Coop door stuck!

[DonyaQuick]

The door I need to close on my coop to keep my month-old chicks inside at night just got jammed in a partway open state - big enough to let someone out and then make it really hard for them to get back in because of where the ramp is relative to the opening. So, I've got my chicks back in my house right now because it's going to be awful weather and I'm pretty sure a couple of them would squeeze through that gap and end up getting soaked in the dark. I couldn't see anything stuck that was wedging the door; it seems like the wood just expanded from humidity and there isn't enough room for it past a certain point. Tomorrow I can try to take it apart and file down the pieces that are sticking, but then the door might become really loose when everything dries out. Is there any better solution to this that I'm missing? If I only file it a little bit to where it's still sticky jut not fully jammed, is there some sort of animal-safe lubricant that would let it move more smoothly? Or do I just need to rebuild the door differently?

I could maybe turn it into a hinged door later that swings open instead of sliding, but that's probably a weekend project rather than an immediate solution for tomorrow. Eventually I want an automatic door so I would be replacing the wood sliding one anyway, but I wasn't going to do that for at least a couple of month since my chicks still need to learn to go inside on their own.

 

[Mutchi]

How bout you unscrew the door and see if you found anything wrong with it. Then fix it if needed and rescrew it in!

 

[aart]

Please post pics.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Please post pics.

This is the door as it stood before I took it apart this morning. It was closed more than this last night, but it was putting so much pressure on screws on the bottom piece that I had to bang it open more before the screws would loosen.

And once I loosened the bottom to remove the door and then put the bottom back on door-less I saw at least one problem: the track the door slides on is cracked and one side is poking up. I don't know if my banging on it this morning caused the split or if this was the original cause of it getting stuck.

The door itself is also very slightly warped. With that crack in the track for the door I have a feeling I'm looking at new pieces of wood regardless of whether I just try to fix it or redo the door with a hinge. I think redoing as a hinged door may be easier. All the other doors to the outside are hinged; this is the only sliding one. Is there any particular reason to keep this coop-to-run door as a sliding design, or would a hinged door be fine here too?

 

[CluckerFamily]

I think a hinged door would be easier.

 

[aart]

Hinging it might be easier.
A plethora of places where the slider could be jamming.

 

[3KillerBs]

I couldn't see anything stuck that was wedging the door; it seems like the wood just expanded from humidity and there isn't enough room for it past a certain point.

That does happen.

My family has an over-engineering problem and have to consciously remember to allow a little play in the fit of a slider instead of working to our habitual tight tolerances.

 

[tigger19687]

Those coops are not made well and with cheap thin wood. If you live in humidity or have had a lot of rain this happens, swelling.
Maybe either do as others suggest or take that broken piece out and let it slide with more room.
This is why I went with the Ador auto door, metal. But you still need to make sure the wood it's attached to doesn't warp either

 

[DonyaQuick]

Hinged it will be then. To try to get it done maximally fast so I can get my chicks back to being outside at night, I think I may have a way to do it with one piece of scrap wood while keeping the bottom piece temporarily. For now I think I can reuse the current door and then replace with a better one when I've had the time to get an appropriate piece of wood for it if the door's warping gets worse. I'll have to add something stop it from blowing shut when it's open, but that should be easy enough.

The rest of the coop has been fine so far in the insane humidity; fingers crossed it continues to be that way. This specific model and it's smaller version are extremely popular in my area for whatever reason, so it seemed like a good compromise between going completely DIY and buying a similarly sized pre-built one for 5-10x more expensive. Given that this is my first time putting something big together that wasn't IKEA furniture, I think getting a kit on sale was still the best place for me to start, but it may become one of those never-ending projects where I'm always finding something to improve on it.

 

[DonyaQuick]

Well it may not be the prettiest thing in the world and a trip into town to buy hinges really wasn't what I needed to be doing today, but the end result works and my coop should be usable at night again. This was installed with the help of one chicken on my arm pecking the screw driver handle, another on my shoulder carefully observing the whole operation, and the other four furiously pecking the stool I was sitting on.

Of course, this means that everyone will have to go back to sleeping in the coop again like normal chickens instead of returning to the house at night and continuing their bizarre obsession with a particular area rug.