Materials List
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1/2" Exterior grade plywood |
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1/4" Exterior grade plywood |
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6ea Pressure Treated 2"x4"x92" |
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1 1/2" exterior screws |
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2 1/2" exterior screws |
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deck sealer or latex paint |
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cedar shavings, 1 bale |
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Tools List
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Tape measure |
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Pen or Pencil |
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Circular Saw & safety glasses |
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Screw Gun (drill) |
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36" pipe clamps or a helper |
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Paintbrush |
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Initial Wood Cuts
Have your lumberyard make the initial plywood cuts unless you
can get them square on your own.
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| 2x4 Cuts
Start with ripping 5 of the 2x4 lengthwise -- you can buy 2x2s, but
ripping 2x4s will give you a nice flat edge and will not warp as much as
the 2x2s
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 Building The Palace
The lid is removable. Therefore you have to reverse
engineer the doghouse to fit inside and under the lid. If you start with a
48"x48" piece of 1/2" plywood as the roof, everything else will
fit inside and under. A 2"x4" ripped is not actually two inches
by two inches, it is actually 1 1/2"x1 1/2". So if you start
with cutting the lip pieces, the first two will be
2"x2"x48". Take 3" off to get your shorter sides --
2"x2"x45".
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The floor, walls, and sheathing must fit inside the lip with
room to spare. Starting with the space inside the lip of the roof lid --
45"x45"... the floor should be 44"x44" to accommodate the
1/4" ply on 4 sides and 1/2" clearance. The 2"x4" PT
runners are to keep the whole box off the ground or dirt and can be inset by an
inch just for looks.. |
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Now you have the measurements for the length of the walls --
24"x44" for two of them and since the walls are 1 1/2" wide each
-- or 3" for two, the shorter walls will be 24"x41".
The walls are 24" tall, 21" studs plus top and bottom
rails are 1 1/2" ea, or 3" total -- to equal 24" tall, the same
height as your exterior 1/4" sheathing.
The door can be framed in with scrap 2"x4"s or
2"x2"s -- you can make the door any height or width -- but I use 2ea
2x4s on top of the bottom plate, then a 2x2 on each side of the opening -- and
the opening is roughly 12" wide and 16" tall.. Build this, screw it all together, then mark the plywood from the inside to get
the exact position -- remove the plywood to cut out the door with a circular saw if you can do drop
cuts.
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Now for the wall sheathing. Your 1/4" exterior
plywood will need to be cut down to fit. The 24" should hold true - minus
the width of a saw blade, so flush with the bottom of the floor, as the lip will
hide any shortages. If built right you will need
2 ea 1/4"x24"x44"
2 ea 1/4"x24"x41 1/2" (41" plus the width of 2 sheets of
1/4" or 1/2")
But it might be more accurate to screw on the sheathing flush on
one side and then use a pencil to mark your cut on the other side.
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Finishing the Puppy Palace
Olympic weather sealer can be tinted like paint or left like
stain. You can also paint with latex. If your dogs chew, don't use
pressure treated wood -- but then you MUST seal because it will rot quickly with
weathering and dogs living in and around the dog house.
A bale of cedar means the dogs are dryer, smell nice, and have
fewer or no fleas. The removable lid makes removing cedar -- or messes --
much easier.
And finally if you have little dogs, or puppies, you'll want to
put concrete blocks in front of the door until they are big enough to get in and
out without help.
And these are great for taking pictures as well..
The seal boys of the TRAIN litter on TOP of the puppy palace for
pictures....
"How do we get down?"
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