# Loft Questions



## mtripOH (Jan 4, 2010)

Hello everyone. My son, Josiah has a few questions about loft designs. First of all let me fill you in on our present loft. Our loft is inside our 2 1/2 car garage that houses everything EXCEPT cars!. The loft is in the south west corner of the garage and is 8ft by 7ft with a height of 6 1/2ft. There are 2 regular sized double hung windows one on the west wall and the other on the south wall. At this point we are planning on adding an aviary out of the west window in the spring. Here are Josiah's questions:
Right now it does not seem like we get much light in our loft, Is adding a sky light in the roof of the garage a good idea? Is a wind circulation turbine (this is what Josiah calls it, I call it a spinny thing I see on peoples roofs) necessary for good ventilation? We do park our riding lawn mower in the garage. My dad has agreed to pushing the mower out of the garage so that the exhaust will not bother the pigeons, is this good enough or should I still be concerned about fumes? Thank you from Josiah. 
Thank you everyone for any input you might have. I hope that we are not too much of a bother and that our posts are not too confusing with me helping Josiah to post questions. Josiah enjoys coming here (and so do I!) and I want him to feel that his questions are important. I generally leaf through many threads and find the answer for him but he still wants to ask anyway


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

mtripOH said:


> Hello everyone. My son, Josiah has a few questions about loft designs. First of all let me fill you in on our present loft. Our loft is inside our 2 1/2 car garage that houses everything EXCEPT cars!. The loft is in the south west corner of the garage and is 8ft by 7ft with a height of 6 1/2ft. There are 2 regular sized double hung windows one on the west wall and the other on the south wall. At this point we are planning on adding an aviary out of the west window in the spring. Here are Josiah's questions:
> Right now it does not seem like we get much light in our loft, Is adding a sky light in the roof of the garage a good idea? Is a wind circulation turbine (this is what Josiah calls it, I call it a spinny thing I see on peoples roofs) necessary for good ventilation? We do park our riding lawn mower in the garage. My dad has agreed to pushing the mower out of the garage so that the exhaust will not bother the pigeons, is this good enough or should I still be concerned about fumes? Thank you from Josiah.
> Thank you everyone for any input you might have. I hope that we are not too much of a bother and that our posts are not too confusing with me helping Josiah to post questions. Josiah enjoys coming here (and so do I!) and I want him to feel that his questions are important. I generally leaf through many threads and find the answer for him but he still wants to ask anyway


I would put the aviary facing south. The birds will get more sun and it will let more light into the loft. 
And as far as the mower - I'd be real careful with that. Gas and oil fumes would not be healthy for them to be breathing in all the time. You can still smell the gas and oil when it's just sitting there. My ex husband use to store his Harley in the family room in the winter - it stunk!!


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## mtripOH (Jan 4, 2010)

Thanks Msfree. The aviary on the south side would be ideal however there is only about 12ft between the garage and the house on that side. We are planning the aviary to be 12X12 off the back of the garage. My goodness, a Harley in the family room. That is funny, but I suppose if my hubby had his "dream ride" it would be parked in the living room during the winter! LOL!! I am concerned about the fumes don't know what to do about that. I would love to just go over to the lumber store and pick up one on those cute tool sheds and make it into a lovely loft!


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## Pigeon lower (Oct 23, 2007)

I myself have my birds in our garage too in a 12 by 7 area in the back with one window and a avraiy hanging off the side. You have to be carefull and i would put some type of ventilation system in it as alot of dust gets created. And it ends up all over the wall.. My dad keeps his car in the garage sometimes at night which we leave the door open for a minute later so no exhaust is really bad in there but one thing we did happen to run into was we just refill our propane tank for our bbq and somehow it wasnt sealed right and was leaking into our garage luckily we had some window's open and it did not hurt any birds.


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## Big T (Mar 25, 2008)

mtripOH said:


> Hello everyone. My son, Josiah has a few questions about loft designs. First of all let me fill you in on our present loft. Our loft is inside our 2 1/2 car garage that houses everything EXCEPT cars!. The loft is in the south west corner of the garage and is 8ft by 7ft with a height of 6 1/2ft. There are 2 regular sized double hung windows one on the west wall and the other on the south wall. At this point we are planning on adding an aviary out of the west window in the spring. Here are Josiah's questions:
> Right now it does not seem like we get much light in our loft, Is adding a sky light in the roof of the garage a good idea? Is a wind circulation turbine (this is what Josiah calls it, I call it a spinny thing I see on peoples roofs) necessary for good ventilation? We do park our riding lawn mower in the garage. My dad has agreed to pushing the mower out of the garage so that the exhaust will not bother the pigeons, is this good enough or should I still be concerned about fumes? Thank you from Josiah.
> Thank you everyone for any input you might have. I hope that we are not too much of a bother and that our posts are not too confusing with me helping Josiah to post questions. Josiah enjoys coming here (and so do I!) and I want him to feel that his questions are important. I generally leaf through many threads and find the answer for him but he still wants to ask anyway


OK, the aviary is on the west side but will be open to the south and east, correct? If so this is good. Skylights are a pain to install and worst to cut out after the roof is already there. They tend to leak. So no sky light. the aviary is a better idea, cheaper also. As for air can you open the south and a west window to get air movement? You will want to put a heavier wire across the window to ensure nothing gets to the birds as well as them getting out. Set up some perches next to the windows for sun and ensure the lawnmower's gas tank is empty and the gas can lids are sealed lids. Bird's lungs are more sensitive than ours. 

God Bless,
Tony


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## soymi69 (Nov 12, 2007)

Check out www.pigeon.org and look under showcase loft or go to redrose loft and you will see some great loft desig there. Hope this help


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## Crazy Pete (Nov 13, 2008)

You might put a fan in an opposit window to draw fresh air in then the fumes shouldn't bother them. I had to drain the gas and oil when I brought my Harley in. Woman, they can smell every thing. lol
Dave


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## Msfreebird (Sep 23, 2007)

Crazy Pete said:


> You might put a fan in an opposit window to draw fresh air in then the fumes shouldn't bother them. I had to drain the gas and oil when I brought my Harley in. Woman, they can smell every thing. lol
> Dave


 LOL


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## Covenant Loft (Feb 10, 2009)

One thing you may want to be concerned about is bloom. A friend had his birds in his garage (you could put 4 cars in it) and the bloom got into everything and I mean everything, even got into the wall plugs. Just some thing to think about.

Walter


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## bucknsadie (Apr 10, 2010)

*Loft*

I also had a loft in the garage. When I started. The avery was to the north. It was a 6'X6' If you have one that big the birds spend most the day out there and get plenty of sun. I also plywooded the wall so it was its own room inside the garage and put a bathroom exhaust fan in that ran all the time. The birds stayed heathy and happy.


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## c.hert (Jan 15, 2010)

I also have a fly loft in my garage but that is all I use it for and the bloom is a lot and I handle it by the direction of how the wind is blowing and each morning put on a hugh fan and blow the dust out and I have also put in one of those whirly fans in the roof like you son calls it and it seems each year I have increase my ventilation in order to get my loft with plenty of fresh air. I don't use this loft for anything else except birds and I don't recommand you using anything with gasoline fumes in there for it is very toxic to the birds plus the carbon monoxcide (spell) would kill you birds if it built up enough. I would plan for the future and get a separate loft when you financial needs can do this and check out all the loft designs---they don't have to be large for you and your family to enjoy your birdies..Plan ahead that garage might come in handy for many other things so I would get a separate loft and have your son look at some of the pictures of lofts here on pigeon-talk and plan this for it could be fun...Look at some of those sheds and go for it get a large one if you want and if your husband is not handy with tools then start pricing with you son and get him into the financial end of it--this could be lessons in themselves even if you have to wait for awhile to actually get it...I would have a separate loft entirely away from gasoline smells and set it up in a good direction that goes by the wind flow and if you do this lofts get a sweet air smell with a breeze after you of course air out the bloom...I think it is worth it on many counts...c.hert


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