Britannia Ovens (esp Range cookers) your experience

[atsw]

Hi there - has anyone got a run from Bay Animal Housing which is 9' deep (i.e. front to back)? A friend in the village has just taken delivery of her 15' x 9' run, and it's not entirely clear how the roof panels go together. As others on the forum have commented, the prices are good and, from the look of things, so is the quality of the panels. However, there's no assembly instructions so a certain amount of lateral thinking is required for some aspects of the build!!

 

By looking at the roof panels, we've worked out how they go together to cover the 15' x 9' area, however, the support of the roof in the centre is not so certain. As it stands, it looks like it would 'sag' in the middle, so we're wondering if we've got it right at the moment.

 

She's going to call for clarification, but I thought I'd ask here too. Any and all help/suggestions appreciated!

 

Cheers

 

Andrew

[jellykelly]

We took delivery of our 21'x12' run on tuesday. before we started we realised that there would have to be organisation and we arranged the panels carefully around the garden so we knew exactly where each one would go.

 

Our roof would have indeed sagged. We had to go out and purchase 6 7foot lengths of 4"x4" to act as roof supports. On the upside though, these supports made perfect stands in which to assemble many perches for the chickens (not one of which has been used yet).

 

I will also recommend going out and purchasing proper bungs and screws for the corrugated roofing (b&Q about £4 for 10) otherwise if simply screwed in with normal screws the roof runs the risk of ripping and snapping in any strong wind.

 

I will be posting pictures of my new run when I work out where the kids have put my camera batteries.

[atsw]

Thanks jellykelly, not me/us being daft then . For others who may be wondering what on earth we're going on about, the picture below should help. The two red circles are where I think support will be needed to stop the roof in a 15' x 9' run from sagging.

 

You have to imagine you're looking down on the roof panels from above the run.

 

Any further advice from others most welcome. We've also now arranged the panels carefully around the garden so we knew exactly where each one will go before we start to screw it all together!

 

Cheers

 

Andrew

[jellykelly]

I would also wonder whether you'd need additional support in the centre of the 4 joining vertical roof panels. Although you'd scree them altogether, there will certainly be a lot of weight there? I'd probably consider a further 4 supports at the centre of each of those joins (where you've marked the 6').

 

Also count your roof sheets. We were supplied 20 - we needed 33. That was an additional £64 we had to pay out on top.

[atsw]

Also count your roof sheets. We were supplied 20 - we needed 33. That was an additional £64 we had to pay out on top.

Ah, no roof on this run, it's more of an 'outdoor' WIR, the protection being from foxes and rats rather than the weather. The chooks already have their own (covered) runs, which will connect to the WIR via special tunnels.

 

We have all the sides up now. Little bit of fine tuning needed on the base as we went (i.e. base not 100% flat/level at the start), but looking good all the same. Pictures were taken, but as it's not my run, I don't think it would be right to post them here.

 

Andrew

[Plum]

Haven't time to read this properly at the moment but ours is same configuration, sags and we are rebuilding roof from scratch with supports that go right across roof

 

We also bought new roof sheeting so we could do it in one but it means we can use the others to protect sides when needed. The caps for the corrugated roof are cheaper buying a bag of 100 from wickes.

[Lewis]

Sounds all a bit complicated!

 

Would love to see the photos if you could ask the person to post them ... ditto to JellyKelly - sounds huuuge!

[atsw]

Just a quick update, the run is now constructed, and looks really great. We followed jellykelly's advise and installed two solid props for the roof panels and it all came together really well. Once the roof panels were screwed to the side panels the whole frame stiffened right up and is now a very solid structure.

 

I'll ask the owners if its OK to post some pictures, I'm sure it will be, but I obviously need to ask them first.

 

Andrew

[Lewis]

Well done

 

Look forward to them

[Plum]

and me.

[Tutti Frutti]

Me three!

[atsw]

Look forward to them

and me.

Me three!

 

OK, OK, I've asked, and there's no problem with posting the pictures, so here they are .

 

Here you can clearly see the two props that were added to support the roof.

 

Just after the roof panels were added.

 

Here you can see the two small 'pop holes', along the right-hand-side, where meshed tunnels will be created to join the WIR to the existing runs.

 

The missing wire mesh roll turned up on Friday afternoon, so this weekend's job has been to put that in place on the base of the WIR.

 

As you can see, still plenty more work to do, but all looking pretty good so far.

 

Andrew

[Tutti Frutti]

WOW! That's a thing of beauty! Good work! More pics when the ladies are in residence please

[Plum]

Looks good, it's massive. We replaced a couple of sections of roof with complete timbers which has worked well. Mine are moving in this afternoon

[Lewis]

Looks great!