wanted to get done over the last few days, but did not get half of them done. It's just too hot and miserable for me. Well, plus with no electricity or running water, I did not want to get all sweated up and sticky.



Thinking that would be a good theme line for me in my retirement years. I don't get done as much as I want, but somehow, I can feel good about what I do accomplish!

Anyways, loved the coop build update and seeing how everything is coming together. Looking forward to the next posts.

Thank you I appreciate all of that!!

Yes I have thought about how the winter may make my door tighter

 

[gtaus]

Yes I have thought about how the winter may make my door tighter

I did not consider that problem until it happened to me. It's less fun to be working on the chicken coop in our winters here in the north country. It was not a major deal for me to trim down the door panels, but it just caught me off guard. Good to hear you have considered that issue. Hopefully, you won't have the same problem I had.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Our coop door fit perfectly when it was hung. Three days later, Southern yellow pine did its evil magic, and the side opposite from the hinges warped, so that the bottom lock no longer works.

Still trying to decide if it’s worth getting a tension brace and turnbuckle to get it back into square.

 

[StinkyAcres]

Still trying to decide if it’s worth getting a tension brace and turnbuckle to get it back into square.

Do you have any scrap wood to make a brace out of? Simply take off the door, square it up on a flat surface, then screw a piece of wood diagonally across the door to keep it square.

 

[Mother of Chaos]

Do you have any scrap wood to make a brace out of? Simply take off the door, square it up on a flat surface, then screw a piece of wood diagonally across the door to keep it square.

True, that’s probably what we should do.

It’s not out of square as if the square was now a trapezoid. It’s out of square in that one side has curled up, so that if the door were taken off, it wouldn’t lie flat. I’m having trouble visualizing how a diagonal brace would address that.

 

[StinkyAcres]

True, that’s probably what we should do.

It’s not out of square as if the square was now a trapezoid. It’s out of square in that one side has curled up, so that if the door were taken off, it wouldn’t lie flat. I’m having trouble visualizing how a diagonal brace would address that.

Ohh, I gotcha. Yeah, that's more difficult to correct. You might be able to force it flat by screwing it to a wooden diagonal brace. I don't know how your door is made though.