We worked very hard this weekend building our chicken coop!  I spent a lot of time designing this coop and wanted it to be perfect.  I did a lot of research and drew up my plans for a coop that could be used as a garden shed if we/future owners didn’t have chickens.

We did a lot of work and have a bit more to do, so I am going to break this into 4 blog posts.  We have not put siding or roofing on or built the run, so those posts will come later.  This is how it stands today:

In the last post about our chicken coop, I wrote a little bit about our major considerations.  With that in mind, let’s get started!

Before we could start building the structure, we had to remove a tree.  

With that out of the way, we built our foundation on top of our gravel.  We built it 16″ on center with treated 2x6s.  

 

We laid down 3/4″ OSB for the sub-floor.  We would have used 1/2″ but Menards was all out, and we had to take what we could get.  Luckily, the price was good and the structure will be even more sturdy.  

After a lot of research online, I discovered that the vinyl should be put on before the walls are put up.  We got a glueless vinyl so all we had to do was lay it down!  Then we were able to start building the framing.

I also did a bit of research to see how to make trusses (because I had no idea where to start).  I found this YouTube video that I used in my design: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mfs4rxBeyK0

After some intense geometry, we got 10 identical trusses.

 

Now that the framing is all done, we can start putting up the OSB walls.  Check back for Part 2!