Animal Houses (DIY Small Buildings)

If you keep pets, breed birds, raise poultry, keep farm animals, or keep a pony or horse, you need housing, which might range from the simplest shelter to a structure at least as large and strong as a workshop or garage.

In many cases, these shelters have been quite crude, which might be satisfactory if all you need is temporary shelter. Usually it's better to give al most as much thought to this building as you would to a place for your own use. Even if what you build will be standing in a field, you should consider its appearance. If it will be in your yard or near your house, something less than well-made will offend your craftsmanlike instincts every time you look at it. Besides appearance, the building should be functional. Usually, fitness for purpose and appearance go together. The building has to provide the animals with shelter, protect them from predators, and keep them within the limits you have set.

You can partially prefabricate smaller animal or bird houses, but most of their assembly will have to be on-site. You can make the smallest buildings completely in your shop, or alongside it, then take them to their permanent location. You will have to make the biggest buildings in sections to fit together on-site, in the same way as many other buildings already described.

Many buildings need to be portable, at least to a limited extent. If they are open to the ground, you will want to move them to another position after the ground underneath has been fouled, or usefully manured. Handles at the ends or corners might be all you need, or you might have to have wheels at one end so you can lift the other end and push or pull. You might have to fit an even larger building with four wheels. If you can arrange three wheels, that makes moving in any direction easier.

ARK

A small shelter, light enough for two people to carry, is useful for small birds and animals such as ducks, which might wander freely during the day, but which need a closed shelter at night. An ark is a simple, V-roofed building. You can vary sizes to suit the animals. Pigs will need a much bigger ark than ducks or other domestic birds. The ark shown in Ill. 7-1 measures 60 inches in all directions and will suit a small flock of ducks or hens. It does not have a bottom and you can move it to a new position every day, if necessary. One end has a lifting door. This shelter needs to have an opening big enough for the birds or animals to pass easily, but it should not be any larger. It is shown in Ill. 7-2A about 18 inches high and 16 inches wide.

Make the door end first. Halve the bottom corner joints and the end of the bar above the opening with its door uprights. At the top, cut down for a 1-inch- thick capping and notch to make a tenon on a ridge piece (Ill. 7-3A). To avoid the complication of a three-way, sloping-bottom corner joint, notch the roof framing for lengthwise pieces above the corner joint (Ill. 7-2B and 7-3B).

Cover the framing with horizontal boarding. These boards could be plywood, shiplap boards, tongue-and-groove-boards, or just plain boards. The door might be a piece of ½-inch, exterior-grade plywood (Ill. 7-2C). Make guides with grooves (Ill. 7-2D). These guides will keep the door ¼ inch forward of the covering boards and allow it to slide very easily. With a hole at the top of the door, you can use a cord or wire to a hook or nail to hold the door up. You can't lift the door out, so it's unlikely that you will lose it during the day. You can remove it if you lift the end of the ark off the floor.

Ill. 7-1. You can move this light ark for small animals or birds easily.

Ill. 7-2. Sizes and sections of the ark.

Make the opposite end to match. It could also have a door, but it's shown closed in Ill. 7-3C. Take the bottom rail right across and include a central post, if your covering needs stiffening. In both ends, finish the covering boards level with the framing all around, including the doorway edges.

Make the ridge piece (Ill. 7-3D) with its edges matching the slopes of the sides and with tenons to fit in the slots in the tops of the ends. Make the two bottom side rails with their ends halved to fit in the notches in the ark ends

(Ill. 7-3E).

Whether you should include any other framing or not depends on the stiffness of the covering boards and the length of the ark. For a length of 60 inches, it probably will be advisable to include central rafters (Ill. 7-2E and 7-3F) between the bottom rails and the ridge piece.

The roof covering might be exterior-grade plywood, simple, overlapping weather boarding (Ill. 7-3G), or shiplap boards (Ill. 7-3H). Let the boards extend about 3 inches past the ark ends (Ill. 7-2F). At the ridge, flatten the edges of the boards and nail on a capping (Ill. 7-2G).

Ill. 7-3. Constructional details of the ark.

Materials List for Ark

MINI HEN HOUSE

If you want to keep just a few laying hens, you do not need a large house for them. This poultry house is intended for four hens or maybe six bantains. You could use it for ducks, but you would have to fit it with a solid floor instead of the slats. The mini hen house shown in Ill. 7-4 and 7-5 is without a run, but if you want to stop your little flock from wandering too far, there is a suitable run described next.

Construction might be quite light and a skin of plywood on 1-inch x 2-inch strips is suggested. There is a pop hole with a sliding door. One perch is provided and there is a single nest box opposite it. The roof hinges open for access to the entire house, which you can move easily to a different position.

Ill. 7-4. A mini hen house made of plywood and suitable for a few laying hens.

Make the front (Ill. 7-5A) with the framing having its 2-inch side against the plywood for top and sides, but having the 1-inch side towards the plywood across the bottom. The hole is 11 inches wide and high. Make the door and its guides in the same way as for the ark (Ill. 7-2). Frame the back in the same way as the front, but make it 24 inches high. Drill 2-inch ventilation holes high in each part.

Make the pair of sides (Ill. 7-5B). Use the framing strips in the same manner as the back and front, but at the corners, allow for the plywood to overlap (Ill. 7-5C). Bevel the top edge of the front to match the slope of the sides. There is no need to bevel the top edge of the back. Notch the corner strips over each other at the bottom, when you nail the walls together.

Ill. 7-5. Sizes and internal arrangements of the mini hen house.

The roof is a single piece of plywood overhanging 3 inches all around (Ill. 7-5D). Frame around the underside to fit very loosely inside the walls—this prevents roof warping since you do not make a close fit in the walls. At the front, where you are to place the hinges, put a strip across above the plywood (Ill. 7-5E) to take the screws. Two, 3-inch hinges should be adequate. You could have a fastener at the back, but its weight will hold the roof closed.

Put supports for the perch (Ill. 7-6A) at both ends, about 6 inches from the bottom and side. The perch is a square section, but take sharpness off the edges.

Make the slatted floor (Ill. 7-5F) of 1-inch-square strips with rounded edges, nailing them 3 inches apart (Ill. 7-6B) to the bottom strips on the sides. If the house is for ducks, put in a plywood floor in place of the slats, or on top of the slats, if you might want to use the house for hens later.

Make the nesting box of plywood, with framing strips holding it into the corner (Ill. 7-6C). The sizes shown should suit one bird, but check your bird’s needs. The only access to the nesting box is by lifting the roof. No feeding or drinking arrangements are in the house, since it's assumed it's only to be used for sleeping and nesting.

Materials List for Mini Hen House

Chicken Run

With a small poultry house or ark you can allow the birds to roam freely during the day and only be shut up at night. Occasions exist when you need to restrict their movement. Some kinds of chickens require limited movement. Small animals, such as rabbits, need a restricted run. For the occasions when you require a small run, it's helpful to have one which you can put against any house with a door at ground level.

The run shown in Ill. 7-7 is intended to go directly on the ground and fit against a pop hole in a hen house, allowing you to operate the sliding door. This run has two side frames, an end, and three top sections, one of which might hinge upwards (Ill. 7-8A). Fit one-inch wire mesh inside all parts. Construction is mainly 1-inch x 3-inch strips, but the bottom rails are 4 inches deep.

Start by making the two sides. Various joints are possible, but we suggest you glue two ½-inch dowels each place (Ill. 7-8B). Match the two assemblies (Ill. 7-9A). Make the end the same height to fit between the sides (F 7-8C and 7-9B). To hold the other ends of the sides the same distance apart at ground level, make a thin, plywood spacer about 9 inches wide (Ill. 7-8D and 7-9C), which you will fix between the sides, 3 inches from the end (Ill. 7-8E) when you assemble the run.

Ill. 7-6. Perches and laying box for the hen house.

Ill. 7-7. You can use this chicken run with an opening top with any hen house with a floor pop hole.

The top sections (Ill. 7-8F) make a total length 3 inches less than the sides, leaving a gap to clear the pop-hole sliding door. Make the width and length of the top sections to match the assembled width and length of the sides and end.

Fit wire mesh inside all sections, with staples or nails bent over. Hammer any sharply-cut ends of wire into the wood. Assemble the sides to the end with nails or screws and fit the spacer at ground level near the other end. Nail or screw on the top section over the end to square the assembly (Ill. 7-9D). If the middle section is to lift, allow a little clearance for it and fix down the third section. Hinge the center section to one of the fixed sections and fit a turn-button to secure it against pressure from inside.

Materials List for Chicken Run

Ill. 7-8. Sizes and details of the chicken run.

AVIARY HEN HOUSE

If you want to keep a few laying hens where they are unable to roam freely, you have to provide a run as well as a house. This run should be more lofty than a low run which might be adequate for temporary use or for chickens.

This aviary hen house (Ill. 7-10 and 7-11A) is intended to be as compact as possible for six or eight hens. Arrange extra run space by having the floor of the house above a part of the run, with a ramp from the doorway. If you want to close the door, hinge the ramp up and hold it with a turnbutton. There is a nest box long enough for at least three hens and doors to the run and the house.

Construction is light, with plywood, which need not be more than ¼-inch thick, on wood which is mostly 1½-inch-square section. Fix wire mesh inside all the run sections. The complete roof is plywood, although in a suitable climate, you could have a solid roof on the house and more wire mesh over the run. In an area where birds need protection from a strong prevailing wind, you can re place some of the wire mesh suggested with more plywood panels. Because of the fairly light construction, strengthen many corner joints with small, metal triangles naffing them on one or both sides. Parts which might seem weak when you prefabricate them will gain strength when you assemble them to other parts, which provide mutual support. Although you can make most sections away from the site, you should nail or screw them together since this is not intended to be a portable building.

Ill. 7-9. Assembly arrangements of the parts of the chicken run.

Ill. 7-10. The aviary hen house is a self unit.

Ill. 7-11. Sizes and layout of the aviary hen house.

You must match the three crosswise sections in their general outlines. At the house end, cover the frame with plywood, except for the gap for the nesting box and the wire below (Ill. 7-12A). At the other end is a matching open frame with a central upright, covered with wire mesh (Ill. 7-11B). Inside is a partition without the bottom crossbar (Ill. 7-13A). The back is a simple frame with plywood behind the house and wire mesh elsewhere. The front (Ill. 7-12C) has both doors.

You can make the aviary hen house either way around and you can alter sizes. Decide how you want the assembly and make the house end first (Ill. 7-12A). Use it as a pattern for the outline of the opposite end (Ill. 7-11B), which you will cover entirely with wire. A central upright might be enough for stiffness, but you might wish to add a central, horizontal rail. For the partition (Ill. 7-13A), make the house end to match the other end. Make it in the same way, but leave out the lower nest box rail and put in two uprights at the sides of a 12-inch-square opening (Ill. 7-12D).

Ill. 7-12. Outside parts of the aviary hen house.

Make the back with pieces to match the house framing on the other parts (Ill. 7-12B). Include one or two uprights in the open part to stiffen it and provide attachment for the wire mesh. Cover the house back with plywood.

When you make the front (Ill. 7-12C), bevel the top pieces to match the slope of the roof. It is not as important to bevel the top of the back section. Fit framing to suit the house parts. Framing for the door openings should provide enough stiffness for this house without adding any additional upright in the run section.

The house door (Ill. 7-14A) is framed plywood. Arrange it to fit in the opening. Put a short or full length stop inside. The hinges will hold the other edge, and a wooden turnbutton will keep the door closed.

Stiffen the run door with two strips across (Ill. 7-14B). Place three hinges and a stop and a turnbutton on the door similar to the house door.

Make the ramp (Ill. 7-13B) from a board which is 4 inches wider than the doorway, and which is long enough to slope somewhere between 30 degrees and 45 degrees to the ground. Put slats across for the hens to grip. Cut the top slat to an angle which fits against the partition, so you can screw hinges outside the opening, then you can swing the ramp up and hold it with a block and turn-button above (Ill. 7-13C).

Ill. 7-13. House side and ramp for the aviary hen house.

The nesting box is held in place by its ends and bottom fitting into the frame (Ill. 7-14C). Frame the plywood with strips. For the lid, put a solid wooden strip against the wall (Ill. 7-14D) and hinge a framed plywood lid to it (Ill. 7-14E). You can fit all of these pieces to the end before you assemble the building.

Attach wire mesh to the insides of the frames—i-inch or 1¼-inch mesh should be satisfactory. Use staples or nails with their heads bent over. Hammer any cut ends of wire into the wood.

Level the ground where the aviary hen house is to be placed, leveling it completely or where the edges will rest, so you can erect it without distortion. Screws are preferable to nails, as you can join the parts tightly and there is no risk of damage from hard hammering. Join the back and front to the partition, then the house end, and the other end. Put in a sheet-plywood floor to the house part. This floor will square the whole assembly before you fasten it down.

If you use ½-inch plywood for the roof, it probably will be stiff enough with out framing. Allow it to overhang at least 3 inches all around. A joint can be over the partition. You can stiffen the edges with strips underneath, which would be advisable if you want to cover the wood (Ill. 7-14F).

Materials List for Aviary Hen House

SMALL STOCK SHED

Anyone keeping a variety of birds and animals will be able to use an adaptable building which can house a pig or goat, or, at another time, it might hold hens. You also might be glad to use if for your own personal shelter in bad weather. When not used for animals, it would make a storage place for tools, feed, fertilizer, and many other things needed about a small farm.

Ill. 7-14. Doors and nesting box details for the aviary hen house.

The building shown in Ill. 7-15 is just high enough to stand in. It has a solid floor. A wire mesh window with a sliding shutter to adjust ventilation is shown. At the back is a slotted opening, which could give access to a feed trough inside or a nest box.

Construction is sectional, so you can move the small stock shed to another site in pieces after releasing a few bolts. The drawing in Ill. 7-16A shows a covering of vertical tongue-and-groove boards, but you could use horizontal shiplap boards or exterior-grade plywood. Framing is mostly 2-inch-square wood.

Start with the pair of ends (Ill. 7-17A). Halve or tenon the frame joints. One horizontal rail might be enough, but if the skin has to withstand the antics of a lively goat or other animal, two rails might be better. The cladding should finish level with the framing all around.

Make the back (Ill. 7-17B) with a height to match the ends and bevel the top to suit the slope of the roof. Fit two parallel rails for the gap at the back (Ill. 7-17C) and board over the rest of the area. At the side, allow for the boards extending over the ends (Ill. 7-16B) when you bolt the corners together.

The front has the door, the ventilating window, and the slide to cover it, but start by making the frame (Ill. 7-18A). Bevel the top edge to suit the slope of the roof. For the window opening, put strips inside the uprights between the rails (Ill. 7-18B). Cover with boards up to halfway over the upright at the doorway (Ill. 7-18C). At the other side, finish the board level with the doorway (Ill. 7-18D). Do not fill in at top or bottom of the doorway, as the door will overlap there.

Ill. 7-15. You can adapt a small stock shed to many purposes.

Ill. 7-16. Sizes and details of the small stock shed.

Ill. 7-17. The sides and roof of the small stock shed.

The guides for the shutter are the full height of the front. Cut rabbets to allow the shutter to slide easily (Ill. 7-18C,E). Fit them parallel at the opening width. Make the shutter from tongue-and-groove boards with ledges across (Ill. 7-18F), keeping the ends of the ledges clear of the guides. Fix a length of chain to the center of the top of the front, then you can hook the chain on to hold the shutter at the desired height. Nail or staple wire mesh inside the window opening.

Ill. 7-18. Details of the front of the small stock shed.

Make the door with tongue-and-groove or plain, vertical boards with three ledges across. With the ledges firmly attached, there should be no need for diagonal braces on this narrow door, but fit one if you think it necessary. Arrange the door to hinge on the outer edge and to overlap on the opposite upright, which will serve as a stop. At the top and bottom, allow for the door to overlap the frame, with plenty of clearance, particularly at the ground. Use two or three plain or T hinges and you can hold the other side with a turnbutton, unless you wish to fit a lock. Provide a wooden or metal handle.

Assemble the walls before making the floor or the roof. Coach bolts, ¾-inch in diameter, at about 18-inch centers, should be satisfactory for the corners. Have the heads outside and nuts over washers inside.

Have the assembly square and on a flat surface when you make the floor, which rests on the bottom framing and should not need to be anchored down.

If it does not rest level, drive a few screws downwards. Cut boards to fit around the uprights and rest with a little clearance inside the covering boards (Ill. 7-16C). Nail these boards to joists the same height as the framing. Have one joist a short distance in from the frame and the others about 18 inches apart (Ill. 7-16D). The floor will serve to square the building when you erect it, but you have to drop it in place, so do not make it fit too tightly.

You can make a boarded roof that will lift off in one piece without covering it if you use tongue-and-groove boards, similar to those on the walls. It would be slightly lighter if you made it out of ½-inch plywood. Allow for it to overhang the walls about 5 inches and get the actual sizes by measuring the assembled building. Edge the roof with strips, which only need to be a 1-inch x 2-inch section, since stiffening for the roof will come from the other pieces (F 7-17D).

Materials List for Small Stock Shed

Fit 2-Inch-square strips that will drop inside the walls. At back and front, there might be an easy clearance, but at the sides, make the strips fit fairly closely (Ill. 7-17E) as there will be bolts through to hold the roof down. Try the roof in position and drill holes for bolts into the side framing. The number of bolt holes depends on the situation—more are required if you experience high winds. In any case, there should be at least three, ¾-inch coach bolts at each side.

At the back, make a flap that will hang down over the opening and swing up out of the way (Ill. 7-16E). You can make it with vertical tongue-and-groove boards, holding them with ledges across that will clear the opening when you close them. Put a strip across to take the hinges. To hold the flap up, put two wooden turn-buttons on blocks. Fit two more to hold the flap in the down position.

If you want a nest box, make it in the same way as you made the aviary hen house (Ill. 7-14C,D,E), but use the flap, just described, as the lid, then if the box is taken away, you can still seal the opening. If the nest box is to be temporary, take its ends far enough inside for two bolts to be put through at each place.

BARN

If you need to house larger animals, the building has to be bigger and stronger than those described so far in this section. A horse or other large animal or group of animals might put considerable strain on the structure, so it has to be substantial. You need a good barrier inside to spread any load on the walls. If the barrier is a strong, smooth lining, that reduces any risk of damage to the animals and makes cleaning easier. The building should be high enough to allow for good air circulation. These facts mean that if the building is to be adequate for its purpose, you have to be prepared to build fairly large.

The barn shown in Ill. 7-19 has a double-slope roof and double doors. It is 11 feet square and 10 feet high. Opening windows are high in the back and shallow windows are at the sides, above the lining. A building this size provides room for a horse to be stabled, with space for tack and feed. If you are concerned with smaller animals, you can accommodate two or more. The barn would also make a good place to store all the many things you would use on a small farm. The building has an attractive appearance, and you might wish to use it for many purposes in your yard. With different window arrangements, it would make a good workshop. You can alter doors to suit your needs. As shown, the doors are big enough for small trailers or other wheeled vehicles. A motor cycle, trail bike, or even a small car could fit through them.

The drawings and instructions are for a barn framed with 2-inch x 3-inch section wood covered with horizontal-shiplap boards (Ill. 7-20). Suggested lining material particleboard or plywood. Measure your available space. Allow for laying a concrete base larger than the barn area. You must securely bolt down a building this size. You may prefabricate the ends and sides. Roofing is done in position after you have erected the walls.

Start by making the ends (Ill. 7-21). The back (Ill. 7-21A) is closed, but the front has a 7-feet-square doorway (Ill. 7-21B). Assemble framing with the 3 inch way towards the cladding. Halve or tenon joints in the framing. Halve crossing parts of internal framing. The central rail is at the height intended for the lining. If that height does not suit your needs, alter its position. This height allows for shallow windows above the lining and under the eaves. Angles for the roof are shown (Ill. 7-21C). If you do not work exactly to these angles, it does not matter, as long as each end is symmetrical and they match.

Make the back and use it as a pattern for the outline of the front. Make the bottom rail of the front right across (F 7-21D), but after you have erected the walls and anchored them down, you can cut it away to give a clear door opening. You can improve appearance of the ends if you add a broad filler piece at each corner (Ill. 7-21E). To allow for this filler piece, stop the shiplap boards over the center of the corner posts. Take them to the edges of the roof slopes.

The two sides are the same (Ill. 7-22A), unless you want to fit a side door or alter the number of windows. The drawing shows four window openings on each side (Ill. 7-22B), but you could reduce this to two or none. The tops of the windows are covered by the roof, so you can't arrange them to swing outwards very much. They could open inwards, but it probably will be satisfactory to make them fixed.

Ill. 7-19. Make a strongly-built barn of traditional shape with double doors and windows at the side.

Ill. 7-20. Suggested sizes for the barn.

Allow for the cladding boards extending at the ends to cover the end-corner posts (Ill. 7-21F). Finish level at top and bottom. You do not have to bevel the top to match the slope of the roof.

You could add the lining at this stage or leave it until after erection. Take it to the window line (Ill. 7-22C). Cover it there with a sill extending outwards (Ill. 7-22D). Line the tops and sides of the openings (F 7-22E). The roof will provide protection to the upper parts of the windows.

Ill. 7-21. Details of the ends of the barn, which you should make first.

The roof needs a truss halfway along. This truss must match the ends of the building, so use one of the ends as a pattern for the shape. The outline is the same down to the top of the side panels. As no boards are across to strengthen the framing, securely nail or screw gussets under the angles (Ill. 7-23A). The tie is the same height as the rail above the doorway. From its center, take struts at 45 degrees to it, up to the rafters (Ill. 7-23B). Cut the rafters to rest on the tops of the side frames, with locating blocks there (F 7-23C). The purlins are 2 inch x 3 inch and the ridge is from 2-inch x 4-inch stock. Bevel the top of the ridge piece to match the slope of the roof (Ill. 7-23D). These slopes have to match the tops of the purlins. Measure their heights and cut down the tops of the ends and the truss, so the roof at the ridge will be the same height from the framing as it's at the purlins (Ill. 7-23E).

Ill. 7-22. A side of the barn and sections at the windows.

Make cleats to position and hold the ridge and purlins (Ill. 7-23F). At the angle of the roof, put the purlins as close together as possible. The top puriins are midway between the angle of the roof and the ridge. The lower purlins should come close to the joint with the sides.

Assemble the walls, using ½-inch bolts, sink their heads so the cover strips will hide them (Ill. 7-21). For ample strength in any circumstances, have the bolts at about 12-inch centers. Check squareness and fasten down to the base. Cut out the bottom of the end frame under the doorway. If necessary, nail on temporary braces to keep the building square and hold the truss upright until you fit the roof.

The purlins and ridge should extend 6 inches at each end. Fix them in position. The roof covering could be shingles over ½-inch plywood, but 1-inch boarding, covered by roofing felt or any of the sheet-roof material supplied in a roll, taken over the ridge and turned under the roof boards, as described for several other buildings is suggested. Cut the board ends to meet reasonably close at the ridge and at the angles. Take the ends of the boards to about 1 inch below the tops of the building sides. A gap will be all around under the roof boards. You can leave the gap entirely or in part for ventilation, or you can fill the narrow spaces against the lower purlins or the wider gaps between purlins at the ends.

Make bargeboards at the end (Ill. 7-21G). Take the ends a short distance below the roof edges. You can give a traditional appearance with triangles if you turn the board line outwards (Ill. 7-21H). Put battens down the slope of the roof over the covering at about 18 inch intervals (Ill. 7-20A).

Ill. 7-23. Details of the barn-roof truss.

The double doors are ledged and braced, but because of their size and weight, you must double them around the edges (Ill. 7-24A). Put lining strips around the door opening, covering the wall lining as well as the cladding (Ill. 7-24B). Make the doors with vertical tongue-and-groove boards. Put braces across, level with the board ends, and fill in to the same thickness at the edges (Ill. 7-24C). So the diagonal braces take any compression loads which come on them without allowing movement, fit them closely at their ends, making sure there are no gaps which might cause the door to drop.

Ill. 7-24. Construction of the barn doors.

You could make one half in two parts for the usual stable door pattern (Ill. 7-20B and 7-24D). A height of 48 inches would give a horse about 36 inches to put its head through, but the gap would not be big enough for most animals to jump through. Make each door part similar to the large door, with bracing upwards from the hinge side.

T-hinges about 18 inches long would be suitable for hanging the doors. Notch the lining strips around the doorway for the hinges, which should come over the ledges on the doors, and be held with long screws in both parts. You can take bolts right through to nuts instead of screws. Arrange bolts upwards and downwards on the inner edge of one door and place a lock on the other door to close it or a hasp and staple for a padlock. Put handles on the outside of both doors. If you make one door in two parts, put a bolt inside to hold them together when you want to use the parts as one.

Materials List for Barn

How you make the windows depends on the use of the barn. If you want it to be weathertight, the windows should be made closely. The overhang of the roof, however, gives partial protection to the windows and you can use a simple construction if a slight risk of leakage is not important. With the window openings lined, you can hold glass in between double strips (Ill. 7-22F). You could embed the glass in jointing compound. Another way would be to put single strips around the glass and putty the glass against them.

For better windows, frame them separately to fit in the openings (Ill. 5-4). If you want any windows to open by being hinged at the top, make them this way.

STABLE

You could use the barn just described for a horse, but it's a general-purpose building with several other uses. If you want to build a stable, you can include features to suit that purpose only. This stable is designed to suit one fairly large horse, with an adjoining storage space for feed, tack, and all the equipment associated with keeping a horse. For more than one horse, you can extend the building two or three times. For a pony, you can reduce the sizes slightly.

The stable shown in Ill. 7-25 and 7-26A has accommodations which are 11 feet x 12 feet, and there is a separate section built in alongside which is 6 feet x 11 feet. Both parts are under the same roof, which extends to make a 4-foot-wide canopy at the front, so the area covered by the building is about 17 feet square. A concrete base should extend several feet beyond this and you must make provisions for anchoring the building securely. Besides any effect of wind, a horse which throws its weight against a wall, could move an insecure building. You may bolt down through the bottom rails. An alternative is to leave gaps in the concrete base for bars extending downwards, which you can concrete in after you have erected the building (Ill. 7-26B).

Ill. 7-25. This stable has a store or tack room built in alongside.

Ill. 7-26. Sizes and layout of the stable with details on how to attach to foundations and assemble corners.

Most of the structure is 2-inch x 3-inch section wood, with shiplap boards outside and ¾-inch plywood as high as a horse might kick and a thinner lining above that. You can board and cover the roof similar to many earlier buildings, but corrugated metal or plastic is suggested, with gutters at the eaves. The instructions only cover the making of the building. You will want to add a manger, hay rack, bucket holder, tie ring, and other stable equipment. The tack room will require various racks and a table, much of which you can build in. You can leave the roof area unlined with gaps at the edges for ventilation, or you could seal it only, or you could attach lining sheets as well under the purlins. You can use the roof area for storage, however, you could fit a flat ceiling in the tack room for comfort.

Although the building is large and some sections are heavy enough to require help in making and erecting them, construction is simple and very similar to some of the smaller buildings. If you can make sections flat on the concrete base, they should be easy to move into place for erection.

The building is shown without windows except at the front, which is what many horse owners prefer. You also could have windows high in the back or end of the stables and above bench level in the tack room, fitting them into spaces in the framing and making them as described for the barn and other buildings. The following instructions allow for a window beside the stable door and one in the door of the tack room.

The pair of ends and the division between the stable portion and the tack room are almost the same. Make one end and use it as a guide when making the other parts. Also use it to check the height of the back. All framing is 2-inch x 3-inch wood with the 2-inch side towards the cladding.

Make the framing with halved joints where parts cross, but at the outside, you could notch or use tenons. Space upright evenly in the width (Ill. 7-27A) and in the height to the eaves. This spacing should suit cladding with shiplap boards or vertical tongue-and-groove boards. At the eaves, drop the main horizontal member 4 inches (Ill. 7-27B). Mortise-and-tenon joints are advisable here, even if you use other joints elsewhere. This arrangement allows simpler and stronger eaves joints than if the parts met at the same level and it provides for a board at the edge of the canopy.

Although firmly-fixed cladding will help to brace the assembly, it might be advisable to include sway bracing (Ill. 7-27C) in two panels.

Fit the cladding on the ends to the edges of the roof portion. At the corners stop it at half the thickness of the uprights, to allow for filler strips (Ill. 7-26C).

You can line the ends now, allowing for where the other uprights have to fit, or leave it until after you have erected the building. Use ½-inch or ¾-inch plywood or particleboard from the floor level to the rail, 68 inches up. If you intend to line with lighter material above this point, stop the thick lining at half the thickness of the rail to allow space for nailing the additional lining above it. Stop the lining on the edges of the corner uprights.

The framing of the division is the same as an end, except you must cut the rear edge back by the thickness of the back framing (3 inches) to fit inside (Ill. 7-27E and 7-28A) and the front upright must fit similarly (Ill. 7-27F). Line the framing on both sides. Although you could add some of the lining at this stage, you should fit it into the back and front for the best finish (Ill. 7-28B). It is easier to fit the lining after erection when you have the parts bolted together.

The back (Ill. 7-27D) settles lengthwise arrangements. If you want to alter them, do it now. Fit one upright against the division. Space other uprights evenly. Include some sway bracing. Height should match the ends, but you do not need to bevel the top edge to match the slope of the roof.