Plywood Floor?

[Sissy]

I have used a plywood floor for the last 3 years with
3 bags of wood shavings to start. Deep litter method
and a toss of a handfull or 2 of stall dry
the chix mix it . and a few handfulls of scratch in the cold months.
the coops get cleaned out in Sept. and april and thats it . no odor
and the wood floor looks great.3/4in. plywood will also
be going into the other coops over bricks down the center
and all the corners as soon as the weather warms.
the dirt floors are not to my liking they all have attached dirt runs
which will stay as is. I find Wood floors are much easier to rake out
on to a large tarp and pull to the compost pile for the garden.
hope this helps.

 

[team_realtree]

Quote:
The sheet of plywood or floor of the structure is 4x8 feet. There are 3 rows of 3 cinder blocks. The cinder blocks are 7.5 inches wide. Between the rows the spacing is 12.75 inches. From cinder block to cinder block within a row the spacing is very small because they are longer than they are wide.

 

[chickeydee]

They make a paint that you can put on it ,but I would go with the linoleum .You can find scrapes and it works great . There is anoyher thing .In one of mine I found a larde sign tarp from a shop and cut it to fit .I use sand and de in it and it works great too .

 

[MiniBeesKnees]

My coop is a new shed and is a work in process. This spring I'll put in windows, and pop doors. Right now I just open up half of the double doors. They lay in plastic dog crates.

I put tarps over my strandboard and a foot of straw...in the Spring I'll put linoleum down. The tarps are mostly to try to prevent damage to the strandboard by spilled water. With the foot of straw and only 11 souls in the coop which is 10 x 10 there is no humidity issue yet anyway. Every few days I fluff up the straw and once a month I take out the most soiled area and put it to compost...and put down another bale of fresh straw on top.
Terry in TN

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You know what, that may be just fine with 1/2" plywood, particularly if the plywood is painted (incl underneath) and the ground is good and DRY (i.e. it doesn't get damp under the coop which leads to sagging/rotting of the plywood). If it starts to get boingy in the future, it should not be that hard to either add a second sheet of plywood *then* or to jack the whole thing up and add two additional rows of cinderblocks.

To the extent that there might be a problem with your arrangement, IMHO it's less likely to come from the thickness of the plywood than from the ground settling unevenly under different cinderblocks and causing the whole structure to go all saggy and wavy. If you are on very, very hard ground or rock, it shouldn't be a problem; on anything else, you may have to jack the structure up and do something about it someday. Or, with luck, maybe not. I'd suggest a different means of support (actual floor joists, on just *corner* cinderblocks) but it sounds like you've already built it and in that case I think it's reasonable to just see how it goes

Do paint (or polyurethane, or whatever) the floor inside, though, to avoid poo sticking to it.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[ErieSpurs]

My coop is 4x8 with Plywood floors. I painted with an exterior paint and it stays very clean and dry. I use a dusting of stall dry, cover with aspen bedding, then place a little hay in the corners. Nothing really sticks to the floor so clean up is easy and there is no odor. Down the road I may add laminate tile, but for now I will stick with plain plywood because it is working fine.

 

[RocketDad]

My floor is plywood with oil-based paint poured on thick and squeegeed with a roller. Really, I poured it on so thick the roller wouldn't even spin. I thought about vinyl flooring but I'm clumsy and I'm sure I'd doink it with the shovel cleaning it out. Paint can be touched up. Once paint or clear coat cures the chickens shouldn't be able to eat it.

 

[they'reHISchickens]

One big reason to seal the floor or use linoleum is the other threads that refer to waterers being spilled/tipped/ frozen/thawed if it can be done to water, chickens will do it.
My 4x8 floor is bare toungueingroove boards but I think I will look for scrap linoleum for the spring cleaning. I keep a large ( 2 ft x 3 ft) low metal pan under the waterer to contain spills. It generally works ok. At the last cleaning, I also laid down some scrap siding pieces under the litter to deflect moisture.

 

[ARose4Heaven]

see separate post.

 

[patandchickens]

they'reHISchickens :

One big reason to seal the floor or use linoleum is the other threads that refer to waterers being spilled/tipped/ frozen/thawed if it can be done to water, chickens will do it.

Actually to me that is one of the bigger arguments *against* linoleum, if the spills are likely to be big (or, more importantly, if you are the kind of person who feels like hosing down the inside of the coop periodically). Hardly anyone achieves a watertight seal at the edges of their flooring sheet, and once water gets under there, it is trapped there and accellerates rot of the wooden subfloor.

Personally I am neutral on linoleum/vinyl... correctly installed I think it does no harm and *is* easier for cleanup if you use a thin layer of litter or it often gets nudged away to bare spots; but I do not think it really offers any serious advantages over a well-primed-and-painted plywood floor, either, at least not for the sort of coop management I am used to.

JMHO,

Pat​