Plastic membrane for bottom of coop?

[xtremevermonter]

My coop floor is plywood with pine shavings on top, do you think I should lay down some sort of plastic membrane to protect the plywood? Has anyone had any problems with wood rotting or anything like that?

 

[emilyweck]

I would definitely put down vinyl or plastic of some sort. That was my initial mistake and my flooring (plywood) suffered until I got something on there. Not only is it good for water repelling, but for cleaning. Wipes clean really easily. Hope this helps.

 

[DarkWolf]

A good penetrating wood sealer or porch paint would be better than plastic any day as the chickens will rip it up... Many, MANY people swear by vinyl [NOT THE STICKY TILES!] sheet flooring... I'd be one of them, but I'm going the porch paint route first to see how that works out.

 

[emilyweck]

Quote:
Let us know how it turns out. That would be an easy fix.

 

[CrazyPets16]

I have clear removable, vinyl on the bottom of my coop, it works great!
When it's time to clean it, I just take it out, scrape out the poo, and hose it off!

definitely put something on the bottom!

 

[DarkWolf]

Sure will... The chickens are spending day time in the [incomplete] coop now to get them out of the house, so I've got some "real world" cleanup that needs done before I can paint the floor. Most likely picking up the paint this weekend and will lay down a coat after I get more of the roof done.

 

[snewman]

I had thought to go the porch paint/sealer route, but I made the mistake of asking someone at the store about that and they looked at me like I was crazy, as though that could never work. I listened and went with thick plastic stapled to the floor instead. I regret doing that. The chickens scratched a lot of it up, and what was left made it REALLY hard to clean out the coop this spring. My shovels and rakes just got caught in the remaining plastic and it was all a big pain in the butt. If I had it to do over, I would either paint or put down vinyl. However, I will say that my plywood coop floor was not at all wet under the bedding, and I think that keeping the water outside the coop helps tremendously with that. They don't drink in the dark, and can get their lazy butts outside to drink during daylight, so I've just kept the water and food outside.

 

[xtremevermonter]

Hmm, I'm thinking that if I go with the vinyl it is better not to glue it to the floor? Darkwolf, are you thinking there will be any toxicity issues with the paint, or will the chickens leave the floor alone?

 

[NancyDz]

I put a piece of linoleum in mine , also put it on the walls behind the roosts.. best thing I ever did. Painting might help but you will have to re -do it regularly with all the abuse it will take.
Shavings or hay are so easy to clean up off the linoleum and I can even hose it out if necessary without hurting the wood. I got brand new linoleum off of freecycle.. no seams like the vinyl tiles. I just got another huge piece at a ReStore for $1... used that for the bottom of my brooder.

Skip the paint and just put a piece of linoleum... I stapled mine down . So much less work and cheaper.


Nancy

 

[DarkWolf]

xtremevermonter: RE the vinyl, I'd heard of many who just staple it in place around the perimeter to hold it down. Others choose to glue it. I think I'd rather staple it in place, just incase it needs to be replaced later.

As far as the paint, people paint their coops all the time and I've yet to hear about the birds eating the walls. Though they do peck at them.. From a floor point of view, you're going to have at least 2" of shavings on it anyway, so the birds should never pay much attention to it.

Porch paint comes in both latex and oil based. The latex would dry quicker with would not give off much VOCs, but I feel that oil would hold up to more traffic.

Down side of oil based would be the 4-5 days of cure time before you could let the birds use the coop, vs. a 2 day [to be safe] cure time for latex.