How to Build a Plywood Roof on a Chicken Coop

Construction & Contractors Blog

If you're building a chicken coop, there are a lot of options when it comes to roofing. However, using plywood products may be the best and easiest option. Wondering how to make a chicken coop roof out of plywood? Here's a look at what you need to do to make your plywood roof effective. 

1. Slope the Roof

You can design a chicken coop with a flat roof, but if you do that, the roof will wear out more quickly as snow and rain will pool on top of it. To prevent that from happening, you always want to focus on having some type of slope. The exact slope can vary based on your needs.

Generally, you want at least a ¼:12 slope on your roof at the very minimum. In other words, that's the equivalent of a 1:48 slope on your roof. That's a very gradual slope that increases 1 cm in height for every 48 cm of distance. However, you may want a steeper slope than that.

For instance, if your chickens free range during the day, they may want to perch on your plywood roof. That may look cute, but cleaning poop off the roof can get annoying. To encourage them to perch somewhere else, you need to make the slope a lot steeper.

2. Consider Using Supports

If you're just putting in a small roof, a piece of plywood is probably sturdy enough to hold up between two of the side walls of the coop. However, if your chicken coop is relatively large, you may need to put in roofing joists.

Basically, these are pieces of timber that run from wall to wall, and you rest the plywood on top of them. Remember, you don't have to go for an a-frame shape. Rather, you can go for a simple slope that just slopes in one direction.

3. Leave Spaces for Ventilation

Ideally, you shouldn't fit the plywood directly onto the sides of the chicken coop. Instead, you may want to leave a small gap between the side walls and the base of the roof. As long as the edge of the roof extends past the wall, those gaps won't allow in rain. Instead, they will just work as ventilation. That helps to prevent your chicken coop from overheating.  

4. Consider Making an Opening

If desired, you may want to put an opening in the plywood roof. Plywood is easy to work with in this regard. You simply cut an opening, add some hinges and support the opening so that it doesn't fall inside the coop. This type of small door in the roof allows you to provide extra ventilation to the chicken coop as needed, and if your chicken coop is short enough, you can also use this hatch to grab eggs from your nesting boxes.

5. Waterproof the Roof

Plywood supplies are great for a range of purposes. They are sturdy, affordable and easy to work with. However, plywood is not waterproof, and if you don't want to reroof your chicken coop every year, you need to take steps to protect your plywood.

At a minimum, paint the roof with a water-resistant exterior paint. If you want to have fun, put in some cool designs such as flowers with large petals or pictures of chicken eggs.

For even better results, cover the plywood roof with a layer of polyurethane. You can just staple that in place. Alternatively, you may want to use tar paper or asphalt saturated felt. You can use those elements on their own or in conjunction with roofing tiles, which you just nail into place.

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22 September 2017

Home Construction Ideas that Bring the Outdoors Indoors

If you're thinking about bringing elements of the outdoors into your home but you don't know how to go about it, you've come to the right place. I'm Betty, and I've been in the unfortunately predicament of having severe hay fever and allergies for much of my life. I got sick of loading myself up with anti-histamines just to experience the outdoors everyday, so I decided to look into home additions that would bring that feeling inside where I was safe from pollen. I spent a long time researching solariums, pools, and other constructions, and now I have the home—and life—of my dreams. And now I'm sharing the tips and ideas I've learned with you!