A step by step guide
A new 12foot x 10foot bird room with two external flights
Here you can follow my progress right through this project from start to finish. Over the next few months I am going to build a new bird room with 24 breeding cages, plus two internal flights to keep the cocks and hens separate, also I am going to put a sink in the bird room with running water. After the bird room is finished phase two of this project will be to attach two outdoor flights so the Java's in the internal flights have access to the outside. Sadly to make room for this project I have pulled down my lovely outdoor aviary with the fishpond inside, this I had to do as my hobby is expanding all the time.
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Click on the photo to see
more about this old
aviary No 2.
How I made the plans for this project
 After sitting for some time with a pencil and paper drawing out different ideas I finely finished at this one, I did not want to waste any ground I had available to me so its designed to take up the whole area, also I need to put a soakaway in the bank to take away the storm water off the shed roof plus the sink waste. I also need access to the side of the shed for maintenance, so I allowed 18" for this, if I went wider the outdoor flights would get smaller.
Sorry it's not the best scanned image but it gives you a good idea what I am going to do
(Click on the plans to see the new shed)
The beginning March 6th 2003
The ground work
 
The photo on the left is showing the ground after pulling down and clearing the old aviary away. The white pipe you can see is for the soakaway I will be building very shortly. I have kept the old pit I dug for the pond as a good start for the pit I need for the soakaway also I kept the old stones and bricks to throw in the pit to start off the new soakaway
  
Weekend 8th & 9th March 2003
Here are the first lot of
footings going down, because
the old fish pond was so deep
I had to dig out a trench the
same depth 1 meter down.
The wood you can see is there
to bridge the gap the fish pond
left, its been back filled with
rocks to give the footings
a good firm base
   This one footing took all the
weekend up but its done now
next step is the brick work
and build the soakaway.
Just to the left of the wood is
where I will put the soakaway.
 
Weekend 15 & 16 March 2003
Wow! What a weekend sun shine for two days, it will probably rain now I have said that!
Got a lot done as you can see all the concrete blocks are laid on the footings that I put in the week before, these will take the weight of the new bird room, I will have to do the same again on the other side of the bank, so I can rest 3" x 3" lengths of wood across to each stack of bricks to support the shed floor.
Just to the left of the photo you can see a green four-foot water butt sunk in the ground, I previously drilled 1" holes to enable the water to seep away, the gap around the butt will have broken rocks put around to stop the soil entering the butt.

Photo bottom left: I have now capped the water butt with a paving slab and run the pipe work to the back of the bank, you can see the white plastic bag covering the top of the pipe, to stop any dirt getting in, this is where the bird room guttering will drain into, plus the sink. The blue thin pipe is going to be the fresh water supply to the bird room. This is the worst part of the ground work over
  All that hard work and nothing to
show for it, you can just make out
on the photo the tops of
the concrete blocks.
Now this side of the footings are
finished it's time to look at the next
set of footing's hopefully I will not
have to go so deep.
 
Weekend 22 & 23 March 2003

Well another excellent weekend. The
ground work has gone much faster than
I imagined. Photo to the left is showing
the second row of block work finished
plus the central trench dug and filled with
concrete, also the start of the path to go
along side the shed for maintenance, that
was Saturday. On Sunday I finished off
the central block work and finished the
path. The plank you can see me sitting
on is going to be moved back 3" to
allow air space behind the shed.
I just need to fill all the gaps at the sides
of the block work and rake the ground
level. Sue my wife took the photo
Weekend 29 & 30 March 2003
  Photo on the left: As I said last week I needed to move the wood that I was sitting on, back 3 or 4 inches, well I have used paving slabs and concreted them in place, hopefully these will be more permanent.
Photo on the right: I the groundwork for the shed is almost done, the under bares for the shed will be bolted to the block work, but not until the shed arrives. I just have to dig a trench across the garden to sink the water mains back to the house now.		  
Double Good News!
 
I am now fit for work aging and the project work is back on, starting this weekend 03/05/2003.
Secondly my shed as been ordered and will be here on 27th May ….Yippee!!
There is always one down side, the manufacture of the shed will not make the small door I would like under one of the windows, this was going to give me access to the external flights, they said it was to fiddly to do because it's not a standard size. Not to worry I can over come this problem. The weather forecast is not too good for this weekend, I am keeping my fingers crossed, I will be able to get something done!
  
Weekend 03 & 04 May 2003
   
   
At last a bit more work done. As you can see I an laying the water main for the fresh water supply to the sink in the bird room. I did not get as far as I would have liked with the job because of the weather, still I am nearly at the water mains. I have only got to lift four paving slabs and dig the trench to the house where the connection to the mains will be made. I will not be connecting it up for a while until the shed and sink area are ready. I only have three weeks left before the shed arrives, so I need to make sure everything is done before hand. Next week I am hoping to get all the spare soil removed off the bank.
Weekend 10 & 11 May 2003
 
The water supply is finely in. I have made the connection to the mains this weekend; I was not thinking last week when I said, "I would not connect until the shed was here" I have fitted a stop valve to the pipe work so the tap will work but not the supply to the shed. When I start doing the woodwork in the shed, I will use some off cuts to build a box around the exposed pipe work to protect it from the frost in the winter months, also I paint it the same colour as the house so the wife wont complain. Next weekend I have some tidying-up to do and put some wood preservative on the fence.
 
Weekend 17th & 18th May 2003
 

At last the ground work is now complete. All the fence has been treated with wood preservative, also I have removed the mound of soil which was left over from the ground work. As you can seen the ground is nice and flat, ready for the new bird room to arrive next week.

 

The shed is here! I will start a new page for this project to continue on, because of all the graphics on this page,
it is starting to take long time to download the page!
Project Continued on a fresh new page! | Click here |