Any ideas for inexpensive shelter?

Yeah, I was going to post this site, too. That guy has IMAGINATION!! After noodling around that site, I was ready to go scrounge every available panel within 20 miles of here!

Pony!

I've seen many folks take pallets (as has already been suggested)and simply nail them to posts which have been sunk into the ground in cement, then cover the sides and top with tarps. I've used pallets for a nice picket garden fence..they're FREE for the taking ..I hung out at loading docks in the city for only one afternoon and had more than I needed..all the companies do is break them up and toss them out after they get their deliveries unloaded.

IMHO the most tedious work involved is taking out all of the extra nails..and some of the wood does tend to splinter readily..pre-drilling helps a lot with that.

Just be certain that your site selection is good..you don't want to sink posts,get halfway done and then discover that you're building in a drainage area..did that ..ONCE..

Straw bales set in a rectangle with a plywood roof is quite often used in this area for a quick shelter. Usually lasts a couple of years at least! One of the kids on my son's bus route has one at the corner for his bus shelter.

You've also seen the shelter I posted on the sheep board ... fence posts for the corners, and whatever was on hand for the walls and roof.

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Apple Jack Creek
near Edmonton Alberta
author of Just Keep Knitting: a journey of healing through forgiveness, faith, and fibre and The Rookie's Field Guide to Supported Spinning

I used pallets attached to locust poles for my whole barn. I was able to find some 30" by 12' pallets at a plastics company, they had more than I could use. I disassembled many of the pallet boards and put them in between the boards of the ones I attached to the walls. Then I took more of the pallet board pieces and filled between them. Sort of like board and battens. I have pictures somewhere...I will look them up and put them on here.

For the roof I used Corrugated Metal Roofing, unfortunately it is very expensive right now, $18.95 for a 12' by 26" piece.

I hope you can find the pictures. I was just think about this the other day and would love to see how it is done.

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Christanie Farm...living life as it was intended

I'm hoping so, too. I just logged on to encourage The Griffiths to post the pics!

Pony!

Depends on how fast you need it to go up and how long you need it to last.

We made a great shelter from an abandoned trampoline frame. They are often free if you'll haul them off. It's actually two pieces, each a semicircle. Stood on their side, attached to each other with metal poles or pvc pipe,and covered with a tarp. You can walk under it in the middle and the sides are sloped. A handy shelter for picnicing, but will work for animals as well.

Will not hold up in nasty weather or forever, but will be shelter for a start.

Here are some ways we have done it. All very cheap and adaptable. Work with what you have.

Pole Shed:
http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/haybalecoop2.html

Earth Den:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2005/11...-pig-dens.html

Pallet housing:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2006/01...l-housing.html

Winter Chicken Coop:
http://sugarmtnfarm.com/blog/2005/12...-hen-coop.html

Haybale Coop:
http://hollygraphicart.com/misc/haybalecoop.html

The coops could be adapted for larger animals.

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SugarMtnFarm.com -- Pastured Pigs, Poultry, Sheep, Dogs and Kids

I have found the picts...but cant post them until tomorrow.

Ok here is what I was trying to explain.

This is a picture of the pallet attached to the side of my pole barn.



I then took the flat pieces from another pallet (I removed them with a sawzall) and attached them between the spaces.



Now I took more boards from other pallets and closed in the last small gaps.



From the inside it looks like this.




I hope this helps. I really like the looks of it and with so much free wood out there in pallets its about as cheap as it gets. Taking the pallets apart is the only drawback since it takes so much time.

This is lake country so I've been using old dock section on edge for a summer shelter for my goats. It could be insulated by sandwitching straw between 2 sections for winter sheltering.

I would assume you do the same with pallets.

Also, when I lived in AK I saw a home built by weaving willows into a double wall similar to how we used to build popsicle snowflakes. Dig in your uprights about about 12" apart every 4' or so. Then weave willow stems in and out parallel to the ground tamping them down as you go. Every 2' in height stop and fill the void between the walls with packed straw. Wire the uprights together every so often to keep them from spreading.

If you have access to the materials that's about as cheap as you can get. FREE.

Just be sure you have lots of overhang on the roof to keep the straw dry.

Here's my solution, which others have mentioned as well: The stock pannel hoop house.

I have two of them. I build the first one for sheep, but it now houses a Dexter heifer and a goat or two as well. There's a second shelter of a different design nearby, so there's room for everyone.



You can see that it's a bit, um, used looking. The 2x4 at the base of this end wall is broken from dragging the whole thing over rough ground with a tractor. But the ply still holds it together. I built it with a hay rack inside, and with the idea of covering up the top part of the wall eventually. So I built a small door through which to fill the hay rack. That was a waste of time and effort, as it's simplest just to throw anything over the top of the wall. I no longer use this in the winter anyway. The animals go shelter under the barn.



Inside you can see the hay rack, as well as the old wheel rims that used to hold the salt blocks. The blocks are now sitting on the corner braces for the ground frame. In addition to these wood braces, I used some Simpson Strong-tie brackets to make everything more secure. The side pieces are 2x6, so that the 2x4 end pieces should ride above the ground when it's being dragged, but on rough ground... You can see that the stock pannels don't align right. They used to, but small (and large) goats like these things as trampolines. I keep meaning to install a 2x4 ridge beam.





The stock pannels are fastened 2" down the side of the 2x6 using heavy fence staples. I use old rugs rather than tarps, because they wick water and keep it dry inside, and they last much longer than tarps, especially under goat hooves. This one is just tied on with a rope, and has lasted two years. I think it will last several more.

(continued)

I got pigs this year, and I knew they'd need shelter too, so I built another of these hoop shelters. This time I built it a little better, I think.



Instead of having the 2x4 butt into the side skids, I ran it over top of them, and included a 2' plywood triangle brace sandwiched between the two at each corner. I should probably put an additional 2x4 brace under the exposed edge of the gussett, just in case anything tries to stand on it. I used cedar 2x8's instead of the fir 2x6's for the sides of the frame. (All the wood for this came off the burn pile at the dump, so it wasn't such an extravagance.) After cutting the plywood to the curve of the arch, I nailed it to the outside of the 2x4, then nailed blocks around the curve. I used heavy fence staples to attach the stock panels to these blocks. A 1x4 cleat joins the second piece of plywood to the first. I used a joist hanger to put a ridge beam in this one.



The other end of the ridge sits on top of the door frame. Instead of the plywood door frame bracing of the first house, I used more 2x4. If I really wanted to winterize this one, I'd cover over the front with ply and hang some sort of door. It wouldn't be hard.



I'd also shingle another piece of carpet under this one on this side, where it doesn't quite reach all the way down. And because the end walls sit higher above the ground, I'd install some sort of boards, maybe hinged, that would block the wind but still let me drag the building to where it's wanted. The side skids of both buildings are cut on the ends to give them skis, which helps when moving them. I could wish for longer side pieces on this one, so that that cut didn't enter the building, but it's still under the corner gussett, and the boards were free.

Before they had this building, they were in a large travel kennel, protected by this oversized carpet covered pallet. When I gave them the hoop shelter, I leaned the pallet up against the back wall, and they still seem to prefer that to actually going in the building.



When building one of these, you build the ground frame,.then mark a line 2" down from the top of the side boards. You'll aim for putting the edge of the stock pannel on this line. It also helps to drive a couple 12d nails in halfway, at this line, for the stock pannel to sit on as you're hammering in the staples. Having this aligned will make the two pannels line up better where they meet across the top of the arch. Before you try attaching the stock pannels, drive some stakes into the ground about a foot away from the frame on each side. Then set the stock pannel in place, more or less, and the stakes will hold one side in while you work on the other. Once they were fastened securely, I used some tie wire to fasten the two pannels together in about five places, so that even if they didn't have the ridge beam, they wouldn't shift apart the way the ones of my first hoop shelter have.

The pannels are 52", so two together are 8'-8". The side skids are a bit longer than that. The cross pieces are 8' even. If memory serves, the door frame is 32" wide and 62" tall, but I'd have to double check that to be sure. The stock pannels are fence stapled into the top corners of the door frame, and the top of the arch is just high enough to get the 2x4 ridge beam in over the door with no shimming. I put the door and the ridge beam in after the pannels were up. That way I was sure they'd fit right.

This one took me about two hours to put together.

Dan

Wow Dan - those are nice!

Thanks to everyone for the great ideas! I think I have a couple different ideas from this and am now looking at what supplies I have a little differently. Thanks everyone!

prairie

Just thought of something else - didn't someone post a while back about some way they had come up with to take pallets apart easily? I can't find the thread. Anyone have any ideas?

comfortablynumb?

How did you get the eggs from the chickens in your hay bale coop?

kids

I use a sawzall to get some of the pallets apart. I also use a cross piece on the ones that come apart easier. It looks like this.



I put the little piece on the bottom to help keep the pieces from splitting, it applies pressure across the whole piece of wood.

We needed some portable shelters to put out in the fields for our goats when they are out on the back pastures. We're way too cheap to actually spend much (if any), $$$ on something like that, so we did a bit of brainstorming and this is what we came up with, somewhat similar to what sewsilly mentioned-

A round hay bale feeder covered with the skin from an old trampoline. This was free for us because DH had 3 or 4 of the hay feeders left over from when he owned a dairy a few years ago. Coincidentally, I had just placed an ad on freecycle for an old trampoline because we want the springs for another "science project" we are working on, and someone emailed that they had a skin they had saved when their trampoline was picked up by the wind. Their frame and springs were ruined, but the skin was intact. DH's hay rings are about 8' in diameter and the trampoline skin is 12', so there is plenty of material to drape over the sides. The skin has nice, heavy duty grommets and can be tied with old hay strings to the feeder frame. You could lay a piece of 2"x4" across the top of the feeder, under the tarp, to give the tarp a bit of a lift in the center so that it will shed rainwater, snow, etc. Or, better yet, we have a bunch of long pieces of rebar leftover from our basement construction which DH is going to weld to the frame. We will use two pieces, crossing in the center at right angles, with a bit of an arch to make a sort of "dome" on the top of the feeder. This would be overkill though, unless you have a welder and can do it for free- I wouldn't do it if we had to buy the materials or pay someone to do the welding. For the back and sides we are using the familiar blue tarps- but only because we got a bunch for free from Menard's last year and haven't used them for anything else yet. Not sure how long they will last- I like the old carpet idea that Dan suggested- maybe we'll try that on the next one.

I did ask DH how much the rings had cost him originally- he said they got some used ones for around $50 or so, and the new ones were around $100.

One feature that I like is that the ring shelters are easy to move- just tip them up on edge and roll them. Or, if going a distance, or over rough ground, they can be picked up with our swinger and moved.

Anyone have advice on a small shed I can build with a hole in the middle for a fire? I want to build something I can hang out in when DH is a total jerk. Sick of being on the couch.

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