Should I worry about 3/4" roof gaps?

[Bulcaoma]

I'm finally at the end of a long coop build and appreciate all the info on this site. I will paint exterior after the girls are in the coop since hubby and I haven't found a color we agree on

I have sections that are 3/4" x 20" that are open (there are 8). Is it worth putting a 1x board in there to prevent predator access? There isn't a way to adhere hardware cloth.

Also in the other picture, you can see the 3/4" x 2" ridges between the perling and metal roof. Do these need to be enclosed as well?

We currently have no rats on the property and are 30 acres from any other properties on all sides. We also only have garder and racer snakes in the area. There are grey squirrels, ground squirrels, raccoons, cayotes, (possibly fox, skunk and bobcats that we haven't seen). I plan to keep food and water in the run only.

We're in mid-Willamette valley, Oregon if that changes suggestions.

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[tlcmurphy]

Rats will show up, and rats will get in, I know because we have the same issue. I suggest closing it if you want to be rat proof. We gave up and just take the food in every night.
BTW your title says 34” gaps

 

[Bulcaoma]

Rats will show up, and rats will get in, I know because we have the same issue. I suggest closing it if you want to be rat proof. We gave up and just take the food in every night.
BTW your title says 34” gaps

Tlcmurphy, thank you for that info. That's what I was worried about . Haa- and edited that typo!

 

[Bulcaoma]

Rats will show up, and rats will get in, I know because we have the same issue. I suggest closing it if you want to be rat proof. We gave up and just take the food in every night.
BTW your title says 34” gaps

How would you suggest closing the roof ridges?

 

[tlcmurphy]

We weren’t able to, we used corrugated plastic sheeting and they get in just fine , we remove the food at night and they stay away now. Took awhile for them to realize there was no more buffet though.
This is our run I’m speaking of, we have a hardware cloth “gate” we close off at night so the coop itself isn’t accessible to rats.

 

[tlcmurphy]

I just realized it’s your coop, not your run? I’d put either hardware cloth or wood over the outside of the openings.

 

[avjudge]

I would close both of those types of gaps up.

For the long 3/4” gaps along the sides of your roof (i.e. between the purlins) it would have been easy to cut length of 1x2s to sit on top of the end rafters between each purlin before the roof was put on, but now I am not sure how you would anchor that. What I would probably do at this stage – what I actually did do for a narrower gap I ended up with under the edges of my roof – is get lattice strips, cut them to fit between purlins, and mount them flat against the rafters, slid up so the upper edge touches the bottom of the roof. I think they are an inch and a half wide so half of their width should overlap the rafter giving you a place to screw or nail them.

I don’t have the smaller gaps under each ridge of my roof, because it is polycarbonate roofing with a matching closing strip that seals those. However, in another thread on this forum, someone suggested putting a bit of steel wool into each ridge above the outermost purlin. Their experience was that critters will try to chew through the steel wool, which they can’t do, but will not try to pull or push it out. YMMV.

 

[Sefirothe]

Lets see if this works. Here's a link to another member's fix for the gaps under the ridges of the metal roof panels. Something similar might work for your gaps between the purlins too.

If the link doesnt take you directly to it, its post # 95.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/my-coop-design-and-build-blog.1612130/post-27643547