What is the best way to make a coop cleanout door weather tight?

[bobcatridge]

We are busy designing our first chicken coop. We bought the Garden Coop Plans from My Pet Chicken. Okay, we are doing quite a few modifications. One modification was to make an access panel/door on an outside wall for easy cleanout. The cleanout door on the Garden Coop is designed as being on the inside of the coop run. Now it just so happens that the side where we want to place the clean-out door is on the side that gets hit by the rain & strong winds in the winter. To protect the chickens from the rain & wind we are going to plywood in that whole side from the top of the run to the bottom. We are wondering the best way to make that door weather tight. Any ideas or recommendations? We do not have construction experience but my husband is very detail oriented. The coop will go on a hillside so easy access is limited to only two sides. We are going to put the nest box on one accessible side and the cleanout door on the other side.

 

[consdrs]

Do you mean weather tight like keeping rain out, wind out? chickens need soooo much ventilation that I would never again think it needed to be weather tight. if you needed to keep sideways rain out to keep bedding dry then I suppose some weather stripping would do. but think ventilation ventilation ventilation. when you see condensation running down the wall you know you need more....

 

[MakNugget]

I think the OP was thinking about reducing drafts, not reducing ventilation.

My cleanout door is two doors occupying one whole side of the coop. I have weatherstripping on the inside hinge of the door, 50% successful, as one side keeps peeling off due to the paint. Part where the two doors join I have trim.

The most exposed part would be the bottom of the doors. Since I have a deep litter set up, I have a 1" thick plywood (about 12" tall) blocker board on the inside as a second wall on the door. There's about a 1-2" gap between the inside of the door and the blocker board. It seems to be doing its job.

 

[bobcatridge]

Thanks for the help.

The Coop we are building has the top of the coop house covered with hardware cloth and then on top of rafters it has those plastic roof panels - so there is ventilation. We are adding extra rafters and cross supports to anchor that roof down. We are also adding a window above the nest box for more ventilation if needed and so we can see what our chickens are doing in there. Our concern was the sideways rain and very strong winds that come from that side. In a winter storm, we frequently see 50 mph winds with rain. So there are two concerns - drafts and rain getting in from that side. Let me add we are in California Central Coast - we rarely get to freezing temperatures in the winter and no rain in the summer. We aren't hot in the summer either. While this may sound idealic it has been so cool this summer that my tomatoes won't even ripen. I know that most of the country has been in the heat all summer, but not so here. Anyway, we are just worried about that Winter wind & rain.

Thanks MakNugget, I think that will give us some ideas for the doors. We plan on doing the deep litter method so we have been discussing if we need a drawer type access for the litter. I would be interested in hearing more details on your deep litter set-up. I will pass on all this information to my husband. He is the ultimate planner. I am just the wife who has six almost 2 week old chicks in the downstairs bathroom shrower stall.