New Concrete - Epoxy or not?

[Engteacher]

We'll be pouring a slab of concrete 16X24 which will be divided into three 8X16 zones for a coop, a covered run, and a shed. I'm wondering if it makes sense to put down a good coating of epoxy, like the stuff they use on garage floors, in order to make clean out easier.

If you were starting out fresh, would you? Thanks for any advice you can give.

 

[Ridgerunner]

I always seal mine for workshops, storage rooms and such. My coop and run floors are dirt, but if it were concrete, yes I would seal it.

I'm not sure why you are considering a concrete floor for your run. As much as chickens like to scratch and take dust baths, I'd not want it concrete or anything solid like that. Yuo could pour a strip sort of like a deep footing (would only need to be 4" to 6" wide but I'd consider 18" deep) to stop predators and put a sand floor on the dirt. Sand is not that hard to clean and the footing could be raised a few inches to keep the sand in place. To avoid building a fish bowl, have a drain, say a piece of metal grating, to let the water out and build the sand up a few inches above grade. If you are building on pure sand, the drain may not be necessary, but I'd have one anyway. Even a covered run can get wet in a blowing rain.

 

[Engteacher]

This run is just the space between my part of the building and my husband's. He'll store his wine-making equipment in there, so we want a bit of a buffer in between. Laying one big slab is cheaper than laying two smaller ones, so we figured it would be just another option for the chickens, especially in March and April when they would be belly deep in mud. Our land has 16 varieties of clay, and when it gets soaked like with spring melt, it takes weeks to dry out. It's pretty flat, so there's no where for it to run off to.

The chickens will have access to the grass and sunshine through a second door. That's for when we're home and can keep an eye on them. We have lots of hawks and bald eages in my area, and lately we've noticed coyotes in the daytime.

In our county, we're allowed two extra structures on our property besides our house. Since we don't know what the future will bring, building it this way will give us more flexibility down the road. Since our garage floor was pitted up in no time, I was just thinking that this would be worth spending the extra $$ and elbow grease to do. Keep it nicer longer.

 

[patandchickens]

Will the middle (run) part of the slab be well-roofed? If not, be very careful when you are building the buildings, as you need to go to some care and construction precautions to prevent water from running off the exposed part of the slab against and under your sill into the enclosed areas. There are ways to do this, but you have to DO them. Otherwise you will have chronic flooding, and rot.

I would seal the concrete for use in a run, tho unsealed will not kill ya as long as it's finished pretty smooth and/or pitched to be hoseable. I would not necessarily epoxy-paint it, but you can if you want as long as you are not concerned about slipperiness.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Dar]

if you are going to seal it soon after it has been "cured" (so able to walk on) then I would leave a border about 3" all the way around.

the reason for this is that concrete takes a while to dry all the way through.. so if you seal it tight then the excess water will have no where to go and will blister and peel your paint

if you want to avoid this but did not want the 3" edging... use a latex floor sealer, it will allow the concrete to "breathe" and release the excess moisture.

 

[Engteacher]

The plan is to have one flat roof with a pitch of maybe 12 degrees over the whole structure.

We'll have to scrape off the topsoil and go down deeper to put a base of limestone, then crushed limestone, then sand. It's what we had to do with our driveway to keep it from sinking. Luckily, we have a sod farmer with all the heavy equipment for doing just such a project as a good neighbor and friend. He's even started saving egg cartons for us even though we have no chickens and no coop yet. Let's just say he's enthusiastic about our venture. Plus, he loves our grapes and looks forward to our the wine we hope to bottle in two years.