I have a cottage style coop that is now 3 years old and showing its age. We (well, I really) had been planning on getting a new all singing, all dancing coop but have decided (well, HE has) that we can't afford one at the moment.
So I took a good long look at the existing coop and decided it's not really THAT bad. The nest box lid and the roof need replacing but the rest of it will probably last another couple of years.
I've seen that a lot of the better coops on the market have onduline roofing so thought we'd copy them. It looks fairly reasonably priced too
What I don't understand is how it fits to the top of the coop. As the top of the coop walls are straight but the onduline is wavy, there will be large gaps between the roof and walls - will these gaps be too draughty for the chooks (I would imagine they would). Do I need to fit a wooden roof first and then cover it with onduline? Or do I need to fill the gaps with something?
Help
Lucy x
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut - Ernest Hemingway
Well......you take a piece of tongue and groove, a penknife and a pencil. Butt it up to the roof and draw round the wiggles. Now carve it to fit and nail it to your coop wall. Sit the roof on top...... .....
Where's the tongue in cheek smiley ? You do need some ventilation in the coop. I expect someone who has that kind of roof will be along soon. Try altering the thread title to be more specific. You don't even need to ask a mod to do it for you.
I've seen quite a few new coops advertised with onduline roofing and the waviness and gaps have been explained as ventilation and part of the design. I think you need special screws and washers for it (which are easily available from Bee&Queue) and you just screw it down through the onduline into the wood at the lowest part of the "dips" (I think the washers stop water creeping through the holes and give a firmer fit).
I bought onduline for mine too, but it got used for the log store. Oops.
You need special screws as already said and a special top bit to cover the apex. The wiggly gaps are normal - I looked at a new coop with onduline on - it ventilates the coop.
Hello Lucy, I redid the roof on our coop with it. Some people cover the coop with plyboard so there is a tight fit all round and fix battens horizontally across the roof and fix the onduline to them. I just fitted battens across the roof and nailed the onduline on. I learned that the battens should extend outside the sides of the coop for a better fit. You also need ridge tiles if you have an apex roof. The caps that go over the nails/screws can be bought separately. You will need to measure the depth of the battens and the height of the top of the ripple in the roofing and get screws or nails (make sure the nails have ridges around the shaft for grip) the right size so the pointy bits don't stick out of the bottom of the wood. I didn't bother bocking the gaps as our coop is an old wendy house with the eaves being 5' above floor level. Hope I've explained that OK. Dom
Hi lucy .. we replaced the roof on our coop with onduline ..I think it's the same as yours ?.. you can get the wavy filler bits from bee & Q..they are made from a dense foam .. we had to put a few extra cross pieces to support the onduline and it worked out that there was a good ventilation gap above the pop hole..
This is our coop with the roof stripped and first battens attached to give it an overhang over the nest box..
Thank you so much all of you Yes, Jannie, that is the same as our coop so your pictures really help to give us an idea. I shall make a trip to bee & Q for a fact finding mission
Now I just need to get Nick to agree to relocate the run and double it's size, and persuade Izzy that she no longer wants the trampoline that is on the only bit of flat ground which is right where I want the new run to be
Lucy x
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut - Ernest Hemingway
Couple of things - please don't block the gaps where the roof meets the wood, it's ventilation. Also you fix the roof, by nailing/screwing thru the peaks of the roof NOT the troughs.
Steve the Gas wrote:Think about it.... you are making a hole in a recess- where water will peneterate.
OK, it's taken me a few hours of thinking. Then Nick explained it as well so it sorts of makes sense. You must remember, I am a girly who doesn't do blue jobs. I did put some shelves up once (sort of like a dresser top unit) which I put up with some cat gut and a staple gun
Lucy x
Always do sober what you said you'd do drunk. That will teach you to keep your mouth shut - Ernest Hemingway
This has made interesting reading, because the time is approaching when we're going to have to re-roof our coop too. Thanks for starting it up Mad Chick.http://muckycluckers.blogspot.com/
Life's too short to stuff a mushroom
Mucky Cluckers – Tales from the chicken run. "An hilarious read" "Cried with laughter" "A really good read, I couldn't put it down". Buy this paperback from www.muckycluckers.co.uk
