Vinyl Walls

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Wood buffers humidity peaks, to some extent. Because humidity from the air can absorb into the wood. In principle some can then migrate to the outside and evaporate away although I dunno how significant that amount really is. Main thing is helping handle temporary humidity spikes, like a warm humid January thaw day, or a waterer spill. This is why I'm really not big keen on the idea of a vapor barrier in the coop. OTOH I will admit that it is not a *huge* difference, and it's not like your chickens will curl up and die if you have vinyl or a vapor-barrier on your interior surfaces.

I am trying to figure out just how warm a coop has to be in the winter to keep the chickens happy.
It averages in the mid 20's to mid 30's here in Jan and Feb.
Will a small wood coop be warm enough for the chickens? There is no insulation in it but it is pretty tight other than the vents.
Coop is 4x 6 and only about 4 feet tall. Made of 3/4" plywood and siding with shingled roof.
Can the birds live in something like this in the winter?

Sure. It's still a lot easier to manage a full-sized walk-in coop, but yours is not tiny and should be perfectly useable, especially since (if those are your NIGHTTIME temperatures) it isn't getting real cold where you live. No problemo

Good luck, have fun,

Pat​

 

[Germaine_11.20]

Thank you!
I was really worried after I made it. Started wondering if it was a waste or not. It looks great and is strong. I just worry about the chickens.

 

[ducks4you]

Wood is a natural, porous material. If you looked at a piece under a microscope, you would see the holes. Wood allows water to evaporate.

ANYTHING generated from plastics, like vinyl, or polyester (that we wear) has tiny little holes that won't easily allow water to pass through. Water wants to either: condense (like on your shower,) or evaporate. YOU want the water in your coop to evaporate outside of the coop. Inside metal buildings or plastic tarps during really HOT or really COLD weather, you'll see water condensing, and you will FEEL overheated (if it's hot) or damp (if it's cold.) Humidity won't necessarily kill your birds, BUT, if it's humid in the coop and really, REALLY cold, you can cause their combs to freeze.

MY experience has been with one bird, who lives in an old rabbit hutch in the barn. She has plenty of ventilation, the cage is open 1/2" hardware cloth, and our temperatures (without windchill) have dipped to -10 F. She snuggles in the straw to keep warm.

My coop project is a rebuild of an old wooden building that I've used most recently for rabbits. It has a vinyl floor and many windows. Humidity from the bunnies urine would evaporate in the winter--THEY had wire floors on their cages, too. NOBODY got cold.

i HAVE been in horse barns made of metal (which also consdenses water) In the winter, WITH a wind. I swear, I felt COLDER inside the building than I did outside.

DON'T be afraid to use the vinyl on your floor. Also, DON'T be afraid to paint or stain your wood. I don't know if I can explain it any better than to keep man-made materials at a minimum when you construct a building for your livestock.

(Sorry for the lecture.)

 

[Booswalia]

Thank you. That's what I needed to know. I will paint the wood not bother with the vinyl.

 

[Opa]

I agree in part with duck4you, condensation can be a problem in livestock buildings, but the key to preventing it is proper insulation and ventilation. The reason that metal building feel colder than the outside is that they are. They have absorbed the ambient temperature of the night before and are much slower to heat up then the surround air. In summer they retain the heat. When the metal is cold and the air is humid and starts to become warmer than the metal condensation forms and I've been in livestock barns that felt like I was caught in a rain storm.

Putting vinyl sheet goods or vinyl tile isn't going to create a condensation problem because you are installing over wood not metal. I have been in construction for almost 50 years and can tell you from personal and practical experience is that wood floors rot. Painted floors help but in reality are a poor moisture barrier. If you have the funds to install vinyl you should do it. Put a layer of wood shavings on top of it and you have a floor that is easy to clean and will last for years.

 

[patandchickens]

Aw, people use wood flooring in houses *all the time*, in fact these days people pay extra for it

The only rotting floors I've seen in inhabited houses have been where water leaks underneath vinyl flooring or tiles (e.g. around leaky toilet flange, or from recurrent spills on floor that can seep into cracks)... since it can't really dry out once it is behind the vinyl, THEN IT ROTS.

A layer of vinyl or rubber matting in a livestock situation easily and frequently builds up a layer of dampness and damp crud underneath it, as time goes by. Especially if you're one of the people who likes to hose out the coop periodically. And then, if you're on a wood subfloor (as you HAVE to be in any coop that's raised up), you get rot. I have seen this in countless horse barns and tackrooms, and my chicken building (which has vinyl-over-wood floored pens that were originally built, not by me, for dogs when this was a kennel) is testament to the tendancy of wood under vinyl to rot if you let any moisture at all get back there, which can be real hard to avoid.

Whereas, if you keep your litter DRY (which you generally should) and have painted your plywood flooring, an un-vinyl-ed plywood floor will not rot at any important rate. (If you can keep a vinyl covered floor dry, from above and from below, *it* won't rot at any important rate either - it's just easier to make sure of dryness if the plywood is bare rather than coverd in vinyl).

I'm not really arguing in favor of vinyl OR in favor of bare (painted) plywood, I think each has its advantages and circumstances in which it's best.... my point is just that it is definitely not a case of "vinyl good, bare painted plywood bad" or vice versa.

JME,

Pat

 

[ducks4you]

Hey, Opa -- it's dangerous putting up your credentials like that!!

You'll be hearing from ME as my own coop work progresses this summer. You've been WARNED!!!

...so there...