Turn a House into a Bird House

In this project episode, we make my friend's Jason house into a bird house! Subscribe to my channel: https://bit.ly/2SaaYmX

Watch the Yard Sign Episode (https://youtu.be/PViIonjmsfA)
Watch the MASSIVE Roof Sign Episode (https://youtu.be/Jcx2VoJEusc)

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#diy #birdhouse #gift

I know that Jason loves everything about birds so I’m going to build a birdhouse for him that looks like his house.

First thing to do was get reference photos of his house.

After tracing the major parts of the sides of the house in Illustrator, they got printed out and then spray mounted onto cardboard.

I’m going with pine wood since I have some. It is one of the lesser durable woods recommended, but since all of the outer surfaces are going to be covered with a water-based exterior latex paint it isn’t that big of a concern.

Galvanized screws are more rust resistant and are able to hold everything together more tightly as the birdhouse ages.

The glue is rated for outdoor use.

Always build the birdhouse so that the sides enclose the floor. This keeps rain from seeping into the sidewall/floor joint. To slow deterioration of the floor, it’ll be recess about a 1/4".
For drainage, 1/4"-diameter drain holes will be drilled in the all the corners of the bottom of a house. They allow rain and condensation to escape. Some sites recommend 3/8" holes so I'm going with the smaller size first and then if Jason wants 3/8" holes they'll be easy to widen. This is one of those times where it is easier to remove material than add material.

For ventilation and to offset the interior getting too hot, holes are going to be cut that will be protected by the overhang of the roof. If you’re familiar with soffit vents that are on houses for people, this is kind of the same thing.

I’m going to make the entrance hole the smallest recommended size first and then based on the birds Jason would like to have in the birdhouse we can change the hole size accordingly.

One of the additional things I did to make the birdhouse last longer was have all the sides go to the bottom and before attaching the floor I raised it up about a quarter inch so it wasn’t flush with the sides. This was done to help slow down damage that rain might do by getting in between the pieces.

A divider was put in the middle to split the space in half and be extra support for the roof.

The biggest roof was started first and the goal of connecting the two roof lines perfectly was accomplished with the paper. The edges of the paper got stapled so it wouldn’t move around when putting on the shingles.

Since attaching the shingles was going to be the last step before installing at Jason’s house, I measured and masked out areas based on the cardboard mockup and painted a few coats of the window and door colors.

Now it was time to add the trim or what some people call edging. It’s the stuff that goes around windows and doors. For this, I used polystyrene which is a type of plastic. Since this stuff is typically used for architectural models and other projects that stay indoors, I called the manufacturer and told them what I was doing to see if the polystyrene was durable enough for outdoor use. In the end, the only thing I would need to do is spray a few coats of clear UV protective paint so that the polystyrene won’t turn yellow after being out in the son for a while. Since most of the parts were pretty small, I quickly switched over to using tweezers to help put them in place and stop my fingers from being repeatedly glued together. Once I got into a rhythm of measuring, cutting, gluing and attaching this step went pretty quick.

I decided to take some regular shingles and turn them into little shingles. A bunch of strips were cut using a utility knife blade that is specifically made to cut shingles. This blade made it so much easier to cut than expected.

What I didn’t get on camera was the making of the chimney. The roof paper got cut away so the chimney could be glued on and then I finished the shingling. The top shingle had to hang over both sides so to help it bend and stay that way some quick dry exterior glue was used. This worked out pretty well which is good because Jason was getting home from his business trip the next day, so the birdhouse was getting installed that afternoon!

When the birdhouse eventually gets put where he decides, there are a few types of substances that can be put on the lower part of the pole that make it pretty much impossible for a squirrel to climb up and into the birdhouse. But that can wait. For now, a few wooden shims were hammered into place between the PVC pipe and the ground to make the whole thing level.

The last thing to do was cover up all the holes to protect the inside and then spray the exterior with a couple coats of clear UV protective paint.

Видео Turn a House into a Bird House канала Make For Others