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- #40
South Dakota Guy
Songster
I should have started this thread with the title "How a Couple of Carpentry Dummies Built a Coop" I think most people acquire building skills during their lives or they have friends or relatives who help them when they have projects requiring assistance. My wife and I are not among those people.
Step One
So we clueless people began by buying some plans for our coop. My wife has been watching YouTube videos about chickens for some time and one channel she really likes is the Oak Abode channel. If you search YouTube for Oak Abode Coop you will quickly find the video about their coop and why they built it the way that they did. We found that they had plans for sale at their ETSY shop for about $16. There must be places where you can get plans for free and many designs that might work better for you. That said, the first part of the plans was a list of the materials and quantity needed to build this coop.
Step Two
With a list of materials we needed, we had to figure out a way to get these materials from the store to our home. We reserved a pickup truck from Uhaul but when we arrived they did not have one. They did have a large cargo van which we rented for the same price and to be honest I think it worked out better than a pickup. So we headed to the hardware store and bought what we needed.
Step Three
With all of the materials at our home it was time to build the coop. Fortunately the plans started with building the base. Once we had the base of the coop built, we had a large worktable to use for cutting and assembling the pieces.
I would like to add that we purchased a small lightweight 10 inch miter saw. My wife loves that saw. It was light enough for her to set up anywhere she wanted and it made very precise cuts. It was able to cut through the 4x4 ground rated posts in one clean cut with no problems. We could have cut the 4x4 with a 7" circular saw but we would have had to rotate the 4x4 to cut all of the way through it. After the coop base was built, it was time to build the frames. We could have used a circular saw for those cuts but once again the miter saw made quick work of the frames and the precise cuts helped to keep everything sized correctly. With the exception of the base, we used 2x3s for the framing as that saved us a lot in cost (and was recommended in the plans). So we built all of the frames including the roof frame.
After we built the frames, we cut everything that we could think of and assembled as much as we could before we attached anything to the base. That included cutting the corrugated metal roof panels. One tool purchase that I made thinking it might be useful was a 4 pack of DeWalt trigger clamps.
During the construction my wife and I frequently observed how difficult different tasks would have been without them. That was $37 well spent (at Home Depot). I also would like to point out that the plans called for using decking screws for most everything. If I had an air compressor and a nail gun, I wouldn't have hesitated to use that. It certainly would have been much faster. However,since we did use screws, if we should move, we can easily disassemble the coop and move it with us. But we went with the screws and quickly found that the 2x3 studs tended to split. Luckily we have two Ryobi cordless drills so we put an 1/8" drill bit in one for drilling pilot holes and used the other with the Torx bit to screw in the screws. No more split studs.
Step Four
So up to this point, all of the pieces are assembled and it feels like the coop will never be built. Here is where things really sped up. Once we started attaching the pieces we went from just a coop base to a fully built coop very quickly.
We decided to attach the 1/2" plywood sheeting to the frame then cut out the openings. We did that by making a hole with a hole saw.
Then we used a jig saw to cut out the area that we needed. We tried to use a reciprocating saw but I didn't like the cuts it made. After that we attached the roof frame, the 1/2 inch plywood roof, the roofing paper then the metal panels to the roof. We made some mistakes along the way. Some we corrected and some we decided to just live with. We learned a lot during this process. My wife really enjoyed this project and she now has a scheme to build a playhouse in the backyard for our grandchildren. I just want to wrap by saying, if a couple of carpentry dummies like us can build a coop, then you can too. Don't waste your money on an expensive prefab coop that is inadequate for your flock. This final photo shows our prefab (we just sold it) that was advertised as good for 8 to 10 chickens compared to our homemade coop that is sized for 8 chickens.
Step One
So we clueless people began by buying some plans for our coop. My wife has been watching YouTube videos about chickens for some time and one channel she really likes is the Oak Abode channel. If you search YouTube for Oak Abode Coop you will quickly find the video about their coop and why they built it the way that they did. We found that they had plans for sale at their ETSY shop for about $16. There must be places where you can get plans for free and many designs that might work better for you. That said, the first part of the plans was a list of the materials and quantity needed to build this coop.
Step Two
With a list of materials we needed, we had to figure out a way to get these materials from the store to our home. We reserved a pickup truck from Uhaul but when we arrived they did not have one. They did have a large cargo van which we rented for the same price and to be honest I think it worked out better than a pickup. So we headed to the hardware store and bought what we needed.
Step Three
With all of the materials at our home it was time to build the coop. Fortunately the plans started with building the base. Once we had the base of the coop built, we had a large worktable to use for cutting and assembling the pieces.
I would like to add that we purchased a small lightweight 10 inch miter saw. My wife loves that saw. It was light enough for her to set up anywhere she wanted and it made very precise cuts. It was able to cut through the 4x4 ground rated posts in one clean cut with no problems. We could have cut the 4x4 with a 7" circular saw but we would have had to rotate the 4x4 to cut all of the way through it. After the coop base was built, it was time to build the frames. We could have used a circular saw for those cuts but once again the miter saw made quick work of the frames and the precise cuts helped to keep everything sized correctly. With the exception of the base, we used 2x3s for the framing as that saved us a lot in cost (and was recommended in the plans). So we built all of the frames including the roof frame.
After we built the frames, we cut everything that we could think of and assembled as much as we could before we attached anything to the base. That included cutting the corrugated metal roof panels. One tool purchase that I made thinking it might be useful was a 4 pack of DeWalt trigger clamps.
During the construction my wife and I frequently observed how difficult different tasks would have been without them. That was $37 well spent (at Home Depot). I also would like to point out that the plans called for using decking screws for most everything. If I had an air compressor and a nail gun, I wouldn't have hesitated to use that. It certainly would have been much faster. However,since we did use screws, if we should move, we can easily disassemble the coop and move it with us. But we went with the screws and quickly found that the 2x3 studs tended to split. Luckily we have two Ryobi cordless drills so we put an 1/8" drill bit in one for drilling pilot holes and used the other with the Torx bit to screw in the screws. No more split studs.
Step Four
So up to this point, all of the pieces are assembled and it feels like the coop will never be built. Here is where things really sped up. Once we started attaching the pieces we went from just a coop base to a fully built coop very quickly.
We decided to attach the 1/2" plywood sheeting to the frame then cut out the openings. We did that by making a hole with a hole saw.
Then we used a jig saw to cut out the area that we needed. We tried to use a reciprocating saw but I didn't like the cuts it made. After that we attached the roof frame, the 1/2 inch plywood roof, the roofing paper then the metal panels to the roof. We made some mistakes along the way. Some we corrected and some we decided to just live with. We learned a lot during this process. My wife really enjoyed this project and she now has a scheme to build a playhouse in the backyard for our grandchildren. I just want to wrap by saying, if a couple of carpentry dummies like us can build a coop, then you can too. Don't waste your money on an expensive prefab coop that is inadequate for your flock. This final photo shows our prefab (we just sold it) that was advertised as good for 8 to 10 chickens compared to our homemade coop that is sized for 8 chickens.
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