Tidying up back concrete 'patio'

[owas]

I don't really know why but I have a approx 5" thick slab of concrete patio area in my garden before the grass.
It's a mess, dips and cracks ect water pools and with a dog and 7 chickens outside its really becoming a pita to clean.

I don't want to spend alot of money on it,
Bit of a blank trying to think of how I can tidy it up?

 

[Barking Mat]

If it's dog and chicken poo stains, pour bleach over it and scrub with a stiff brush.

If it's the finish, the above, and a self levelling compound ?

 

[julianf]

Find some paving stones off freecycle and pave it, with sufficient run off


Edit - assuming you would still be able to open the doors...

 

[OJCar]

Be sure not to disturb who ever is under it.

 

[gaz1]

I don't really know why but I have a approx 5" thick slab of concrete patio area in my garden before the grass.
It's a mess, dips and cracks ect water pools and with a dog and 7 chickens outside its really becoming a pita to clean.

I don't want to spend alot of money on it,
Bit of a blank trying to think of how I can tidy it up?

not much you can do to that other than put money to it to make it better

other than breaking it up and relaying fresh down again

it also apears like someones reference to a concrete patio area instead of concrete flags

 

[DAPPH]

We have a large (30 kg dog) dog muck gets collected twice daily and place in a plastic bucket 1/4 filled with water. stirred daily for a few seconds so there is little or no stink 30 seconds later, once the bucket soup is a few inches from the rim it's emptied into a Dalek composter bin along with any other compostable garden or kitchen waste. We have three " Daleks "on the go like this and so far in 15 years they have not needed emptying, but they have been used for the flower bed compost replacement several times.

I suspect you could do the same with twice a day chicken muck as it's high in useful phosphates, then power wash the area off once or twice a week.
I put in 2X 1.5 by 1.5 deep half inch red granite chip drain to take the power wash water away. in the bottom of the drain is a 30 mtr leng5th of 100 mm perforated black land drain that runs down the garden. So far in 16 years of large dogs it's not become saturated d been frozen solid on three occasions of so.

Occasionally it's filled up with water, but it is usually clear of water once the rain ceases for a couple of hours. Having it like this allows the water level to be several inches below the gravel surface So in hot weather any stinky pee or bits of pops are washed down into the stone where it breaks down with out with little or no noticeable odour . Prior to doing this I dug a big hole put a dalek in it and cemented a rebar grill over the top to keep our kiddie out of it.
Same system liquifying it ,, no smell and it never got deeper thaan about four inches of poop/
The only reason I change from barrel to pit was when I landscaped the area and decided I didn't want the composter barrel at the lawn edge so I constructer the graveled dog loo. adjacent to the glasshouse
I did try one of the dog poop green bucket type composters where you added a capful of digester fluid to the bucket each day, Built it in to a 1100mm above ground tower.

10 months later ....... It froze solid for weeks and weeks, stopped working & never recovered,  it's now a plinth for my wife's favourite bonsai tree. Kind of pleased about that, as the composter fluid was over £15 a half litre & we were using a bottle every 20 days or so.
Made a poop scoop & rake (Lidl) from a kiddie's metal toy garden spade set on a metre of bent 5 mm copper water pipe h the toy metal rake being also used as part of the scooper set ... that was also 16 years ago. They are still going strong. just wash them off and set then to drain off on the gravel.

 

[mart]

How practical would it be to put turf down, and just leave concrete in front of them patio doors? Turf makes a good soak away when it rains heavy. Also, it is probably the cheapest material to replace the concrete with.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

^^ But then you have to maintain it.....

 

[8ob]

^^ But then you have to maintain it.....

I agree, my money would go on reconfiguing the concrete to fall into acco drains that run into the nearest sewer. Needs to be a painless op to wash that area down and not a chore.

Bob

 

[brightspark]

needs to be something good 7 hens and a dog sh...ting and peeing all over

 

[mart]

I would have thought the hens would be better in some sort of pen or containment on the grassed area. A small shed/hen house with some sort of mesh enclosure to stop foxes.

I would also think that taking the dog out for a walk twice a day would take care of it crapping all over?

 

[owas]

I would have thought the hens would be better in some sort of pen or containment on the grassed area. A small shed/hen house with some sort of mesh enclosure to stop foxes.

I would also think that taking the dog out for a walk twice a day would take care of it crapping all over?

I have actually just built a 10x10ft enclosure due to the bird flu thing going around along with their normal house.
I like them being able to w.e they want though

Dog doesn't really go much on a walk,
I don't mind it's easy to pick up on concrete,mainly just standing water in all the dips that's making it quite difficult, I try and wash it everytime she goes for a wee.
there's a main drain cover there.

I've never used self leveling compound,
Can I just pour it out onto the area and it'll do a good job of filling all the dips?

Slabing just that corner could work,I don't fancy doing the whole lot right now.

 

[Morrisman]

We have a large (30 kg dog) dog muck gets collected twice daily and place in a plastic bucket 1/4 filled with water. stirred daily for a few seconds so there is little or no stink 30 seconds later, once the bucket soup is a few inches from the rim it's emptied into a Dalek composter bin along with any other compostable garden or kitchen waste. We have three " Daleks "on the go like this and so far in 15 years they have not needed emptying, but they have been used for the flower bed compost replacement several times.

I suspect you could do the same with twice a day chicken muck as it's high in useful phosphates, then power wash the area off once or twice a week.
I put in 2X 1.5 by 1.5 deep half inch red granite chip drain to take the power wash water away. in the bottom of the drain is a 30 mtr leng5th of 100 mm perforated black land drain that runs down the garden. So far in 16 years of large dogs it's not become saturated d been frozen solid on three occasions of so.

Occasionally it's filled up with water, but it is usually clear of water once the rain ceases for a couple of hours. Having it like this allows the water level to be several inches below the gravel surface So in hot weather any stinky pee or bits of pops are washed down into the stone where it breaks down with out with little or no noticeable odour . Prior to doing this I dug a big hole put a dalek in it and cemented a rebar grill over the top to keep our kiddie out of it.
Same system liquifying it ,, no smell and it never got deeper thaan about four inches of poop/
The only reason I change from barrel to pit was when I landscaped the area and decided I didn't want the composter barrel at the lawn edge so I constructer the graveled dog loo. adjacent to the glasshouse
I did try one of the dog poop green bucket type composters where you added a capful of digester fluid to the bucket each day, Built it in to a 1100mm above ground tower.

10 months later ....... It froze solid for weeks and weeks, stopped working & never recovered,  it's now a plinth for my wife's favourite bonsai tree. Kind of pleased about that, as the composter fluid was over £15 a half litre & we were using a bottle every 20 days or so.
Made a poop scoop & rake (Lidl) from a kiddie's metal toy garden spade set on a metre of bent 5 mm copper water pipe h the toy metal rake being also used as part of the scooper set ... that was also 16 years ago. They are still going strong. just wash them off and set then to drain off on the gravel.

I have a 45kg hound and her dung gets put in a hefty thickness plastic bag, inside a bucket with a lid, then every two weeks it gets a cable tie round the neck and goes in the green bin to be sent off and burned. Local council state that's okay as long as it is 'securely bagged'.

 

[DAPPH]

They charge for green bin stuff round here IIRC.

 

[Morrisman]

They charge for green bin stuff round here IIRC.

Green bin here is stuff that can't be recycled, blue is for glass, tins etc, brown is for garden waste, grass cuttings etc. £35 a year for that brown one.

 

[owas]

Didn't let me have a bigger normal bin so I just orderd another one and leave both outside .. noones said anything yet

 

[Gritineye]

Does the chicken run have any sort of top on it?

 

[owas]

Does the chicken run have any sort of top on it?

It will do, not finished yet
This is their main little coop.

 

[addjunkie]

Much as its nice to have chickens bimbling about, they are messy things. Keeping them contained the eggs are not as good, but far less mess. Even less mess if you neck them and recycle the meat through the dog!

With this bird flue lark, keeping them in isnt right and proper, but its going to be a regular thing in my opinion due to migrating birds. More unwanted lurgy from abroad….bird flue, ash die back, polio on the increase….its never ending

 

[owas]

I'd get rid of the dog before killing the birds, they actually have a use
Few fancy ones , ayam Cemanis,blue Orpington, splash maran , Mrs is quite attached to them

I'm still letting them out as the garden is fenced off .. not a full lockdown here yet