The boards and timber used to make pallets are almost always of good quality. Previously, the material is rejected based on the structure of the wood and is necessarily treated against putrefactive microflora. As a result, a dog house made from pallets is durable, strong, and if you got the size and design right, it’s also convenient for wintering an animal.
Insulated model for two dogs
Determining the size of the booth
Making a doghouse from pallets is most beneficial for large dogs, such as shepherds or huskies. Even for very large animals, the height and width of a standard wooden pallet approximately fit into the dimensions of the dog, so there is a chance to build a dog house from pallets with a minimum number of cuts of material.
You will need to measure the width of the sternum, length and height of the animal’s body.
But you can’t build a kennel by eye, otherwise it will be uncomfortable for the dog, and the animal may refuse a new home. To properly plan the structure, you will need to measure the dog and determine the most important dimensions:
- The length, or more precisely, the depth of the booth. It is taken as the length of a lying animal with its paws extended forward plus an additional 15 cm;
- The width of the booth is determined by the height of the dog at the withers plus 10 cm. It is believed that the dog should be able to lie on its side with its paws fully extended;
- The vertical size of the entrance hole or hole into the booth is determined by the height of the dog in a standing position from the tips of the paws to the base of the neck;
- The width of the hole is calculated using the formula. To do this, measure the girth or circumference of the dog's chest at the widest point and divide the resulting value by 3.14;
- The height of the booth should be 10 cm greater than the height of the dog at the withers.
It is clear that the recommendations given apply to an adult dog of average build. Different animals may differ in body proportions, so you have to take into account such nuances as the age of the dog and the optimal shape of the entrance hole.
Advice! To build a booth made of pallets for a large dog, an animal of non-standard build or a rare breed, it is best to use the recommendations set out in the ST HG 08-08.15 standard.
This is done so that the box made of pallets does not turn out to be too cold and at the same time is properly ventilated, which is important for dogs with a very dense undercoat, which suffer especially greatly from the heat. Laikas, huskies, bukhunds, malamutes and even the Moscow watchdog can simply ignore the booth.
A dog in an apartment is a comfortable house as a personal territory
In fact, this is an apartment version of a doghouse
In urban areas, dog lovers often keep them in their apartments. There are many positive things in living together with a smart, faithful animal in the same area, but often owners forget that their pets should have their own territory, their own protected and inviolable personal place.
Of course, boards, bricks and iron are not suitable for building a shelter for a dog in an apartment: fabrics and shelters made from them are more appropriate. Sometimes it is enough to highlight a secluded corner, separated by furniture or a screen.
Even indoors, in a small space, the dog needs to observe everything that is happening around, be aware of all events and always be ready to fight back: these qualities are instinctive and must be taken into account to create a home for a faithful guard. The size of the dog, its characteristics as a guard and protector, and its purpose in the house do not play a special role here.
The best option for a pet living in an apartment
In any case, the animal needs a feeling of at least equality with family members and its own importance among people.
The optimal solution for an apartment is to create a pet bed with a roof and walls. Such a dwelling may look like a kennel, hole or cradle. Such shelter houses are more necessary for dwarf dogs, for whom the ability to hide is extremely important, and comfort and care are needed no less than for a child.
Primary requirements
Just as with street maintenance, the main requirement for housing is compliance with the size of the tenant. The dog in the house should be able to take any position. Many animals rest lying on their sides with their paws stretched out - this is the minimum size of their home.
Convenient doghouse for an apartment dog
- If the pet has thick and shaggy hair, then the house should have a removable lid or a folding top in case the temperature in the house is too high for the dog
- A kennel in an apartment for a medium-sized dog can be oval or triangular in shape - they are optimal for pets who prefer to sleep curled up.
- The base or floors of the apartment kennel can be any hard material: plywood, plastic, furniture panels made of chipboard, OSB. The hard bottom must be covered with soft but durable material
- You should not use foam rubber or expanded polystyrene (foam plastic) in finishing - they will be torn by sharp teeth in the very first days and can harm the health of animals
- The mattress on the bedding must be made of strong material with a necessarily removable cover. Any fabric used to cover an indoor kennel should be easily removable and replaceable for washing.
- The temperature in the apartment, optimal for people, will be good for the smallest dog, but there should be no drafts in its shelter. Therefore, the house should be set up away from entrance doors or opening windows. It’s even better if the animal’s bed is raised a few centimeters above the floor
- If there are small children in the house, then the frame of the dog house should be strong enough so that a child sitting or leaning on it cannot injure the animal.
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Projects with drawings of dog houses made from pallets
There are two technology options for building a dog kennel: panel and frame. In the first case, the pallets are disassembled into separate slats and bars. The rough frame is assembled from them. Next, shields are assembled from OSB or plywood, which are used to line the booth. In this case, pallets serve as a source of wooden slats, boards and timber.
The second option is more interesting, as it allows you to build a kennel for your shepherd from pallets, which provides a higher level of comfort for the animal. In this case, a supporting frame is made from the pallet frame, often integral with the roof rafter system.
The frame of the booth is assembled from parts of the pallet frame
The boards left over from dismantling the pallet are used for cutting slats and lining the walls of the future booth.
In any case, one of the entire pallets will need to be prepared for furnishing the floor or dog bed. The design of the pallet provides good thermal insulation and ventilation; owners often assemble a whole platform from 2-3 pallets, on which the booth is installed.
Where to start
So, making a dog kennel with your own hands begins with preparing the material. In our case, you will need to get at least five pallets. The shields themselves, as a ready-made structure for the walls of the booth, are not suitable. The pallet consists of timber, on which boards are filled on both sides with a small gap. To build a dog house, the pallets will need to be disassembled into building material. Only one shield is left untouched, which will be used entirely for making the bottom of the kennel.
The parts of disassembled pallets must be sorted immediately. The boards will be used to cover the dog kennel, and the frame of the house will be made from timber.
What tools and materials will be needed
To make a kennel, in addition to the pallets themselves, you will need to prepare a fairly large set of tools:
- Hand-held jigsaw with blade for cutting wood;
- Tabletop machine with a circular saw for cutting material;
- Belt or vibrating sander with coarse and medium sandpaper;
- Electric drill with brush attachment with bronze bristles;
- A screwdriver with an attachment for driving self-tapping screws;
- Carpenter's square;
- A pair of clamps;
- Drill kit;
- Marking rulers or tape measure.
In addition, you will need any insulating materials made from natural fiber, a vapor barrier film, and a corrugated sheet for the manufacture of roofing. You will also need to stock up on wood screws with a length of 25 to 75 mm, and at the same time prepare a hand saw with a metal blade.
Advice! You can use a grinder; in any case, the kit should have a tool with which you can cut off the tip of the self-tapping screw that has come out of the board.
If the fastener is too long, you have to trim the screw after screwing, otherwise the dog in the kennel can easily be injured.
Sawing with your hands is not an option, you get tired quickly, and the quality of the booth will be low
Stage 5: Manufacturing and installation of the door
I postponed this stage of work until the last minute, since I did not have a clear action plan or drawing.
I started with the inner door frame, which I made from roofing lath. Getting the angles right using hand tools was challenging. Then I made four outer panels using pallet boards. I secured them with glue and screws.
I used leftover thin boards for the interior window frame. The width of the board made it possible to install two glasses, i.e. make a single-chamber “glazed window”.
Then I filled everything again, sanded it and painted it.
To install the door, I bought hinges for the gate, as well as several stainless steel fasteners for closing the door. When installing the door, I placed cardboard to adjust the position of the door. The final look after installation gave off a bit of a city feeling.
What pallets to use
To build a booth, it is best to use fresh pallets or at least not older than two years of use. There should be no traces of technical fluids, paint or fuels and lubricants on the pallets. You cannot use pallets that were used to transport modern chemicals; the smell is so ingrained in the wood that it often causes severe irritation of the eyes of dogs.
You can try very old pallets, but only after firing with a gas torch and mechanical treatment with a brush with bronze bristles. As a rule, after stripping, high-quality wood changes color from gray to dark coffee, overall a good option for a dog house.
Step 6: Rain protection
To protect the roof from rain, I used roofing felt left over from a neighbor. I used a blowtorch to install it, but since the pieces were small and I worked without gloves, I received several burns. I recommend using some kind of protective gloves.
And yet... the pain I had to endure made me doubly proud of my work!
I don’t want to write that after a few months the roofing material began to peel off, maybe I didn’t warm it up enough or it was too hot outside. This was my first time doing roofing work.
The better to insulate
A dog house can be insulated in two ways. Minfiber and foam are often used; these are the best materials if you want to protect the interior of the kennel from direct sunlight. It is enough to lay a layer 25 mm thick. This option is of little use for winter; a kennel made from pallets will turn out to be very cold.
Thermal insulation with foam plastic is justified only as protection from the summer heat; in winter the dog will freeze due to condensation and ice inside the kennel
For a winter booth, you need to fill it with sawdust, hay, it is best to lay several layers of natural felt or pieces of woolen fabric from an old coat or fur coat. And be sure to cover the insulation with a vapor barrier film.
Stage 7: Glazing
In the spirit of making a doghouse as cheap as possible, I got hold of a couple of pieces of 3mm clear acrylic for glass. They seemed a little thin to me, but they were free, so they suited me quite well.
I used scissors to cut acrylic. I made two glasses, one smaller for the outer window frame and a larger one for the inner one. Since the internal frame recedes approximately 10mm in depth, a good thermal insulation gap is obtained. Two small holes were drilled into the inner glass, top and bottom, to prevent condensation. Before fastening the acrylic, it is recommended to pre-drill it so that it does not crack when screwing in the screw.
Material calculation
If you build a booth according to a panel scheme, then for the frame it will be enough to select one pallet, approximately 5 m of timber, with a cross-section of 40x40 mm. To cover the walls of the kennel you will need two two-meter sheets of plywood or OSB and the same amount of insulation.
If you are building a dog house using a frame design, you will need:
- Minimum three pallets;
- Beam 40x40 mm in the amount of 2.5 m;
- Vapor barrier film of at least 5 m2
- A small lath, with a cross-section of 20x30 mm, approximately 6-7 m. It is used for filling cracks and fixing vapor barriers.
In addition, you will need to choose the type of roof and material for the roofing.
The tray is first cleaned, washed to remove mordants and dried in the shade.
The process of making a wooden booth
The process of making a simple booth cannot be called labor-intensive and long
It is important to choose the right materials, know the basics of design and how to use tools. First of all, a drawing is built
It can be simple or designer. Of course, if a beginner is engaged in construction, then it is better to abandon all non-standard solutions.
After determining the dimensions and constructing the drawing, you need to select materials and calculate their quantity. This is easy to do if you know the basic proportions of the future house. Then you just need to follow the instructions, use the advice of professionals or resort to their help.
How to make an insulated dog house from pallets with your own hands
First of all, you need to decide on the design of the roof; you can make it flat, pitched or gable. It is better not to use the first two options; such dog kennels made from pallets, photo, noticeably lose in appearance and do not retain heat well.
Booths with a gable roof are more practical and interesting in design
In addition, there is a risk that the dog may choose the roof for relaxation, and it will be almost impossible to wean it from this activity.
First of all, we choose the most durable and even pallet and clean it from wood fluff with a sander. We disassemble the remaining pallets into three flat pieces, and sew them up completely with the boards remaining from disassembly.
The next step is to assemble the wall frame. The frame of the booth took two pallets.
We lay insulation and vapor barrier
From the third pallet we assemble the rafters of the gable roof and sew up the gables
All that remains is to lay the corrugated sheet and secure the covering with self-tapping screws.
Roof shape
There are several ways to build a roof:
- The first, perhaps the easiest way, is to make a flat roof that slopes back.
- Second, make a full-fledged roof with a slope on the sides.
But there are many pitfalls here. In the case of the second option, the main advantage is that the space in the booth itself will increase. But this plus only works in summer; in winter, heat will rise to the top or even escape through small cracks.
The advantage of building a booth with a flat roof: firstly, it is simplicity. Secondly, it can be made from various materials; even a slab of pressed wood can be an option. It is necessary to lay any roofing material on top. Thirdly, large dogs naturally love to observe their territory from the highest point accessible to them, so the dog can settle there without any problems.
Advice! From time to time the dog house requires cleaning. Therefore, the most reasonable thing would be to make a removable roof, or simply use hinges. Thus, making work easier for yourself and your loved ones.
But some people don't like the aesthetics of a flat roof. Then, on top of the flat roof, you need to make another one, with a slope on the sides. Both roofs must be made removable.
Don't forget about shed roofs. Not all large dog breeds can live tethered exclusively in a kennel. Even when it rains, the dog wants to watch everything. Therefore, if you have extra space and extra building materials, and most importantly, this is a desire, then you will please your pet.
