need advice on using a covering for plywood floor of coop

[kynewbchickie]

Bought a cheap box of precut, self-adhesive vinyl tiles from Lowe's to use for the nesting boxes. They fit perfectly! All in all, for a coop that is 8'x12' with 8 nesting boxes, we spent less than $32 on floor covering. I'm going to box off their roost area and put down the Agrisand stuff that can be sifted with a cat litter scoop daily, and equine absorbent bedding throughout the rest of the coop. All I'll have to do is sift poo from the sand enclosure every other day, and sweep out the rest of the coop every 1-2 months to keep it looking great.

 

[schnebbles]

should I poly my walls too? I used deck sealer on the floor and wondered about walls.

 

[cstronks]

No it is not vinyl FRP. stands for fiber glass reinforced panel been putting it up in commercial restrooms for years. I used Epoxy Garage Floor paint it comes with little none skid sprinkels works great. Dries hard as glass hose it down or shovel it out good stuff.

How much does the Garage Floor Epoxy go for??

 

[Kilsharion]

We are pretty close to being done with our coop. I need to cover the floor of the coop to protect the wood.
Some ideas I have heard are:
Linoleum
Rhino liner (spray on covering)
A rubber stall mat cut to size

Your opinion counts!

I (my hubby) have built that Purina coop so it is roughly 4x4 and
will house 6 chickens soon. They will be 4 weeks old Monday.
I don't plan to get them into the coop for maybe another week or two.
Our Spring is very slow coming around, so not in a hurry.

I live in Massachusetts, but is it possible to use this coop as a brooder as well?

I want to research a coop heater for it too just in case (I know we could get as cold as -10' to -20')
I would post pictures but I haven't had time to take them....

We used an Elastomeric Roof Coating seal our floor and use the deep litter method. Nothing sticks to the floor and it's very easy to clean out.





You will spend a small fortune on garage floor epoxy. We looked at it, and most of the ones out there are meant to be used on concrete, not wood. The stuff you can put on wood was way too pricey for my blood. That's why we opted for the roof coating. It is waterproof, is non-toxic and deals well with the fecal matter. It's also slightly fibrous, so even if they kick all the litter out of the way, there's no risk of a slick surface causing leg problems. The photo above shows while we were doing it. We've been using it for a while, now, and it's been wonderful.




If you notice, in the center of the floor of this coop, they managed to get the litter away from the floor. When I went in to clean it up, it brushed right up with the rake-broom I was using. The coop's changed a bit as they've grown and has "real" roosts in it and all, now; but, that floor has been easy to keep clean. I'm continuing to use it in the rest of our build out.


Also, keep an eye on your chicken behaviour. If you have six large fowl in a 4x4 coop, they may feel crowded.

 

[JackE]

If you have a concrete floor, the epoxy paint would be the way to go. Buuuuut, a wood framed building, coop in this case, expands and contracts with the weather. And I would bet a few bucks, that over a period of time, the epoxy would crack up and fail over a wood surface. Go with something flexible, like the roofcoat, (Stuff that was made to go over wood) and forget about your floor.
Jack

 

[HomesteadDebi]

We scored some linoleum on freecycle today! That settles that for us! Free rules. lol

 

[MoonShadows]

We scored some linoleum on freecycle today! That settles that for us! Free rules. lol

Don't you just love Freecycle? I am always combing through our local group, and have given away quite a few things that were in good shape, but would have been trashed a few years ago before I found Freecycle.

 

[AandVschickens]

I was at Lowes and saw a pan that goes under a washing machine. It is about 3 inches deep and 4'x4'. I am in the process of building my first coop and was thinking about using that and building the coop so I can just pull it out like a drawer from outside for cleaning. I could then fill it with sand (as suggested in another thread). What does everyone think of that?

 

[debid]

I was at Lowes and saw a pan that goes under a washing machine.  It is about 3 inches deep and 4'x4'.  I am in the process of building my first coop and was thinking about using that and building the coop so I can just pull it out like a drawer from outside for cleaning.  I could then fill it with sand (as suggested in another thread).  What does everyone think of that?

I have a washer pan in the brooder coop (used for our old machine that died so I'm recycling it). It works well -- I slide it out, dump the litter, slide back in. DH put rails to hold the edges down because the pan had a bit of warp to it. It's only 3' square, though. I've never seen a 4' wide washer...

 

[DeerFangRanch]

Heat in the coop - since the floor question has been answered a few time - we don't heat our coop.
We live at 8,500 in the Colorado Mountains and do get some cold weather

We insulate the coop and only have a heater under the water to keep it from freezing.
This is only for full grown chickens - the little ones do have a brooder heat lamp.
One big difference is the amount of sunshine, we have lots and know that is an exception.

Our thoughts (told my someone older and wiser than we are) if you have the chickens dependent and heat and you lose power, you lose chickens.
Our girls have no problems and love to go play in the snow....