Coop & Run - Foundation / Footings Advice

[jonnyb]

I'm considering a complete change of heart with the idea that I can continue to keep my hens' coop and attached run on my side lawn, rotating its location as necessary. There are a couple of simple reasons for this about-turn in my thinking. Firstly, the run quickly gets in a mess when we have prolonged rain, despite it being covered, as when the lawn gets saturated the surface water just runs freely into the run. Secondly, I designed the coop to be robust and large enough for a bit of flock expansion (I currenlty have just 3 ex-bats) but that means it's too heavy for me to relocate it on my own.

My new idea is that I can have a fixed site for the coop and run on my driveway, which runs right up the side of my house and adjacent to the existing side lawn. The driveway is covered in about 50mm of pebbles (I think about 20mm nominal size) above a layer of very old, broken and friable tarmac with gravelly earth below that. Here's a couple of pictures to illustrate the scenario:





So, to my request for advice. I'm hoping to set the coop and run on a layer of bricks (some F2 grade ones for frost resistance) and was wondering what would be the best foundation and footing for this solution, given that I really want to avoid or minimise water seeping into the run from underneath. I shall probably cover the floor of the run with a thick layer of hardwood woodchip after first removing all the pebbles and broken tarmac. Longer term, I may build a larger Walk-in-Run to enclose the coop in this area but not just yet, perhaps when / if I do get a few more girls to expand my flock.

Thanks for reading and if anyone does have any advice they can offer about my new idea, I'd be very grateful to receive it.

Jonathan

[silverback]

Instead of using bricks on a foundation, why not just use railway sleepers over the drive!, and rest the run on top of these, inside the sleepers you can fill it with sharp sand and/or wood chips.
Any water that flows in will drain through, and not form a puddle! ..

[mandaloon]

you havent said just how big your run is but as long as the path is level ( so that the run sits flat) I doubt you would need foundations as such, you could lay the bricks straight onto the old tarmac ( just bedded down on mortar), from what I can see your run doesnt look too heavy but probably physically too large to move alone. By which I mean that the tarmac is probably firm enough to take the weight of the run , evenly distributed. If you have got to buy the bricks rather than using some you happen to have already then I would suggest that you compare prices because silverback's sugestion of sleepers may prove to be the cheaper option ( you also have the ease of screwing the run frame directly onto the sleeper helping it to stay put in high winds!)

[jonnyb]

I like the idea, silverback, especially as it wouldn't have to be a permanent fixture, could be a lot quicker to set up and would deal with the drainage challenge. I suspect it might be quite an expensive solution, though, so I'll have to investigate what I might be expected to pay for sufficient sleepers to go round the perimeter of the coop and run, which is almost 8 metres. Thanks for the tip.

[jonnyb]

Sorry, mandaloon, I didn't see your post before I replied to silverback. The coop and run is about 3m long and 1m wide. You're right about the run, it's not exceptionally heavy but a bit awkward to have to drag into position. It's the weight of the coop that's my real problem and even with two strapping lads lifting it, has proved to be quite a challenge to manoeuvre safely. The tarmac I described has no integrity at all and is more the remnants of of an original surface that is now completely broken up. I was thinking the opposite about the cost; that sleepers might be much more expensive as I was hoping I might get away with a single layer of bricks. If I had to put a double layer in then maybe sleepers would end up being cheaper. Here's a picture of my existing setup so you can get a better impression of what I've been describing.

[Mo]

Yes, I wouldn't like to lift that.
It was one of our considerations when buying an arc and run. We got one that 2 could lift easily (and put it inside a moveable netting enclusure). I thought that at a pinch I could move it myself by edging on end a few inches, then the other - but it strained it so not a good idea.
Like everyone else I've now got a walk-in run.

[redd_angel55]

My old run was fixed and far to heavy and large to move. So the girls had to say in one place. Like you said, it does turn into a bog after prolonged rain. I dug in a large amount of sharp sand to make it more free draining, which solved the problem.

[michaelclarke]

Dig fencing around the base of the chicken coop. :)

[manda]

Or if you don't want to dig in the wire create a skirt, attach that to the run. Clear an area the width of the wire, peg it down and then bury it under the earth / pebbles.