Need advice on subfloor for shed to coop conversion..

[moniquem]

Question:

What kind of subfloor should my shed have for the chickens?

Right now it is dirt covered with rotted wood . My plan is to dig up all the rotted wood and surface dirt, dig a trench around the parameter and put in cinder blocks. This will hopefully keep the critters from digging under and be the foundation for the seperator between shed and coop.

For the chicken coop floor...
Should I just lay down fresh dirt and then substrate over that for the chickens? I really do not have a way to hose down anything, there is no drainage.
Should I just plan on using sand?
How will I keep it clean in the future?

Any and all advice is welcome and needed)

 

[IdyllwildAcres]

Leave it dirt. Deep litter method loves dirt. I would pour a concrete footing around the edges to keep out diggers.

Gary

 

[azygous]

If you want a lively, productive discussion on your thread, I suggest adding some photos. Some of us aren't as adept as others at visualizing what we're discussing.

I picture an old, rotting storage shed, dry rot creeping up the walls. How far off in the weeds am I? Is the shed actually sound? If dry rot is present in the walls, as I'm imagining, I suggest tearing the entire edifice down and building anew.

When you get to the floor and substrate, it may be the best plan, if your budget permits, to pour a concrete floor, even if you don't intend to ever hose it out. Concrete is impervious to rodents and dampness coming up to rot your walls. You can use any substrate you wish over concrete. I have sand in both my coops and in the run. I absolutely love it. But others are just as enthusiastic about their deep litter substrates.

As for keeping it clean, I just scoop poop with a cat box litter scooper. Every year, I add fresh sand over the old, and everything's good.

 

[moniquem]

I picture an old, rotting storage shed, dry rot creeping up the walls. How far off in the weeds am I? Is the shed actually sound? If dry rot is present in the walls, as I'm imagining, I suggest tearing the entire edifice down and building anew.

Actually you are pretty far off .

I've attached pictures. It looks like the roof at one point was leaking, which is why I suspect that the floor is rotted. The wood literally is just peeling up. The previous owner did replace the roof with metal and shingles, so it is no longer leaking. The walls of the shed inside are solid redwood and I mean solid, outside looks like siding.

This is the outside

This is the floor of the right side of shed. You can see the dirt floor, walls are solid

Left side of shed flooring

Upper walling of the left side of shed

At the back floor and wall

Thoughts?

 

[lazy gardener]

I would leave it bare soil. Rake the debris and rocks out of it, level the remaining soil. Add gravel if you need to to level things out, then add your deep litter materials. As for cinder blocks: You might do ok simply trenching around the perimeter of the building, and attaching hardware cloth, burying it down about 6" and out 18 - 24". But, what are the walls sitting on? Bare soil? Or a concrete footing? As Azygous says, if the wall framing is just sitting on soil, that's a recipe for rot, and also means the building does not have any structural support at it's base.

 

[azygous]

Photos make all the difference to people who lack imagination as well as those who have over-active imaginations.

What a huge relief you won't need to build from scratch. I still think concrete would be the way to go. But others will surely present good arguments for a dirt floor. I hate rodents, and concrete would be a good way to prevent their moving in.

It would also be more easily disinfected should you ever need to do that. You will still need to channel water around the coop and run, though. And if you haven't given thought to the run yet, I strongly recommend building a roof over, it also.

 

[Birdinhand]

I would do it in stages. I'm in the either deep litter method on soil or deep litter method on concrete slab camp. there are advantages to having a slab floor even if you do deep litter over top of it, mainly it keeps the critters our, especially the rats. if you live in a cold part of WA you might want to insulate under the slab, before you pour it, so that it isn't a giant heat sink.

my biggest concern looking at those photos is the direct contact the studs and siding have to the ground. long run, that spells the end. the easiest think I can think of to remedy that is to go around, every other stud, cut one off where the wood is still good, prop it up, attach a galvanized stud hanger or such that can be embed into concrete and dig a hole down a foot or so and pour a concrete footer for each load bearing piece. by going every other one, you leave the rest to help support while the concrete sets, then you come back around and do the same to the odd ones that still need footers. once the structure is stable, then you can decide what kind of floor you want. if you go with slab, pull/cut the siding away to reveal 6" of the studs and pour the slabe with a lip around the entire structure. if that is what you want to do, it's best to cut the studs and have the footers high enough the wood is not encased in the concrete lip. the reason I suggest a 6" lip is that is what is considered high enough to avoid wicking with siding on houses where they meet the concrete foundation. you want you siding at least 6" above ground contact. If you decide against a slab, then I'd make the lip from concrete and go down at least 18" below ground surface to keep out the diggers. if you are feeling fancy, add a 45degree angle away from the structure to further deter diggers so they lose ground as they go down.

I would high suggest against replacing the subfloor with wood or anything that will create a shelter under the coop for critters, rats in particular, it often becomes a nightmare when the the thing you are trying to get rid of is under your coop.

if you are sure you only want a few years out of it, then replace the subfloor with wood, it's easy and cheap, then I'd line it with shower liner. but this will not solve the water getting in and rotting everything all over again. so it's only a decent measure if you know you are moving or will rebuild down the line. best to pay it forward and make a good foundation that keeps the wood off the ground/wet and protects the birds.

 

[moniquem]

I would leave it bare soil. Rake the debris and rocks out of it, level the remaining soil. Add gravel if you need to to level things out, then add your deep litter materials. As for cinder blocks: You might do ok simply trenching around the perimeter of the building, and attaching hardware cloth, burying it down about 6" and out 18 - 24".

This is what i was planning but on the inside as I cannot get to the outside of some of the sides of shed.

But, what are the walls sitting on? Bare soil? Or a concrete footing? As Azygous says, if the wall framing is just sitting on soil, that's a recipe for rot, and also means the building does not have any structural support at it's base.

When digging around the bottom I found cement blocks under the base shed frame. Only a couple of the wood bottom frames came up so not all

And if you haven't given thought to the run yet, I strongly recommend building a roof over, it also.

Run will sit on cinder blocks and I plan on putting clear PCV panels over the top of it. These are the plans I will most likely use for the run
http://myoutdoorplans.com/animals/chicken-pen-plans/

Thanks for all your feedback. I'm a newbie to all of this chicken stuff but am super excited!!!

 

[blackdog043]

I plan on putting clear PCV panels over the top of it.

Check out Lowes if you have any near you, they still have tuftex panels on sale at mine. different stores have different colors on sale. The one nearest me has smoke on sale.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Tuftex-Pol...ated-PolyCarbonate-Plastic-Roof-Panel/3043411

 

[buffbonkers]

We recently finished our 2nd purpose built coop using all the information learned and mistakes made with the first! I am by no means an expert, but here is what I would do - Concrete in the floor - I love the deep litter method, but given that this is an existing structure, it will add stability, solve the wood on mud and rodent/critter entry through the bottom issues. We built a rabbit run and hutch this way from a kids climbing swing set thing and its worked great and lasted well. You can also slope the floor towards the door with the right thickness concrete and create channels for water run off. Next, I would build a new floor half way up. Add nest boxes to your 2nd floor and roosting perches higher than the boxes. A hatch in this floor can lead to the ground floor where you can have food and water. This will protect their food and water from poop and give you somewhere free from weather to have your food and water even after the run is built. We failed to think about that on our first one and cleaning poop out of nesting boxes, water and food was a daily chore. I'm adding a picture of the top floor of our coop - to the left you can see the where the nesting boxes are now. There is ventilation in the eves - that might be something you want to think about too. We put vinyl tile on the floor and its really easy to just use a hoe and scrape the straw and everything stinky out of there straight into the barrow to be dumped on the banana plants!