Siding material, ventilation, and other coop questions.

[black_cat]

Can you get some books about building from the library? There are tons of them intended for the average handyman to build sheds, etc. that would teach you how to do basic construction.

As a general rule, it never pays to skimp on your construction.

Though I have to admit that my father thought anything that couldn't be expected to last 25-50 years was a temporary make-do and not worth the effort and I married into a family of engineers.

I have what I hope are some structurally sound plans for framing the walls with 2x4s (is framing the right term?) the four corners are 4x4s. I could take pics of my plans if you want. Local library is closed for covid but I will see about ebooks.

 

[CluckerFamily]

For my coop roof, I just laid metal roof panel on the coop and then the run overtop a sheet of plywood.
Youtube has great video for how-to-do things also.

 

[Trisseh]

I got these really pretty pre-primed OSB siding sheets from Home Hardware (I’m in Canada). They have a wood grain texture and they’re standard 4x8 sheets. I painted with exterior paint and voila! Holding up exceptionally well. sealed the seams with outdoor silicone too. You can see the texture behind the boy in the box. Lol.

 

[black_cat]

I got these really pretty pre-primed OSB siding sheets from Home Hardware (I’m in Canada). They have a wood grain texture and they’re standard 4x8 sheets. I painted with exterior paint and voila! Holding up exceptionally well. sealed the seams with outdoor silicone too. You can see the texture behind the boy in the box. Lol.
View attachment 2300394

Both siding and boy-in-a-box look great! I will check it out! I love sebrights, they are my favorites as they are tiny and beautiful. I don't have any but I wANT.

 

[RW1984]

You can use anything you want that all these great folks have mentioned, just remember to create windows for ventilation. You can do that with ton, wood, anything these fine folks have mentioned. Just frame it out, measure, cut etc...
If you do it right you can make it so it reduces the heat escape.
I have a metal shed I used for my birds, framed it out with wood and cut out the window etc...

 

[black_cat]

You can use anything you want that all these great folks have mentioned, just remember to create windows for ventilation. You can do that with ton, wood, anything these fine folks have mentioned. Just frame it out, measure, cut etc...
If you do it right you can make it so it reduces the heat escape.
I have a metal shed I used for my birds, framed it out with wood and cut out the window etc...

I am going to have ventilation along the top of the coop as shown in a sketch in an earlier post. It's an estimated 12 square feet of ventilation for 8 standard birds, plus a pop door open during the day. Do I need a window in addition to that? I might have part of the door have one giant window that I can open so that it's a screen door ish thing.

 

[Rldad1]

I'm building my coop right now and I am using plywood and will paint it. I've never had a problem using plywood for things. I built a plywood coop for my daughter almost 10 years ago and it is still in good shape. If you paint it it will hold up. No paint, not so much.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Happy to be answering, not asking. Here goes:

Shingles are absolutely CRAP on the edge. Wind will blow up under them, rain (or even dew) will wick up under them, etc. The metal edge you see on every properly constructed roof is called "flashing" - its whole reason for existence is to mitigate those issues. Flashing has to be laid in a particular way - at the upper edge of the roof, it goes on top. At the bottom edge, its right above the decking. The idea is that you want to give water a path that is always "down". There is some dispute about the sides - its usually above the felt, below the shingles, with the top edge below the top flashing, and the bottom edge above the bottom flashing.

Underlay is whatever you place between the shingles and the decking. It used to be 30# felt, typically. Or two layers of 15# felt. Basically, its a paper like product saturated with a tar like product to repel water, which has some minimal self sealing properties to "grab" around the nail penetrations, so the ~500 holes per 100 square foot you just punched in your decking while nailing down your shingles don't serve as paths for water to penetrate your roof. Generally, one thick layer is better than two thin layer (contra expectations), as every wrinkle, deformity, etc in the decking or the felt will be magnified in the appearance of the shingles on top. Think wrinkles in your sheets, or your comforter. Thinner material rips more easily, shows more defects, etc. Honestly, I think the only reason 15# exists is so that people could half ass a re-shingle job, when the budget didn't exist to do the job correctly.

In the case of shallow roof designs (often porches and the like, basically anything with a pitch under 3/12), water doesn't run off felt underlayment very well. Where the decking underneath sagged (such as between rafters/joists) water that got past the shingles could pool and sit, eventually making its way down the nails and rotting out the roof decking. Various manufacturers (I'm fond of GAF) made modified bitumen underlayments - they are basically a reinforced rubberized material, frequently self sticking. MUCH better at repelling water, much better at repairing holes from nails, better with thermal expansion/contraction and moisture accumulation from freeze/thaw cycles, etc - but also considerably more expensive. These only recently became available to homeowners, a few decades or so - but used to be the way they made flat commercial roof (absent the self adhering properties) Based on your drawings, you have more than adequate roof pitch, and don't need to use this option.

Hope that helps, and I hope you can convince the powers that be to forego the shingles. If you DO go shingles, snap chalk lines - do NOT rely on the lines printed on your plywood decking or try to eyeball it from marks on the shingles themselves. Trust me, you will be happier with the end result.

Oh, and you DO NOT need to buy a special start course. You can. OR, you can turn your shingles around, and cut off the tabs with a sharp craft knife, use the "half" (actually, a bit more than that) shingle you have then created as your starter course. The first full shingles will then go on top, with a 1/4" overhang.

 

[black_cat]

Happy to be answering, not asking. Here goes:

Shingles are absolutely CRAP on the edge. Wind will blow up under them, rain (or even dew) will wick up under them, etc. The metal edge you see on every properly constructed roof is called "flashing" - its whole reason for existence is to mitigate those issues. Flashing has to be laid in a particular way - at the upper edge of the roof, it goes on top. At the bottom edge, its right above the decking. The idea is that you want to give water a path that is always "down". There is some dispute about the sides - its usually above the felt, below the shingles, with the top edge below the top flashing, and the bottom edge above the bottom flashing.

Underlay is whatever you place between the shingles and the decking. It used to be 30# felt, typically. Or two layers of 15# felt. Basically, its a paper like product saturated with a tar like product to repel water, which has some minimal self sealing properties to "grab" around the nail penetrations, so the ~500 holes per 100 square foot you just punched in your decking while nailing down your shingles don't serve as paths for water to penetrate your roof. Generally, one thick layer is better than two thin layer (contra expectations), as every wrinkle, deformity, etc in the decking or the felt will be magnified in the appearance of the shingles on top. Think wrinkles in your sheets, or your comforter. Thinner material rips more easily, shows more defects, etc. Honestly, I think the only reason 15# exists is so that people could half ass a re-shingle job, when the budget didn't exist to do the job correctly.

In the case of shallow roof designs (often porches and the like, basically anything with a pitch under 3/12), water doesn't run off felt underlayment very well. Where the decking underneath sagged (such as between rafters/joists) water that got past the shingles could pool and sit, eventually making its way down the nails and rotting out the roof decking. Various manufacturers (I'm fond of GAF) made modified bitumen underlayments - they are basically a reinforced rubberized material, frequently self sticking. MUCH better at repelling water, much better at repairing holes from nails, better with thermal expansion/contraction and moisture accumulation from freeze/thaw cycles, etc - but also considerably more expensive. These only recently became available to homeowners, a few decades or so - but used to be the way they made flat commercial roof (absent the self adhering properties) Based on your drawings, you have more than adequate roof pitch, and don't need to use this option.

Hope that helps, and I hope you can convince the powers that be to forego the shingles. If you DO go shingles, snap chalk lines - do NOT rely on the lines printed on your plywood decking or try to eyeball it from marks on the shingles themselves. Trust me, you will be happier with the end result.

Oh, and you DO NOT need to buy a special start course. You can. OR, you can turn your shingles around, and cut off the tabs with a sharp craft knife, use the "half" (actually, a bit more than that) shingle you have then created as your starter course. The first full shingles will then go on top, with a 1/4" overhang.

Thank you so much! This is so helpful. I will definitely be watching videos and doing further research no matter what roofing we end up with, but I will definitely do a LOT of looking into shingles. I don't know how to properly calculate roof pitch, but there is a 1 foot height difference in the front and the back that the roof is covering. (did that sentence make sense? lol) I will definitely reread this several times over, but mostly try to steer the higher powers away from shingles!

 

[aart]

Oh, ok! How much overhang is good? 6 inches? a foot? I'm going to have a setup like this:

With a slanted roof and all of the space between the roof structure and the main walls being hardware cloth ventilation, as well as the pop door being open all day. Should I add a window?

12" overhang.

I already have full sketches, dimensions, and framing planned out, but they are all written down on paper paper and I am not going and taking pictures of all of my several pages of notes right now

I'd like to see the drawings.
signed -The Old Drafter