How to Build a Nice Doghouse for your Honest Friend

If you have a dog as one of your family member, it is quite good to do something for your honest friend.  Building a nice doghouse is a way to make your dog feel right at home.  Just follow these steps to construct a beautiful doghouse yourself or persuade other family members to join it together.

What you should know & have:

• Time: Two Days
• Cost: $100 – $250
• Difficulty: Moderate

Materials

• 2×4 boards
• 3″ framing nails
• 1/2″ plywood
• paint
• roofing shingles, light-colored
• carpet

Tools

• tape measure
• hammer
• circular saw
• jigsaw
• chalk line
• utility knife

Step 1: Start from Doghouse Base

The doghouse you are going to build might be bigger than present size of your dog because you have to measure the size of the doghouse following the dog’s full-grown size. Enough space in the doghouse is necessary to let your dog turn around and lie down comfortably. Do not forget to allot room for food and water bowls too.

Then build a square base frame as your measurement by using 2” x 4” boards. Strongly attach the boards with nails at the corner.

Determine and cut 1/2″ plywood to match the size of the frame. Make sure that it is fit over all edges of the base frame. Nail the piece of plywood along the frame.

Step 2: Set Up Walls of Doghouse

Prepare 2” by 4” boards to set up the side and wall frames. You need a center stud to support the four walls by cutting the studs to suitable length. After that, dry-fit them and attach them together with nails.

However, on the rear wall, the distance from the center stud should be 2” to spare for fastening the roof strut. Build the frame of front wall with 2” by 4” boards but leave some space at the center stud for the doghouse’s entrance.

Install the completed walls onto the base frame. Nail every side of the walls in place through the bottom of the wall frame. You might toenail each corner again for stronger durability.

Step 3: Construct Roof Frame

Prepare struts, rafters and ridge board by cutting from 2” x 4” boards.  Draft your likable pitch of the roof and sever roof struts to fit the height.  Put the front and back roof struts at the center on the top edge of both front and back wall frames.  Attach all parts with nails in place from underside of the frame.  Then toenail the struts again to strengthen them.

Measure the size of the doghouse’s overhang on the front and rear.  The length of this overhang will be added to the length of the doghouse too.  Next, cut the top ridge board to put it on the struts and nail it in place.

Cut six rafters to the desired length (three pieces for both sides).  Miter the ends of each rafter to the angle defined by the roof pitch.  The corner of the doghouse will be used as a template to notch the rafters.  You will see that the notch will meet the top of the wall frames.  Use a jigsaw to cut these notches.

Define the angle by holding each rafter to even with the ridge board.  Cut the boards and fix them.  Install the bottom of the rafters to the wall where the notches join the wall frame.

Prepare four pieces of 2” x 4” boards (two pieces for both sides) to suit horizontally between the rafters.  Arrange them in place and nail them.  These boards are used to fulfill the empty space between the side walls and overhang.  Cut 1/2” plywood fascia boards to fit the overhang along the doghouse’s sides.  Nail the fascia boards to the bottom ends of rafters.

Then determine and cut the overhang rafters and secure the overhang rafters to the edges of side fascia and ridge board.  Cut 1/2” plywood to cover the doghouse roof.  And cut sheets from triangular plywood to fill the gap between the front and rear roof holes.

Step 4: Shingle the Doghouse’s Roof

At the roof edge, draw a line 11” with a chalk from the bottom of the roof edge.  The length of the shingles is 12” and it should hang over by 1” on the bottoms.  Draw a vertical line 35” with a chalk from the front edge of the roof.  The shingle sheets are 36” in length and should hang over by 1” on the front side.

Then mark a vertical line 29” back from the front edge.  These two vertical lines help create beginning points for the shingle sheets to build offset rows.

You should build thick shingles at the first bottom shingle row.  The darker position of the shingle sheet hangs over the edge when turning the first layer upside down.  Position the second layer right side up to suit all following rows.  Join these shingles in place with nails and keep on adding the rows.  Now a utility knife is very useful to trim the shingles including the sides of the plywood roof.

Prepare shingle sheets into shingles and put them edgeways over the top of the roof to cover the opening ridge board.

Each shingle should be tapered on the bottom end to hide black areas under the former shingle.

Step 5: Decorate the Doghouse

It is time to decorate the doghouse!  You might paint the doghouse beautifully, attach a nameplate on the front area, fill some scrap carpets or cloths to keep your dog feel warm and restful inside.

Important Note: If you choose pressure-treated wood to build the doghouse, please remember that you have to be careful with chemicals which might be poisonous to your pets.  Untreated wood, nevertheless, is better choice for walls, floors and other areas where your pets might touch with.

Image Credit: www.diynetwork.com

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