Roofing
The framing of the roof was relatively straightforward. I rested one of the 2×4’s across the span and used a level to mark out the line for the cut. Then it was easy to use the speed square to transfer that angle to the rest of the rafters and to the cut angle of the chop saw. After cutting all the boards to length, I used hurricane ties to connect them to the walls. I crossed the rafters with some furring strips and was ready to put the corrugated roofing sheets up.
I was originally thinking I would use the transparent plastic sheets to let more light in, but three factors swayed my decision to the ondura sheets. First was the size. The plastic came in 8,10, 12 ft long x 2ft wide sheets which would mean lots of cuts and lots of joints. Next was the special corrugated wood spacers that you need? should have? for proper mounting. Third was the the greenhouse effect – in San Diego, shade would be more welcome than the extra light/heat.
So I opted for ondura. The sheets are 4×6 – perfect size for my coop. They’re easy to cut with a utility knife. They were easy to install… and I found out after I installed them that they’re made with 50% post-consumer recycled content. Bonus.
Siding
I went with a T1-11 style product for the siding. Usually, I see this installed with the panels oriented vertically, but since the enclosed hen house part of the coop was a box with 2 sides 3×4 and 2 sides 5×4, I decided I would run them horizontally. Then I could make just one cut across each 4×8 sheet and get 4 pieces just the right size with no waste. Well that almost worked… In fact, I decided to skin the sides all the way up to the roof line, so I hacked up my extra 5 ft chunk to fit those areas. Then I used some plywood remnants to skin the inside wall. It worked fine, but I did wind up with a some extra T1-11…
