Coop Build - Details
Now that the basic structure itself has been built, it's time for the fun little details! Trim, latches and so on.
Window and pop door trim:
I had some leftover drip edge flashing, so I decided to cover the exposed edges of the OSB board at the bottom of the pop door. To protect it from the dirty little chicken feet (one is a night shot because that's when I did most of the work...).
That gave me an idea. I bought more white flashing, the extra wide kind, and decided to protect the human doorway in the same way. First I was only going to do it on the bottom, where the wood was already starting to get torn up from me stepping on it. But then I decided to cover all the edges of the doorway. Turned out pretty nice.
Looks even better with the trim on!
All the trim is done:
I bent the hardware cloth on the windows out over the edges of the wider trim, and then sandwiched it with the narrower pieces on the inside of the wide trim frames. Screwed everything in. It's very sturdy. Now I'm thinking I should've gotten 1/2" HC... This here is 1". I thought 1" would be cheaper than 1/2". Turns out it's not. This was a small test roll that only went on the windows and the vents. Everything else (on the run) is 1/2". This being high up - the windows and vents - I'm hoping it will be enough to stop the big critters, and any mice or snakes probably won't make it all the way up there. The windows still have their metal screens, too.
Here's the "poop flap". I would open it at clean out time, to push the bedding out onto the compost pile.
On the inside, I made a little ramp out of leftover triangular pieces, so the bottom of the wall frame wouldn't be in the way:
Pop door:
Hardware cloth and trim on the vents:
It's really starting to take shape!
Cemented the steps together so they wouldn't wobble:
The lock on the human door:
And the exterior of the coop is done! Check out the other pages of my coop article for the interior, and the glamor shots of the whole thing after everything was done
Window and pop door trim:
I had some leftover drip edge flashing, so I decided to cover the exposed edges of the OSB board at the bottom of the pop door. To protect it from the dirty little chicken feet (one is a night shot because that's when I did most of the work...).
That gave me an idea. I bought more white flashing, the extra wide kind, and decided to protect the human doorway in the same way. First I was only going to do it on the bottom, where the wood was already starting to get torn up from me stepping on it. But then I decided to cover all the edges of the doorway. Turned out pretty nice.
Looks even better with the trim on!
All the trim is done:
I bent the hardware cloth on the windows out over the edges of the wider trim, and then sandwiched it with the narrower pieces on the inside of the wide trim frames. Screwed everything in. It's very sturdy. Now I'm thinking I should've gotten 1/2" HC... This here is 1". I thought 1" would be cheaper than 1/2". Turns out it's not. This was a small test roll that only went on the windows and the vents. Everything else (on the run) is 1/2". This being high up - the windows and vents - I'm hoping it will be enough to stop the big critters, and any mice or snakes probably won't make it all the way up there. The windows still have their metal screens, too.
Here's the "poop flap". I would open it at clean out time, to push the bedding out onto the compost pile.
On the inside, I made a little ramp out of leftover triangular pieces, so the bottom of the wall frame wouldn't be in the way:
Pop door:
Hardware cloth and trim on the vents:
It's really starting to take shape!
Cemented the steps together so they wouldn't wobble:
The lock on the human door:
And the exterior of the coop is done! Check out the other pages of my coop article for the interior, and the glamor shots of the whole thing after everything was done
- Next page: Coop Interior
- Previous page: Coop Build - Roof
