# flooring in shed



## chiques chicks (Sep 24, 2015)

I have an 8x10 shed. I'm considering sectioning off a 6x8 portion for two Nigerian dwarfs arriving in two months. The remaining are will be for feed and supply storage for them and my poultry.

Problem: the floor is wood. I can't remove the floor. 

Would screwing a layer of concrete board to the pen area, then skim coating it with concrete be a good idea to make it easier to clean? I could even slope the skim layer slightly to aid drainage should they spill water. I would of course use a thick layer of bedding on the concrete.

I plan to add plywood to the studs so the pen has smooth walls for easy cleaning.


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## chiques chicks (Sep 24, 2015)

I should add, this is just their shelter. There will of course be an attached, fenced yard.


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## babsbag (Sep 24, 2015)

First thing I want to say...goats and chickens...be ABSOLUTELY sure the goats never get to the chicken feed. It can make them very very sick, possibly die. The thing is, goats LOVE chicken feed.

Now on to the floor. I think your idea work work for a few little goats. Wood can get very nasty quickly. I did that in an emergency for one night for about 6 kids and it was nasty, dried it out with DE and lime. But I would be afraid that the skim coat would crack unless you can find one with an elastic additive in it or something like that. Maybe an epoxy floor leveling compound, those seem pretty tough.

 There is an epoxy floor paint you could use over wood but it is a little pricey and not sure of how small of a batch you can buy. I am using it in my dairy and really like it.

Cheap vinyl would work too, but can be slippery unless you put some tread strips on it.

Maybe the Rustoleum deck paint would work, it looks nice and thick and pretty water resistant. You could even paint up the walls part way.  I used an oil based deck paint in my coop, it has held up well, even to water spills.


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## chiques chicks (Sep 24, 2015)

Thanks for the heads up on chicken feed!

I don't plan to allow the goats into the chicken area on purpose.  I will secure the lids on chicken feed storage.

I'll have to delve deeper into flooring options. I deep litter the birds on painted wood, but there is no water in there. I plan to keep water in with the goats, though.

If I ever expand to more goats, there will be alternate housing accommodations.


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## Latestarter (Sep 24, 2015)

If you check the flooring section on BYC, what I and many others have done is buy Blackjack #57 from lowes. it is a water based (easy clean up), rubberized (remains flexible in ALL weather/temps), roof coating. http://www.lowes.com/pd_70989-29-6080-9-30_0__?productId=3043257  It applies easily, dries fast, no fumes, easy clean up, near indestructible. I painted it up the walls as well as added splash protection. Here's what it looked like after application.





Notice the rain puddle on the other side. a rain shower went through right after application. after it dried, no damage done, and good as new. When I dig down under the litter, it still looks exactly like this, 18+ months later.


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## babsbag (Sep 24, 2015)

Thanks for the tip @Latestarter . I may have to do that in my coop some day in (hopefully) the far off future.


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## chiques chicks (Sep 24, 2015)

If I ever get my coops cleaned, I may try that there. It looks like a good solution for my goat shed as well.

While I naturally don't want a urine smell, I'm not in a residential area. All but one neighbor lives a five minute walk away, the closer one is generally not downwind. They also choose to live there because it is farm area. Essentially a few 5-7 acre lots surrounded by farms = cows, pigs, chicken battery houses, etc. My neighborhood always stinks ( if you mind agricultural odors)


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## babsbag (Sep 24, 2015)

I don't even notice my 40 goats anymore until I clean the pens with the tractor and then it is ripe for a few days. I live on 5 acres out in the country. Like it or leave it. Neighbors hate my LGD on duty more than they do the smell.

The bucks are in rut right now. PHEW WHEW.


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## Bayle (Sep 26, 2015)

My goats have a wood floor in their little house. They use it for shade and windbreak during the day, and they are closed into it ( with a little super secure backyard for peeing) at night, as we have coyotes around and they are not in with a guard animal yet. They rarely pee in it. If they do, I scrub it out in the morning and let it dry. When it's cold, I lay down some straw on the floor. It's been working well for them so far (for about a year and a half).
I don't know if that helps at all, just my experience so far. I'm really liking Latestarter's idea with the rubberized roof coating, I may use that when we build their new bigger barn.


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## OneFineAcre (Sep 26, 2015)

Latestarter said:


> If you check the flooring section on BYC, what I and many others have done is buy Blackjack #57 from lowes. it is a water based (easy clean up), rubberized (remains flexible in ALL weather/temps), roof coating. http://www.lowes.com/pd_70989-29-6080-9-30_0__?productId=3043257  It applies easily, dries fast, no fumes, easy clean up, near indestructible. I painted it up the walls as well as added splash protection. Here's what it looked like after application.
> 
> View attachment 11520
> Notice the rain puddle on the other side. a rain shower went through right after application. after it dried, no damage done, and good as new. When I dig down under the litter, it still looks exactly like this, 18+ months later.


That was a good idea


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## Devonviolet (Mar 8, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> If you check the flooring section on BYC, what I and many others have done is buy Blackjack #57 from lowes. it is a water based (easy clean up), rubberized (remains flexible in ALL weather/temps), roof coating. http://www.lowes.com/pd_70989-29-6080-9-30_0__?productId=3043257  It applies easily, dries fast, no fumes, easy clean up, near indestructible. I painted it up the walls as well as added splash protection. Here's what it looked like after application.
> 
> View attachment 11520
> Notice the rain puddle on the other side. a rain shower went through right after application. after it dried, no damage done, and good as new. When I dig down under the litter, it still looks exactly like this, 18+ months later.


LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this idea!   I know you posted this back in 2015. But, it is absolutely perfect, for what we were wanting/needing in our new barn, that will be built next week.

We have been looking for a way to protevt the 3/4" treated plywood, that we are putting down, for the floor. We had pretty much decided on 4×6' rubber mats, but I worried about stuff leaking around the edges & underneath the mats. This is even better.

Thanks for the suggestion Latestarter!


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## Latestarter (Mar 9, 2017)

A quick caution on your situation... This will NOT hold up to constant traffic from goat hooves which are sharp and bearing pressure from a lot more weight than that of a chicken. In addition, mine (blackjack coated floor) was covered with deep litter so the chickens hooves never really came into direct contact with the floor coating... Where I painted the roosts with the Blackjack, they did in fact scratch through it over time but it wasn't an issue of being in direct contact with moisture for any prolonged period of time.Someone was talking about an epoxy based sealant and since that would be much harder it might work out better... I don't know if the person ever did it and what the results were/are... If you were to put the blackjack down UNDER the mats, it would expect it to absolutely protect against moisture from leaks around the edges of the mats.

In that layout I would expect you could actually hose out the inside floor area (mats) and not have to worry about the floor rotting out from pooling underneath them. Not sure what you'd have to do to ensure proper drying out under the mats though to prevent mold/mildew build up.


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## Devonviolet (Mar 9, 2017)

Well Darn, @Latestarter!  I thought we found a way to protect our plywood floor.  We are planning to put a layer of wood chips under straw, to absorb moisture. Would that be sffficient?

The thing that worries me about the rubber mats, is that the mats are 4×6 & the stalls will be 5×6. I worry about moisture getting under the mats& the mold and mildew that you mentioned.


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## Devonviolet (Mar 9, 2017)

Here's a thought . . . what if we put about five layers of coating?  Letting it dry between coats, of course?


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## OneFineAcre (Mar 9, 2017)

If you are building specifically for animals I would not put a wood floor at all.


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## Devonviolet (Mar 9, 2017)

OneFineAcre said:


> If you are building specifically for animals I would not put a wood floor at all.


Where we are putting it . . . sloped ground, with standing water after it rains, the barn has to be built on a raised deck. 

We considered cost of materials (which is a major factor), and decided 3/4" treated plywood.

One option we considered is to put down vinyl flooring - just under the stalls. We might have to go back doing that.


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## Latestarter (Mar 9, 2017)

Change the stall size to match the rubber mat size...  buy larger rubber mats and cut then to the size you need... Drop back and punt?  sorry...


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## babsbag (Mar 9, 2017)

http://www.paints-coatings-epoxies.com/a_cm15_epoxy_paint.html

2 part epoxy paint. You can get anti skid to add to it and color chips. It isn't cheap though. I have used it for my dairy floor and it isn't as intimidating as it sounds.

Have you thought about building a perimeter wall out of pressure treated or redwood and filling it with gravel for the floor. How much does it slope?


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## Devonviolet (Mar 10, 2017)

Latestarter said:


> Change the stall size to match the rubber mat size...


The size of the barn is set, and based on that and the planned use, of the stalls, making them smaller (to accommodate the mats) wouldn't really work.  So, we aren't sure now, how we are going to handle sealing the floors.

So, I guess that means drop back and punt . . .    



babsbag said:


> Have you thought about building a perimeter wall out of pressure treated or redwood and filling it with gravel for the floor. How much does it slope?



I know some people use gravel, but after talking about the pros and cons, DH and I don't want to go that route.  The slope doesn't look bad, at the building side, but the property is sloped, with a difference of about 8 feet from the high point to the road. It may not sound like a lot, but we end up wit a lot of water.

Just to give you an idea of how much rain falls on a given area, a 1000 sq ft roof, gets 623 gallons of water in a 1" rainfall.  Granted, the rain, on our property, is falling on dirt, which will absorb some of the water. But, we all know that, when we have a solid week of rain, the water only absorbs so much, and then starts running off.  That is why we end up with standing water in flatter areas, of the property. Where the barn is going, is mor flat, so we can end up with 2" of standing water.

Just to show how much water rain can put on our land, here is a blurb, showing how to calculate the amount of water that will fall on a 1000' roof. We are talking at least 3–1/2 acres, from the high point, on our property. So, that's a LOT of water running down our slope, once the ground gets saturated.

*****
*How Much Rain Water Runs Off Your Roof?*
You may be as astonished as we were to learn how much water runs off a roof in a rain storm!  The answer is about 623 gallons.

To calculate the runoff from any given rainfall:

Take the dimensions of the footprint of your roof and convert them to inches. (So, a 50' x 20' roof is 600" x 240".)


Multiply the roof dimensions by the number of inches of rainfall. (In this example, 600" x 240" x 1" = 144,000 cubic inches of water.)


Divide by 231 to get the number of gallons (because 1 gallon = 231 cubic inches). (144,000/231 = 623.38).


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## animalmom (Mar 10, 2017)

We have decking in our "Goat Palace" and it works well.  It is raised up a step to accommodate heavy rains that run off in its direction.  Not the best location, but it was the only location. The boards for the deck have a spacing between them so liquid runs through.  

Originally the "Goat Palace" was suppose to be home to the goaties but goat math reared its head and so now I use the "Goat Palace" for my kidding stalls, isolation stalls when needed, and feed storage.  I put hay down for the goats to lay on and when it gets dirty I rake out the hay and use a home pressure washer to clean up the wood, just like you would on any other deck.  Once it is dry I slosh around a bleach solution.  We've been using this for 7 years now and it doing well.

All that to say you can have a deck situation with goats to where it drains out and you pressure wash and bleach when the day is real hot... so it dries fast.

I am certainly sympathetic to the budget impact, and can't address the cost difference between decking and the 3/4" plywood.  I would worry that the plywood would separate over time and you could end up redoing the flooring.

Good luck with your plans.  I'm sure you will come up with a solution that works for YOU.


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## Devonviolet (Mar 10, 2017)

animalmom said:


> I would worry that the plywood would separate over time and you could end up redoing the flooring.



Well, whatever we end up doing, we will at least put some kind of sealer on the plywood. I don't want the edges to delaminate and curl, either.


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## babsbag (Mar 10, 2017)

I have standing water in a few places in my barn, where the dogs dig holes...the holes fill up with water. I have about 6" of gravel, road base, that compacts. The goal is to add another 6" and then use decomposed granite on top and compact it. There are areas in the barn where I mixed the Stall Dry with gravel and it is darn near concrete, that is my goal for all of it. Anything that seals the wood will protect the wood but the urine will just pool and you may find yourself cleaning it out quite often. But then on the other hand, build the goats a day shed /lean-to and just lock them up at night and there might not be any problems with just a few goats and not the 40 that I have.


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