New Run Design Questions

[Macro]

So I'm working on a design for a duck run. We have a small plot of land we've leveled out and I'm planning on making the run 12ft by 36ft. 8 ft high, but with 1 1/2 feet buried under the ground. I'm interested in hearing what people feel are the best building materials to use. I see a lot of coops and runs made of wood. I would preferably want to make mine out of wood as well. I think it's easy to design things that way and looks really good. However, I've been told that I should just use metal poles instead and then attach my galvanized hardware cloth that way.

I don't mind doing some maintenance on the run and coop every year. Normally in the spring/summer we go around and sand down and repaint parts of the shed, house, and rabbit coops anyway. I'm just wondering:

1) What materials people recommend for building runs?
2) If using wood, do you have any tips for keeping it from rotting, warping, etc?
3) Is there any benefit to making framed panels and attaching them together? Or just putting two planks in the ground and running the wire between them?
4) Is there a way to minimize the damage done by the sun to my paint job?
5) Any suggested way to make a run with out wood?

My weather situation is... pretty terrible. I live in the desert so we are the opposite of temperate. Summers usually hover between 90 and 110 with highs in the 120's. It's pretty much direct sunlight 24/7 and the humidity is around 20% or less. We get maybe 1 or 2 weeks of actual rain a year and probably the same amount of temperate weather. Then during the winter we go the other way and the temperature is between 30-50 most of the time. Lows in the single digits to teens. Some years we get snow, other times we don't. Mostly it's either hot and windy or cold and windy.

Any tips would be gladly appreciated. I want to take the time to make my run as well as I can now so that I can save myself some suffering later from a cheaply, hastily made one.

 

[Macro]

I know I didn't get many responses to my thread, but I thought I'd give an update on what I finally decided to do, just in case someone comes across this and was curious.

Step Day: Use some stakes and string to map out a square area. Dig some holes for posts. We rented an auger in order to dig the holes faster. You literally had to use a pick axe to get through the dirt otherwise. It felt like trying to dig through rock.

Then we filled in some of the holes with cement and added some Simpson ties to hold the posts.




While the cement was drying I finished up painting our 16 4x4 posts. 2 coats primer, 1 topcoat.



Looonnnngggg day. It's a good thing you guys are so adorable!

 

[Fishbone]

You might not have many responses because I think you answered most of your questions.

Wood rots from moisture, being so dry, it should last awhile, but keeping paint on it from the burning sun is a problem.
No experience there to help you!

As far as covering the roof, I would consider galvanized roof panels.
Maybe half the roof with panels and the rest with cattle panels.

Personally, given the size of this project, I would have done a cost comparison between dog run cages or cattle panels and what you were planning.
Chain link or dog run wire or cattle panels, with the bottom 3' of hardware cloth with a foot or two skirt.

Keep us updated on your progress!

 

[Macro]

Thanks for the response, Fishbone!

I suppose I did answer most of my own questions. Haha. The original plan was to get a loafing shed and attach something like cattle panels to it, but loafing sheds are surprisingly expensive.

I guess the reason I went with wood is aesthetics. Having to sand the bad areas and repaint them every couple years won't be too bad. That's a day or two project. The most expensive bit so far has been the hardware cloth. Can you believe they wanted $400 at Home Depot for it? Called up my local feed store and they offered me a 3' x 100' roll for only $150.

Picked up my 2x4's today and some more concrete.



Half of these are my dad's. He decided to build a pig pen next to my duck coop.



Since we poured concrete for our footings yesterday, I checked them out this afternoon and I'm so happy with the way they turned out. Especially since pouring concrete was the most back breaking part.



And then I banged my toe moving my 2x4's. Oops.

I'll definitely keep posting as I work through this project. Maybe it'll help someone decide what they do/don't want to do on their own run designs.