Cement floor: pros & cons?

[Demidog]

My chickens are in an old stone built shed with a dirt floor which i hate because it's incredibly dusty inside. I was thinking if we pour a cement floor with a gutter in the middle going out the door then i will be able to wash the whole coup out with disinfectant to keep it clean and the water will drain away in the gutter out the door, and that it will really cut down the dust in there because it's really bad! I would still use bedding on top of the cement, probably straw which we use just now, or shavings. This is how we kept our horses and it was easy to keep clean; just remove the droppings on a regular basis and once in a while clean everything out and give it a hose down and a scrub with disinfectant. What do you think, good idea or not? I really don't like the dirt floor. I want to be able to disinfect the coup and cut down on the dust. I was thinking cement will be cleaner.

 

[ChickenCanoe]

I have one building with a concrete floor that I use mostly for raising chicks. The rest are all wooden floors.
I use pine shavings in all of them. I don't think it will solve the dust problem though. Chickens just put out an amazing amount of dust.

ETA
The concrete floor is durable and easy to disinfect, once you scrape up any feces.
The more bedding, the less of a problem with feces sticking to the concrete.

 

[Bryant Redhawk]

A cement floor will be cold unless you were to lay down a gravel bed covered with poly film then 1" thick foam insulation board prior to the pour. IT would also require a footing trench all the way around the current walls. If your main issues are sanitation of the magnitude of a commercial grower/layer then yes you would be better off with this sort of floor. It will cost a lot of money to do it right so the concrete doesn't conduct cold from the ground into the building.

Other options that you may want to consider:

Leave the dirt floor and incorporate the Deep Litter Method with a minimum of six inches of straw, wood chips, leaves or what ever you like best.

Install a raised wood floor then incorporate the DLM as above. A raised wood floor give room for water to drain away from the floor, can be sealed with linoleum or a product such as Black Jack 57 (this is black color) there is also a black jack reflective roofing coating that is white which is what I like to use. Linoleum is fast to put down, and will last up to 10 years if DLM is used on top of it. The Black Jack product is fairly easy to put down (stir very, very well and pour out and spread with a stiff bristled, long handled broom (I use a boat hull brush and it works great for this product) let it cure for 24 hours before stepping on it and you are ready to put down the DLM. This product should last over 15 years and probably will last 25 years under DLM.

Dust is not easy to get rid of where chickens are concerned, their scratching makes more of it than most folks can imagine. Control by using DLM is about as good as dust control can get where chickens are concerned.

Some good things about a dirt floor are; very low maintenance, just DLM it and add more as needed. We start out a DLM with 3 inches of straw adding layers as needed, the floor stays cleaner than if bare or covered with sand or wood chips since the straw is a better sponge for chicken droppings. The chickens can scratch which keeps them happy and it also mixes the poop into the straw. Every six months I go in with a hay fork and remove the old DLM to the chicken yard so I can start fresh in the coop. In the yard the chickens scratch through the DLM over and over as I add grass clippings, dead leaves, etc. The chickens turn all this DLM into very rich compost which we remove to use in the gardens and orchard as we need it there.

Our coop is raised off the ground so the floor would be level, it is wood, currently with linoleum and black jack 57 around the edges to seal the lino to the walls for a no leak setup. When the linoleum wears out I will just go ver the whole floor with the blackjack and not worry about it for a long time. I also use the black jack for roofs which is what it is actually marketed for.

 

[Folly's place]

Chickens make dust! Lots of dust, no matter what you do. I've got an old broken concrete floor in my coop, with shavings on top, deep litter method, and love it. If I had a dirt floor, I wouldn't add concrete for dust abatement, because it won't help. You could add crushed rock as a base, but deep litter works great on dirt. Good drainage, and IMO shavings are easier to manage than straight straw. I have no idea what's available where you live, so hope you find the best way for you. Predator control here mandates preventing digging into the coop, and concrete in great for that. Mary