Suntuf Roof?

[fiberart57]

I am at the adding insulation stage of my 4'x6' hen house for four birds and will be putting the roof on soon. I've got ventilation at the top of the east and west walls and I'm adding R-13 fiberglass insulation in the walls (securely behind OSB board so that it doesn't become a snack for the girls). I would like to use some kind of clear cover like Suntuf for the roof because it would pick up solar gain in the winter from the southwest sun and give the girls more light in the house. In the summer the coop in under a big mulberry tree and stays shaded. I live in Colorado with wide temperature extremes and I thought that if it really gets cold I'll have to put some sort of insulating cover on the house anyway.

The deepest snow cover I've seen in 17 years at one time is about 10 inches during the night. I would brace the roof well with lumber and other supports so I'm sure it will hold the weight.

I noticed on the coop pages that some people use this and I was wondering whether it worked out and what others may think of the idea. The lowest point of the house is four feet.

Thanks
Mary

 

[patandchickens]

I like Suntuf for many purposes (I have it as run roofs) but I have several worries about your plan. (although it depends somewhat on what climate you're in...?)

First, in cold winter temperatures, which I assume you do get sometimes since you get snow, a naked metal or plastic roof will become a condensation farm. When you're condensing/frosting/dripping water in the coop, you can't be ventilating that humidity to the outside, thus you get humid coop air and frostbite at surprisingly not-that-cold temperatures. If you're getting down near freezing, you really ought to have at least plywood under your roof (insulation too, if you live somewhere *cold*) to prevent that condensation. Obviously, that would prevent any solar gain from Suntuf.

Second, it may sound nice in theory that the coop will be tree-shaded when you don't want solar gain, and it'll only happen in the cold of winter when you *want* the heat.... but realistically, trees do not leaf out the instant the weather warms up, nor do they hold their leaves until reliably-freezing weather. There will be large stretches of time when a 4x6 coop is likely to get really hot inside if it has a clear roof. Unless you can open a correspondingly vast amount of ventilation, that's going to be a real problem.

And finally, 4x6 isn't *that* big and I would by no means guarantee that you couldn't overheat your coop *in winter*, too, on a good sunny day, especially towards late winter when the days are longer.

If you do it, at least consider using the white translucent Suntuf (may be special order -- mine was anyhow) since it produces *less* solar gain... you could try doublesided-taping bubblewrap on the underside to give you some margin of defense against condensation if your weather doesn't often get very cold. Honestly though I think you'd be much, much, much better off with a large window-style WALL panel, which makes it easier to control condensation and excess solar gain.

Or, if you want to be able to warm things up in winter, you might consider something like my lean-to front run that I plastic-wrap in winter to become a combination of a small run and a solar heater (air goes into run from coop via popdoor, heats up, back into coop via window contained within leanto run... has to be opened/closed manually according to sun and weather but gives you a lot of heating, and if you could store some of that heat in mass such as water barrels or cinderblocks it would keep things warmer at night)

Honestly I do not think you NEED any such thing, though, in what it sounds like your climate probably is. CHickens do pretty good in the cold, unless people try to get too micro-manage-y and screw things up with excess humidity or wild heat swings

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[tgrlily]

We haven't used it on a coop yet, but we have the translucent smoked suntuf on our hot tub house. It also has six sliding glass doors & is in full sun all day. My husband & I were planning on using it to do an enclosed porch on a playhouse we picked up on craigslist for our daughter's silkies.

We thought it would be great to use since it diffuses the sun so it doesn't gets too hot, yet the solar heat gain in the winter makes it a pleasant environment.... a LOT warmer than it is outside. We do open the doors to keep it cool in the summer. Condensation has never been a problem in the hottub house because we have good ventilation.

The porch of the silkie playhouse will be screened in hardware cloth for the summer & wrapped in greenhouse plastic or clear plexiglass (if I find some cheap!) for the winter... with good ventilation of course. We decided on the smoked suntuf because of how well it worked in a humid environment.

 

[nwmud]

I have the smoke colored suntuff product on my deck (13' x 24"). it does have condensation on it... and its like an oven under it in the summer. My deck is open on 3 sides (south, west, north) and it gets so warm in the summer - i am planning to add shades on the sides as well as the roof. I would not recommend using this on a coop unless your putting it over plywood or something like that.

I thought it would be great because it allows light and it does, but it really works best for greenhouses and those kinds of applications.

If you do use the suntuff material... be sure to look over the design recommendations. I have mine set on a 2' x 2' foot pattern and it held up well to the snow we had last year. But then again we rarely get real heavy snow here in Washington where I am.