High Lumber Prices = Low Cost Coop Upgrade!

We thought about rebuilding our Coop and moving it to a different location in our backyard. The coop is over 10 years old and needed some help. Original post here on our first re-build http://littlehomesteadinboise.blogspot.com/2013/03/chicken-coop-re-do-and-then-some.html My hubby Dave started pricing lumber and talk about sticker shock! I have been hearing on the news that lumber is up about 35%, which is huge! Previously Dave worked in some jobs where he was able to get free lumber but not so much now. We decided to look at what the coop really needed to be repaired. One thing was the floor, an elevated section when you first walk in. The wood was sagging and it was obvious it was time to replace it.

I was talking to Dave and thought instead of buying a sheet of plywood what if he could get some kind of scrap wood, in short pieces and use it for the floor? Wouldn't you know it! He found free (at work) 2 pallets that are made for shipping very, very, very heavy electric motors.

These are not your typical pallets, more like 2" x6"s! He was able to get two free, so he disassembled them using a reciprocating to cut the nails and create boards.

Dave cutting nails above. Went pretty easily and we composted the rest of the leftover scraps. He wore safety glasses, safety first!!!

He used saw horses for stability, no accidents! These are great as you can fold them up to store.

Nice wood pile! We decided not to treat the wood as we live in a dry, high desert climate in Boise. Dave pried out the old floor with a hammer. Next he cut and added the new wood floor to fit.

Next he cut and added the new wood floor using galvanized nails, 12D.

All done, super sturdy! Next he tackled the main coop floor

We use the deep litter method, with a dirt floor underneath. The second part of the rehab of the coop was doing the floor. The chickens digging in it constantly. One of the problems is they have dug under the edge of the walls, which is weakening the whole structure. Since we had so much hardscaping left form various projects I mentioned to Dave maybe we could just use some of that for the for the coop? The pine shavings would go on top of that. Since the chickens have access to the Garden run year-round there's plenty of dirt for them to dig in there and take dust baths. So Dave started digging out the coop floor including the pine shavings. It was time to clean the coop and add fresh pine shavings anyway so he did it all the same time. We decided to use brick for the floor. The bricks were free, they came from the edging of our front yard, that came with the house. We replaced with river stone that we got free.

Brick added, next came the clean pine shavings!

All done. We didn't level since it's a coop with 4" of shavings on top

Dave found a used storm door at the Habitat store for $ to replace the warped wood door. It will insulate better in the winter and let light in. It has a glass panel that comes out for the summer, goes back in the winter. I replaced the torn screen.

We popped out the old screen panel and I replaced the screen. Dave also rotated the door so it opened to the right, worked better with the fence on the right. We cleaned the glass to on the door.

Look great! The screen gives lots more air flow and I won't have to staple plastic on the old wood door. Door rotated, screen replaced and window cleaned. When the cold weather hits I will add the other glass panel and remove the screen.

You can see the warped door here (before). All in all a great low cost project. You could probably get free materials from Craigslist, etc.