Sliding chicken door on coop- PICS.

[SeaChick]

Hi,
Anny PM'ed us to ask about how we made our sliding door. I took some photos for her and thought others might be interested as well. So here they are:

The door is made of 1/4" luan plywood.

It slides in tracks made from aluminum L-shaped angle iron from Home Depot.

We framed the door into the stud wall (our coop is in a corner of the garage) after cutting the hole with a Sawz-All. We insulated and covered the interior walls with thin paneling, as you can see, but this would work just as well attached directly to the 2x4 door framing, I think. The only exception is the bottom interior edge, where a lip of the interior paneling on ours serves as a a guide. You might need an additional piece or angle iron there to create a channel. (Or simply purchase the aluminum U-shaped channel itself)

here's a shot of the door inside the coop. We access it from the other side of that right-hand wall.

Door on the other side of the coop wall, where we can access it to close. Hook is to "lock" it

Another shot. You can see the angle iron track extends along the bottom edge, so it runs true on the outside part. When we framed in that wall, we just left a gap for the door to slide through.

From the inside: You can see we put the angle iron on 2 sides so it seats fairly well closed. On the bottom it simply runs along a "cleat" of wood and the lip formed by the paneling. The tracks on the top and side keep it true.

And from the outside, you can see how it's affixed (drilled holes in the aluminum and screwed.)

I hope this is helpful!
Stacey

 

[Chirpy]

Very cool idea. How do you lock it shut at night?

 

[Bossroo]

Just a heads up ! Not to put rain on your parade... that opening created a perfect entry point for moisture to enter into your garage framing and sideing from the outside thereby giving entry to insects, mold and fungus. You will have dryrot in short order and other maladies.

 

[Anny]

Thanks for the pictures they are very helpful.

 

[SeaChick]

Bossroo, there is a covered run adjascent, therefore no moisture at all. It's dry as a bone there. If it had opened to outdoors, we'd have built the door differently. This is ideal, though, since you don't have to walk into the run or coop to shut it.

Chirpy, the little latch holds the door in the "shut" position. Since the coop is INSIDE the garage, that doesn't have to be racoon-proof since the garage is shut tight at night with no entry points. It's really just a safeguard against anything prying and sliding the door open from the outside, which is HIGHLY unlikely since the run itself is pretty much fort knox. But if something did happen to get into the run at night, it would have a difficult time sliding the door open.

Anny, no problem! Glad we could help.