Thoughts on using plastic pallets for flooring

[AFG]

I am going to do something similar, but with more sturdy plastic pallets, we have both the kind in your photo and more traditionally shaped plastic pallets where I work, so I looked at both.

How are you going to fasten those together? Also, yes, rodents can still chew in. I am going to put rubber stall mats down on top of my plastic pallets to make a stable, non-scratchable surface, and I am going to put a gravel pad down first to level on with some hardware cloth buried around the outside a couple feet down, and I am going to screw mine together since they have side walls that I can do so with. We do get frost heaves, etc. here, so structure is an issue, but so is mud! My barn cats generally take care of rodents, but since this will be my 4th coop, I figured do it one more time for good!

We outgrew the first coop, the second was a temporary stop-gap (in one of my horse sheds) for too many birds, the third is two stalls in my horse barn ... Now the permanent solution!

I'm going to do wood pallet walls (thoroughly secured together), fill the channels in the pallets with insulation, sheath with tile board inside and vinyl siding on the outside. Lots of ventilation (as per a great post on BYC!) that I can close down a bit for our cold, windy VT winters. Then I just need to get the car antenna automatic door opener to work!

Please keep us up to date with your journey on this project! This forum is great for learning from everyone's' experiences. Once I figure out where mine will be going, I'll document at well.

 

[Chuckie chicken]

A concern I would have would be the difficulty cleaning the rocks in the lower part. Similar to having gravel in a run, poop will work it's way down into the rocks and be stinky and hard to clean out.

Maybe someone with more experience can chime in about putting sweet pdz (something dense enough to walk on, but odour absorbing) in those pockets?

I'm guessing they'd go inside the coop walls as opposed to having the walls sit on top of them to keep critters from using the space underneath, and for structural reasons?

If you used sheet vinyl flooring, pond liner, something to act as a barrier, you could fill the holes with sand and have a smooth floor surface. If it's going to be really permanent, it wouldn't take too much concrete to fill in the holes.

If you can sort out the details, the skids would be a long lasting tough solution!

 

[littlebigchicks]

A concern I would have would be the difficulty cleaning the rocks in the lower part. Similar to having gravel in a run, poop will work it's way down into the rocks and be stinky and hard to clean out.

Maybe someone with more experience can chime in about putting sweet pdz (something dense enough to walk on, but odour absorbing) in those pockets?

I'm guessing they'd go inside the coop walls as opposed to having the walls sit on top of them to keep critters from using the space underneath, and for structural reasons?

If you used sheet vinyl flooring, pond liner, something to act as a barrier, you could fill the holes with sand and have a smooth floor surface. If it's going to be really permanent, it wouldn't take too much concrete to fill in the holes.

If you can sort out the details, the skids would be a long lasting tough solution!

It gets fairly wet there when it rains so that's why I put the rocks there, plus I need to level it out since it's rather uneven and this was less expensive than cinderblocks to raise the coop up

I was actually going to have the coop sit on top of the pallets instead of having the pallets go inside the walls. Going inside the walls will make the clearance under the coop too short for the girls to walk around. (picture below for better visual of coop)

I hadn't actually thought of putting anything over the pallets, just let them walk on the plastic. Will this be bad for them? I could easily fill the holes with cement, that's true.

I see no pros to this set up.
Unstable foundation for long term.
What does your coop look like?
What is your geographical location?


Even if the divots had drainage, they would still become filled with poops between the gravel added to them.

@aart could you give me more details on why it would be unstable long term? And any way to make it more stable - if we went this route.

Coop picture:

Located in Charleston, SC

I vote for dirt floor and DLM

What is DLM? We currently have dirt and it's just so difficult to clean out. Was thinking the plastic pallets for the ease of just hosing off. Still rather new to it all, so any tips on cleaning the dirt floor?

 

[Acre4Me]

On the positive side -your winters aren’t really winters, like some of us deal with. So the freezing won’t move the pallets, or degrade the pallets (like it would for your northern chicken keepers). They are probably pretty durable.

however, they could shift and unevenly move over time, perhaps due to wetness or something. More sun can degrade the pallets. So, securing them together would help.

We have some wet ground. We elevated our walk-in coop about 2.5-3’ above the ground. Best thing we did! We use a ladder style roost and pine shavings on the floor. No poop boards, so we toss the dry bedding around until fully laden with poop, then we clean it out. Birds enjoy the shade under the coop in hot weather.

 

[RLockhart68]

I actually think your plan is feasible. Would the chickens be in it 24/7 or do they have access to free range occasionally? I see all the concern about smell and literally don't understand it. I would make sure you incorporate some type of dust bath area for them to let them be able to scratch, other than that I think your plan is a good solution to a muddy problem

 

[Chuckie chicken]

Seeing the pictures of your set up, I'm not sure where you want to put the pallets. I understood the gravel in the photo to be a base you would build on. The rock I advised against was for filling the pockets in the pallets, which I thought would be inside the coop. In the new photo I see two coops connected by a run. In the original photo I saw just a run. Can you clarify your plan?

 

[littlebigchicks]

I am going to do something similar, but with more sturdy plastic pallets, we have both the kind in your photo and more traditionally shaped plastic pallets where I work, so I looked at both.

How are you going to fasten those together? Also, yes, rodents can still chew in. I am going to put rubber stall mats down on top of my plastic pallets to make a stable, non-scratchable surface, and I am going to put a gravel pad down first to level on with some hardware cloth buried around the outside a couple feet down, and I am going to screw mine together since they have side walls that I can do so with. We do get frost heaves, etc. here, so structure is an issue, but so is mud! My barn cats generally take care of rodents, but since this will be my 4th coop, I figured do it one more time for good!

We outgrew the first coop, the second was a temporary stop-gap (in one of my horse sheds) for too many birds, the third is two stalls in my horse barn ... Now the permanent solution!

I'm going to do wood pallet walls (thoroughly secured together), fill the channels in the pallets with insulation, sheath with tile board inside and vinyl siding on the outside. Lots of ventilation (as per a great post on BYC!) that I can close down a bit for our cold, windy VT winters. Then I just need to get the car antenna automatic door opener to work!

Please keep us up to date with your journey on this project! This forum is great for learning from everyone's' experiences. Once I figure out where mine will be going, I'll document at well.

I really like the idea of the stall mats on top of the pallets and I would definitely be putting down hardware cloth both under the pallets as well as attached to the side of the coop down to the ground to prevent anything going under the pallets. We haven't seen any rodents running around, or signs of any, so I attribute that to our resident black snake doing his duties.

I think with the idea of the stall mats, I'll definitely go this route. The girls are just muddy messes when it rains currently and I hate it for them. So I'll go forward with this plan and keep everyone posted.

 

[deidreg]

One pro could be drainage. It's elevated. One con is that chickens dig. A lot. They'll find the rocks and kick them around.

What do you plan to cover the pallets with?

 

[FuzzyOwlFeet]

I think it looks like a wonderful idea, get a power washer and it should clean up easy. Nothing can dig under it into your coop.

 

[Carson213]

We are in the process of moving our coop over to a new location and I was wanting to use plastic pallets for the flooring. Picture attached to show the layout (would be leveled before the coop moved into it).
Can I get some pros and cons of doing this versus just putting the coop back on the ground. We would fill in the holes of the pallets with drainage rock. Thanks!
View attachment 2672774

great idea...but i would elevate the pallets 2-3’ off the ground and use no rock...then some stuff will fall through and you’ll get ventilation and your waterer will just drip onto the ground when the chickens drink. i quit using any bedding and if i did it all over, i would do what you’re doing.