A little more on the duck house project: electrical stuff, and floor joists.

I added a strip of LED lights to the central ceiling beam, plus a temporary heat lamp for the first few weeks of the ducklings:

The heat lamp is only needed when the ducklings are very young; they need about 95°F for the first few days, dropping about 5° per week until fully feathered. The lamp is red as that keeps them more calm.

I tested the heat lamp temperature with a couple of thermometers, to measure the temperature directly under the lamp, and a bit further away:

I mounted the power strip and the timer for the LED lights in the cupboard. There’s another mount point for the timer for the pond pump (which is currently outside). The power strip also has an Eero Beacon to help extend the Wi-Fi range to the duck house (for the camera). The wires aren’t arranged tidily yet; I’ll add some hooks to make them a bit tidier later:

Next, I built the floor joists; beams that will go under the floor, resting on concrete footing blocks:

The cutout in the foreground is to allow for the plywood panel that the maintenance door roller catches are mounted on.

I also included an angled mount point for the ramp from the duck door into the pond, which will be added later:

The ramp mount is angled at 20°, which seems a nice gentle slope, but I can tweak that when installing the ramp if necessary.

The ducks won’t be able to go into the pond until they’re old enough to swim without limits, so I could add the ramp after they’re living there, though will probably do it after installing the duck house.

Next up: vinyl floor tiles (I would have done that first, but they were only just delivered).

Next on the duck house project: roofing.

But first, a delivery of materials from Home Depot:

This was mostly lumber for future projects, but also stuff needed for the duck house, including roofing shingles, drip edge flashing strips, and treated lumber.

The projects, from left to right, are: greenhouse shelving (some of the 1x2s, plus some spare), spare 2x4s (handy to have), duck house floor joists (treated 2x4s), duck house ramp (treated 2x6s, though most are spare), and bridge over the waterfall stream to the duck house (2x10s and some 2x4s):

When I get a delivery, I always order more than I need, to allow for errors, replenish my stocks, and make the most of the delivery (since they charge a flat fee no matter how much I get). Fun fact: this was the first order from Home Depot for the duck house; all the plywood and boards I used to build it were stuff I already had on hand, spare from the cat house project.

Speaking of plywood, here’s the roof again, back on top:

The first step for roofing is to add tar paper (also on hand from the chicken coop and cat house projects):

Then the new drip edge flashing strip; it goes under the paper at the bottom, but over on the sides, so any moisture that reaches this level can run off:

Me attaching the drip strip with my air roofing nailer:

Next is a starter strip, which is an asphalt strip with an adhesive backing, which helps secure the bottom course of shingles:

On to the asphalt shingles, installed at 6.5″ offsets:

One side of the roof done:

I actually did the roof and the awning simultaneously, but I’ve grouped them separately for the blog post. So let’s take a look at the awning process, which is like a mini version of the roof.

Firstly the roofing paper:

Awning drip strip:

Starter strip:

First course of shingles:

Second course, trimmed a bit at the back:

The third course is much shorter:

Finally, I used construction adhesive to attach the trim board at the back of the awning, which hides the nails and prevents water from getting under them at the back:

Here’s me attaching the trim (with the air compressor and hose in the foreground):

Back to the roof, the final step was the ridge cap, a series of small overlapping shingles along the peak of the roof:

For the last shingle to cover the nails, I used construction adhesive to hold it in place. Once the roof is exposed to sun, the black sealant strips will melt and seal the shingles together, but this will suffice in the meantime:

To hold it in place, I used a bag of cat litter as a weight:

The roofing is now done! That was quicker than I had expected… I guess prior experience, and the right tools, makes all the difference.

Let’s take a look around it; from the northwest corner:

The northeast corner:

The southeast corner:

Finally, the southwest corner:

Next up: vinyl floor tiles for extra waterproofing inside (ducks are damp!), and electrical outfitting. Definitely getting much closer to being done! Good thing, too; it needs to be finished, installed, and ready in about a month.

More progress on the duck house project.

I painted the underside of the floor. It won’t be seen, but the paint will help protect it from ground moisture:

And painted under the awning:

Righting it again, captured by the duck (aka Pepper) cam:

We bought a custom-painted sign from Etsy, from the same person that did the chicken coop sign. The sign says “The Boonducks, est. 2019”, with yellow duck images. Jenn chose that as the name of the duck house, as a duck pun on “boondocks”, since the duck house will be in the area of the homestead we refer to as “beyond the pond” or “the back 40”. I also installed the duck door opener:

The opener with the door closed:

The opener with the door open:

Pepper strolling past the duck house while I was having lunch:

I then stapled wire hardware cloth over the two vents:

Here’s the hardware cloth on big vent:

And the hardware cloth on the small vent above the maintenance doors:

The view from outside:

The big vent closed:

Partially open:

A closer view of the vent and cover, showing the bolt and holes to enable opening to various levels:

The power cord cover, which is held in place with small tabs:

Next up was attaching hardware to the doors, starting with the small treat door; hinges, handle, and a roller catch to hold it closed:

The same for the two cupboard doors; it has roller catches mounted under the shelf. I’m not going to add a bolt or gate latch on these doors, unless the roller catches prove inadequate (raccoons can be very clever, but I think this should be sufficient):

Attaching the four maintenance doors:

Me attaching the maintenance doors:

The maintenance doors installed and closed:

They are in four parts to allow a variety of access. Here’s one maintenance door open, by undoing one bolt, enabling a quick peek or dropping in treats etc:

The top two maintenance doors open, by undoing two bolts, which will be useful when the ducklings are young, preventing them from escaping:

The left two maintenance doors open as a single unit, by leaving their bolt closed, and just undoing the lower bolt. This will be useful for quickly reaching eggs not in the nesting boxes (ducks tend to lay anywhere… though admittedly so do our chickens):

All four maintenance doors open, enabling full access for cleaning out etc:

I then put the inner floor in place, added the waterer, and installed the camera mount. Here’s the view from the camera:

The camera & waterer, with the doors closed, and wires routed via hooks into the cupboard:

Next up: roofing!

Over the past few days I started painting the duck house.

But first, I removed the roof, so I could paint to the edges of the walls:

The roof will be screwed to the walls on installation; it is kept separate for now to make moving it easier. Here’s the underside of the roof:

Some more caulking:

Then it was time to start painting. I started with red paint on the walls. This is the same red as on the cat house (leftover paint):

Then blue paint on the doors; again the same as on the cat house:

Then white paint on the trim around the doors:

And the trim and interior of the walls etc; here’s the south and east sides:

East and north sides:

North and west sides:

Inside, looking at the treat door and nesting boxes. I didn’t paint inside the chicken coop or cat house, but ducks are very damp, so I wanted to paint everything here, using outdoor paint, to help protect against moisture. Note that this is only the first coat of white paint, so is still a bit patchy; it’ll get a second coat later:

Inside, looking at the west wall with the duck door:

Next up: the second coat of white paint, which will conclude the painting.  Then I can attach the door hardware, and do the roofing. Once I buy some drip strip and shingles.