Building a Indoor Flight, flooring question.

[cindy]

We are building an indoor flight 8 foot long x 8 ft lhigh and 3 foot wide. As far as flooring what are some suggestions? We were thinking of a solid wood floor...but what to put on top of it to protect it?

I will have a substrate on top of it but we want something washable when I change out the bottom. We were thinking a thick sheet of visqueen secured to the floor to the edges and held in place under the sides, back and front panels.

[Terry in Aiken]

Check out Home Depot for a standard size plastic trays.
Separate mesh with slide for clean out(floor). Try to keep everything standard off the shelf material.
Also wood and water aren't good(bugs) and think about wash down, like a bathroom wall material. Can also be used for flooring?
Also use screws(stainless) so if you want to upgrade or move it you can.
Are you going to use plexiglass for viewing windows?
I'd like to see what you come up with.
Terry

[Terry in Aiken]

Also check out the Cages, Bird Rooms, and Aviaries
There is a pretty neat plans there already.

http://www.finchforum.com/gallery/image ... age_id=120

[cindy]

We did that already, thank you...the floor covering is a bit tricky...I do not want to deal with a drawer or grate but want something durable and safe easy to wash on the bottom after removing the dirty substrate before applying new.

[finchmix22]

Cindy
Do you mean to build a mobile indoor aviary or a stationary/permanent one? If mobile, I'd use a similar design to the double flight cages, with pull out trays and on rollers. If you want to turn a room into an indoor aviary, I agree wood would warp, mold and not be the best choice. Maybe a fake wood/laminate floor or vinyl or tile floor? If you're sure you won't change the room, you could make the floor with a center drain, so you can hose down the floor.

[cindy]

This is an 8x8x3 flight cage/aviary, built to stand in the 11x12 room. it will be on legsto raise it off the flloor...we are using thick plywood on the bottom as the floor but want to cover it with something durable and safe for the birds. figures we would ask what others have used.

We made a smaller version years ago and painted the bottom with a safepaint but this time we want somtihing a bit more washable. We used vinyl in large rabbit hutches my husband built and that worked well but the rabbits were litter trained so urine was not an issue. I do not want to deal with a grate or drawer.

The aviary will have all hardware on the outside and will be done in panels that can be taken apart and folded down easily is we decide to move it. We have used all stainless in the past.

[finchmix22]

Cindy,
I'm not sure I understand what you envision, with an indoor, raised flight, with a floor/bottom that does not use a grate/tray or a bottom you can wash down?

If the bottom is off the floor of the room, like the double flights? Then, you need something you can either take out of the flight or clean from outside the flight? Maybe someone will have an idea, but I just can't think of something for off the floor, without a tray/grate? Maybe I'm not quite understanding the setup you plan.

I know I find pulling out the trays easy clean up, as I keep a large trash can in the bird room and pull it by the flight, then just dump the tray. Then, I spray the tray bottom outside, dry and replace. The floor in the birdroom, under the flights, gets tons of seed, dust and feather type debris, so I must sweep the floor and then I take a damp mop and go over the floor and if it's really dirty, I use some of the Pet Focus disinfectant sprayed on the floor and mop that up. As far as grates in a flight, I pull those out the same as the tray, just one at a time, so something is covering the bottom of the flight to prevent escapees.

If I turned my bird room, or part of it into a flight, I don't think I could set up a room without adding some sort of system to clean the floor, like a drain or sloped floor to one end. Still, I can't think of a way to clean a floor inside as easy as one can clean a floor outside, without a drain in place. I would want to hose the floor down or be able to squeegee the wet/dampness.

The other thought is at vet offices, they use tile, as it is easy to clean and does not hold in bacteria etc. That may be too hard of a surface for finches, but I think outdoor aviaries often use concrete floors, so maybe tile would work. Then, you could sweep/mop and disinfect the floor. I don't think that would work as the bottom of a raised flight, as it would be too heavy.

Another idea, may be to lay down an outdoor tarp (from a home/garden store) and use clips to secure it to the edges of the room/walls? I don't know if that would work, but then you could roll up the tarp and take it outside to wash. To me, that would be more difficult than taking out a tray or grate.

I guess I'm not too helpful on this issue, but I'll be curious to read what other people think or other ideas, as I've considered turning the bird room into an indoor aviary.

I hope you find something that is simple and works well.

[cindy]

It will be a solid floor with a washable surface and a substrate like aspen will be put down on top of it. When time to clean it will be swept out and the floor will be washed down much like you wash the floor. Cleaning a wire 1/4" wire is gross, you can never get everything off the underside. Making an 8 foot long tray and cleaning an 8 foot grate that can not come out would be less than easy.

We are not converting our back bedroom into an aviary it will be a unit within the room...so no drain will be put in. We would destroy the slab the house sits on if we did that.

The unit will look like something like the untit in the diagram Terry posted except it will have a bit of a design change in the actual panels we use. The only difference no grate, no tray, just a solid washable floor.

[nelloyello11]

What about linoleum or something similar? It would be lightweight enough that it could work on a raised flight, but still be durable and cleanable.

[Sally]

Having had an aviary that was 8'x2.5'x7' tall, and was raised off the floor, I can tell you that the floor of the aviary must be very strong, to support not only the weight of whatever substrate you use, but also to support your weight when you enter the aviary for servicing. Personally, if I had another one, I would prefer to have it go all the way to the floor. In that case, you can either have a tile floor with a substrate, or put down a heavy vinyl tarp with substrate added. Depending on the type of substrate you are planning to use, you can spot clean on a normal basis, and then when you need to do heavy periodic cleaning, you simply vacuum out the substrate. With a deep enough substrate, you really shouldn't have much go through to the bottom.

I know that Ursula has used the tarp idea in her sunroom aviary, with bedding on top of the tarp. Pukasand built an aviary across one end of a room, look for her photos in the 'Do you have an aviary' thread.

[cindy]

My husband is re-enforcing the bottom, it will have a a frame under the entire base to raise it off the floor so the entire underside does not rest on the floor, we have carpeting down in the room it will be in and we do not want the entire area crushed down....the tarp is like the idea I had with the thick visqueen. I have a heavy duty visqueen over the carpet to protectect it. It is pretty thick and washable.

[Nerien]

You can buy linoleum off the roll--so it is one big continuous piece, instead of individual tiles, no seams to collect crud or leak.

There is also this stuff called Coroplast, it's like corrugated cardboard but made of plastic. They make signboards and stuff like that out of it. It is very popular with home made guinea pig cages for the flooring/cage lining, in fact they refer to them as "C&C Cages" for "Crate and Coroplast". Supposed to come in 4'x8' sheets, but I know that Home Depot and Lowes do NOT sell it in pieces that big, they suggest an art supply store, or else look online.

[birdclaws]

Cindy, I've been using coroplast as the base to my flight cages. I was able to get some from my work, but I believe that they sell large sheets of it at home depot.

I just use newspaper on top of it. Because the material is so light, it's pretty easy to pull out and clean as needed.

[cindy]

Brian...what I may do is cover the floor with the visaqueen and possibble on both sides allow a thin strip of space so I can roll butcher paper through off a roll on one side and fasten it at the other. This way I can just pull the paper through to allow for clean sheets. The cage will have a seed guard wall around it to keep mess in and a feeding and watering/bathing area.

I have asked in both Lowes and Home Depot here for coloplast but they do not stock it.

[finchmix22]

Cindy,
What is colorplast? Is it something in a roll you lay down or is it more like sections of material?