Attaching Hardware Cloth

[Butterfly65]

Hi chicken lovers! Just wondering what your opinions are for securing hardware cloth. Our run is going to be huge, 1080sq ft and we are using the cloth over all of it. I assumed that using a staple gun would be quicker. Any suggestions, opinions would be great. We live in an area that has all sorts of predators, Florida Panhandle ;-)

 

[Tooshay89]

I'm also getting ready to build a run for our chickens and I have the same question. We were planning on stapling them but I'm not sure if that's the safest option. We're also in Florida.

 

[flyin-lowe]

I tried an air powered stapler on mine and the force of the staples was breaking the HC. When I lowered the pressure enough to stop it from breaking the HC then it would not shoot the staples all the way in, couldn't find the sweet spot. I ended up using a hand stapler to tack things in place, then I used screws and washers. I saw how easy it is to pull the staples out of the wood and figured screws would be better.

 

[Butterfly65]

Yo, at Home Depot and finding stainless steel staples is like finding a needle in a haystack. They have a brand called Grip Rite Electrogalvanized staples. Guess what? On the box it states "should not be used in treated lumber. It does not eliminate corrosion and/or staining due to various conditions such as high high humidity, salt spray, and acidity content of preservatives in the wood such as cedar, redwood, or man made materials." oh well, waiting on someone to come over and help us find stainless steel staples in Florida, ya think? Lolol
UPDATE: No can do at Home Depot or Lowe's. Headed to Harbor Freight :-/

 

[ladynewtochicks]

There was a great post on this about a month back, they were using a special outdoor wood screw washer combo... If you search you might be able to find the actual name

 

[Badbart]

We just completed our run I used about 400 screws and washers. The wife would kill me if anything happened to her babies...lol

 

[Brookliner]

Just thought since this was a hardware cloth thread that I would mention the tool I found for cutting it to size. It is still hard to work with but this cutter makes it so much less work and fewer scratches.

 

[ladynewtochicks]

Just thought since this was a hardware cloth thread that I would mention the tool I found for cutting it to size. It is still hard to work with but this cutter makes it so much less work and fewer scratches.

That looks like it would do a great job!

 

[ChickenMammX4]

We used screws and fender washers then covered the edges with wood strips. Before building I did research about what to use, the screws and fender washers were recommended. Apparently animals can more easily tear into a coop/run that has staples securing the hardware cloth.

 

[RooBeeC]

I used a dewalt and stapler. It worked pretty good. I used 1/2 inch staples and things are holding strong. The one thing is if your coop is huge your hand may start to hurt. My run 8x16 and it did the job. Also that cutting tool looks great!

http://www.amazon.com/Dewalt-DWHTTR...qid=1460983025&sr=8-2&keywords=dewalt+stapler