How to Build a Doghouse

Learn how to build a doghouse. Home improvement expert Ron Hazelton talks about how to create a custom doghouse design for your four-legged friend.

For more projects, visit Ron Hazelton's website: http://www.ronhazelton.com/

Transcript:

Hey, Sebastian, what a good boy. He's a border collie, right?

Yeah, sure is.

And they really like to run. I think.

Yes, he has a lot of energy, and that's what we want to make him an outside dog.

Well, he's got a great backyard here. Where are we thinking about putting the dog house?

Up here against the back of the house?

A couple of things I want to keep in mind as we design this. We want to make it large enough so that he's not cramped and he has plenty of room to move around in there, but small enough so that it will contain his body heat and keep him warm in cooler weather.

To figure out the right dimensions, I need to take some measurements and measuring a border collie is a challenging task.

I won't hurt you, it's just a tape measure here, Sebastian look, whistling.

According to the American Humane Society, the height of the dog house should be the height of the dog plus nine inches. The length should be the dog's length, plus 18 inches and the width his length plus 12 inches.

Length 32.

All right, boy, OK, 32 by 22.

My plans call for a cozy, insulated, two room house that will permit Sebastian to see outside or to be completely sheltered. We will add a slanted roof for rain runoff.

So here we've got all the pieces for the frame base. Now, this is pressure treated lumber because it's going to be in direct contact with the ground. One thing to keep in mind, though, when you're building pet structures, you don't want the pets to come in contact with pressure treated lumber, not healthy for them. So this is all going to be covered over Sebastian won't touch this, but it will keep this from rotting out because it's sitting on the ground.

Amy drills clearance holes for three inch rust resistant deck screws, which will hold the frame together. Now we're ready to cut several sheets of plywood, which will be used for the floor, roof and walls.

Amy, I bet you haven't used a circular saw.

I have never used it.

You've never used it?

It looks a little intimidating.

Yeah?

Yes.

It is, no it's not, it's really not, come over here.

The main thing is let gravity do part of the work here, the base of this, just let it sit on top of the plywood. All you have to do is push this through.

OK?

And apply just some general pressure up against this ridge.

Amy cuts as far as she can reach, then hands off to Charles to complete the cut

In order to have a slanted roof, our side walls must be angled at the top. To accomplish this, I've clamped the straight edge at the desired angle. Amy and Charles once again use the circular saw to make the cut. With all our plywood panels trimmed to size, it's time to assemble the doghouse.

We start with the floor.

Well, the question is, does it fit?

Seems to fit.

Oh.

Looks pretty good.

To attach the floor to the base, Amy drills pilot holes about every ten inches and Charles follows behind driving in screw's.

Now, this is what you call a doghouse raising.

Wall number two.

Now these "L" pieces that you guys put together, I want to put right in here just like this,

We've assembled these corner braces by screwing a couple of two by fours together. We will first attach the braces to the sidewalls, then fasten the front and back walls to the braces. These corner braces will reinforce the walls and block drafts from blowing through.

With Charles and Amy busy putting up the exterior walls. I'm installing a frame for the interior partition. We attach a plywood skin to the frame and a support post, then just as the doghouse begins to take shape, threatening storm clouds roll in followed by a true Midwest thunderstorm.

So we've moved in here in the garage and actually this is not a bad time to put this down off the table and onto the floor. It's probably going to be easier to reach it this way. I've also added a couple of braces here, here and here. Now we're ready to put our insulation and we're going to be using this. This is rigid foam insulation. We've actually glued two pieces together, a one inch piece and a half inch piece and we're going to start by dropping this right inside our frames.

So just grab something that looks like it might fit in and we'll see if indeed it does.

Like putting the puzzle together.

Yeah.

I've got the wrong piece.

Next, we cover the insulation with quarter inch plywood panels.

Keep Sebastian from snacking on that insulation. Right, why don't we start right here, Charles?

OK.

Amy, right here and then can work your way down.