Turning shed into bunny palace..tips please

So all being well my 7 buns will be bonded and live together in the shed.

I know what Im going to do so far-
Strip the lino out.
disinfect
put mdf boards around the walls and maybe the floor so the walls are strait.
Put a shelf or 2 on the wall.

Now I need help please- I want to re-line the shed with lino but should I line just the floors or the walls a bit too? Its a 8x6ft shed so if i got a sheet of lino it would only be big enough to go up each side about 1ft.

How high should I make the shelves? Dont want buns jumping off and hurting themselves, also need to be short enough for them to jump onto [smallest is small dutch girly.]

Is there anything else I should think about?

When Mike was doing the inside of the boarding shed....

First he put 'Kingspan' insulation sheets on the walls.




Then he put sheet's of plywood over that




and painted it white and then built the hutches


and he also made me a cupboard


We bought an off cut of lino for the floor which cost us £40 as it's a big shed.

I have a shelf that is 2ft high, but that has a lip on it as if a bun was to fall and land wrong they can really injure themselves. I also have a shelf that is 1ft up that they use to jump up to the second shelf. Its really up to you. However high you have the shelves, you can always make them safe for bunnies.

If i was doing my playhouses again, i would consider lining some of the walls with the lino too, to prevent urine or any water getting under the lino. Alternatively you could use silicone to seal the edges and wooden beading to cover the silicone.

One thing though, your better off using ply wood and not MDF. MDF is carcinogenic (spelling?). There was a thread on here, but i cant find it, im sure someone else will have a link though.

Seconded, I'd ply the walls rather than MDF - it'll probably work out cheaper too.

Our custom-built shed had lots of shelf space and the buns were more often to be found on the shelves than the floor. I think it also helps when having a big group to have the levels where they can get away from each other for a while.



On the right-hand side you can see two small hop-ups onto a shelf that ran the length of the shed (and somebun peeking in through the cat-flap ) There was the same arrangement on the left, a couple of hop-ups onto another shelf which ran the length of the shed. The top floor went across the end of the shed into an L-shaped platform. There was a barrier on the top shelf just in case they thought it would be an idea to jump off, or fell off by accident. But Humum is not aware of them ever even jumping off the lower shelf. They also liked the little hidey-spaces under the hop-ups.



The shed was about 7' long by just over 3' wide. There was lino on the floor and later an offcut of carpet, and the shelves were made from OSB board which is less slippy than ply and less toxic than MDF. They never seemed to gnaw the OSB, but would have a nibble at the wood that was used to make all the frames



ETA: Just found this pic of the shed during build, so you can get a better idea of the layout inside

Hudad says please do not use MDF. The glues used to make it can be lethal to buns

I had no idea about mdf being toxic, I just thought it would be stronger Will be getting ply now!
I had thought about lining it with insulation but we will only be using this shed until we move at start of next year (hopefully). The buns will get a proper nice palace at the next house but for now Im making do with what iv got lol

Thanks for the tips guys, Im gonna have a think about how I can make the shelves...Do you just use those right angle bracket things??

ooo and out of interest what thickness of ply did you use?

Mike used 6mm sheet's of ply for the walls but the hutches he uses 9mm or 12mm ply

MDF is a carcinogen to hoomin as well as bunnies! Any time it is cut it needs to be done so in an open, well ventilated area and you should wear a face mask of some sort to prevent any sawdust from being inhaled.

In fires they release the toxins and they can be deadly within a couple of minutes. Never burn the scraps as firewood or just to get rid of it. Even at lower than fatal levels the fumes given off when burnt can cause permanent physical damage to the respiratory and nervous systems.

[quote="Sparky"]

Our custom-built shed had lots of shelf space and the buns were more often to be found on the shelves than the floor. I think it also helps when having a big group to have the levels where they can get away from each other for a while.

quote]


I think this has really hit the nail on the head (sorry about the pun ) I really do feel that if you are going to have a group of 7 then they will need plenty of hidey holes/levels to get away from each other. My trios can often be found with 2 sat together and 1 on it's own. Not because they are left out, but because they want to be alone. Bit like people really

It's gonna look fab when it's done, you are busy at the mo!!