Show Me Your Pallet Projects!

[gtaus]

good but dirt floor is better.

It's hard to beat a dirt floor with animals. I agree. But this is an elevated coop, so it needed some kind of flooring.

Thanks for the response.

 

[gtaus]

Depending on if you can have your chickens overnight in a different structure for a few nights I would suggest either a paint, or a rubber sealant.

I had considered using Black Jack #57 rubber coating when I first built my chicken coop. Lots of good reviews from other members here on the BYC forums. But the rubber coating was rather expensive compared to the linoleum I got on clearance.

I don't have another structure to house my chickens overnight, or for a few nights, so I ended up with the pallet wood on the floor repair which took me a few hours.

If you were to do this again, I would paint or treat both sides of the wood to better deal with condensation or moisture underneath.

Yep, I think the OSB rotted out from the bottom up. The elevated coop was built on an old boat trailer. It sits on top of what was once part of my backyard lawn. I suspect the ground humidity rose up into the OSB. I probably should have painted both the top and bottom of the wood before I put it into the coop. Never thought of painting the OSB on both sides, to be honest. That is something to keep in mind if/when I have to replace the floorboards.

Otherwise, looks good and definitely above average if you're just looking at it as a stop gap measure that will still likely last years.

I originally thought I would have chickens for only a couple of years. It's been over 5 years now. Turns out I liked having chickens more than I thought I would.

At my age, I try to make any plans longer than a couple of years. I'm still in relatively good health, but I'm not planning for the next 10 or 20 years. The pallet wood repair fits into my short term goals for now.

I'm not sure what the rest of the setup looks like but you could consider a plastic shower curtain over the wood, then the bedding. 1) to help the moisture, and 2) to help pull the bedding out the entrance when it's time to replace.

I have lots of tarps I got for free from Harbor Freight. I suppose I could cover the pallet wood floorboards with a tarp and then put the coop litter on top of the tarp. That might add even more years to the sacrificial pallet wood planks. Good suggestion.

bedding choking the air

To reduce the chicken dust in the air, I first use a plastic flat scoop shovel to remove most of the bedding. Then I use a push broom which keeps the dust down pretty good. After all that, I use a leaf blower to air sweep everything else out the backend of the coop.

When I do my semiannual cleanouts, I dress up with long pants, long sleeved shirt, eye protection and especially N95 dust mask for this job. When I was done cleaning out the coop, I tossed all my clothes into the washer and took a shower before doing anything else. I don't like bringing chicken dust into the house, and I don't like chicken dust on myself. But it's only twice a year, so no big deal.

though it depends on thickness of plastic-- I've done this with autumn leaves and tarps and found it very handy way to transport landscaping material.)

I have also used tarps to move leaves. Works pretty good. For heavy stuff, I have Gorilla carts.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Appreciate you taking time to respond to my request.