Hutch renovation thread

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catherine

catherine

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I'm testing out an idea at the moment which is renovating old and tired hutches, and approaching a rescue to donate some of the profits to. I will only be renovating to the welfare standards, so 4ft x 2ft and 5ft x 2ft hutches for guinea pigs and 6ft x 2ft and bigger for rabbits.

Anyway, I found my first hutch the other day, a 4ft x 2ft one on freecycle. I went to pick it up and it looked a total mess! Still, on closer inspeaction it seemed to be surface, and underneath all the urine stains, green mossy stains and cobwebs was a very sturdy hutch!

When it first arrived, spiders crawling all over it

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Lunchtime today. All hinges and twist turns taken off, floor removed, felt and felt nails all out, chicken mesh off and all sanded:

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Early this evening, first coat of paint applied (pet friendly :) )

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I've done some sums and worked out it will cost me just about £15 to totally renovate it, including paint, new roof felt, new mesh, new ironmongery and vinyl flooring inside :))
 
Looking good. How do you know if a paint is pet friendly and what disinfectant is best for scrubbing them out with? Only asking because I'm getting a run and hutch for the piggies grasstime from a friend and it needs some tlc before I can use it. Thanks.
 
AndreaJane said:
Looking good. How do you know if a paint is pet friendly and what disinfectant is best for scrubbing them out with? Only asking because I'm getting a run and hutch for the piggies grasstime from a friend and it needs some tlc before I can use it. Thanks.
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I've used Cuprinol Garden Shades, because I know they are pet friendly, have used them on my other hutch so know how easy they go on and come in pretty colours :)) It says that they are pet friendly, but on some other stains it doesn't say one way or the other so I steer clear of ones that don't specifically say it's pet friendly.

I washed it all with boiling water, then conficlean. You can use other ones like Trigene, Virkon, Ark-klens etc. I used conficlean as I know that the previous occupant of this hutch died over a year ago, which is long enough for most infections to die out totally, and it is available to me as I use it for my guinea pigs. If I wasn't sure on the background of a hutch I would go for a stronger disinfectant. I also sanded the whole thing down, and I'm not sure if that helps with infection control, but it wouldn't matter either way anyway!
 
Got a bit more painting done today before it started raining!

Everything that is still wood coloured, will eventually be an off-white colour. It's had a second coat on the outside, and 2 coats on the inside bits now

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I wasn't going to paint the roof, but it looked so messy that it's had one coat (not having 2 as it's hardly ever seen!) The wooden batons at the bottom have only had one coat as the floor rests on them so they won't be seen
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This is the bedroom door (frame will be white), main door and bedroom divider

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I'm starting to become amazed at how well this is going......I never thought on first impressions of the hutch that I would ever be able to scrub it up to look this nice

Also - what sort of price range do you reckon this is worth when finished (will have 2 very hefty bolts on the front, square wire galvanised mesh, new felt roof and matching vinyl inside)? It has cost me just over £15 for all the renovations, and the actual hutch is very solid and well made
 
This is a fab thread! I would love to do someting like this but my DH won't let me. As for price, it's so difficult for second hand hutches. New ones are stupidly expensive but second hand ones go for hardly anything. Renovated ones are in the middle I guess. If I was going to sell that one, baring in mind it cost £15 to do the work, I'd say £35 to £40?

I don't think you are going to make money out of doing this, but you will get heaps of satisfaction and enjoyment, which is kind of payment in itself (well, it is for me)

Good luck with this, I will keep an eye out for more of your renovations. I hope you get a good price for this one.

Just an afterthought, could you not donate it directly to a rescue?
 
ariel&oscar said:
This is a fab thread! I would love to do someting like this but my DH won't let me. As for price, it's so difficult for second hand hutches. New ones are stupidly expensive but second hand ones go for hardly anything. Renovated ones are in the middle I guess. If I was going to sell that one, baring in mind it cost £15 to do the work, I'd say £35 to £40?

I don't think you are going to make money out of doing this, but you will get heaps of satisfaction and enjoyment, which is kind of payment in itself (well, it is for me)

Good luck with this, I will keep an eye out for more of your renovations. I hope you get a good price for this one.

Just an afterthought, could you not donate it directly to a rescue?
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Hey - I'm glad you like it! Work has been on hold during the bad weather and bank holiday weekend, but hopefully it will be nice again tomorrow!

I think I will put in on eBay with a starting price of £30, and hope it goes up! I did think of donating to rescue, but thought that I could have just tidied it up a bit and donated - I doubt a rescue would be too fussed about the painting and I think the painting etc will add more value to the hutch, which would be better for donations! I hope that makes sense..... rolleyes

As this is a prototype, I haven't liaised with a rescue about this as a long term viable option yet. Eventually I think I will donate 50% of profits to rescue, keeping the other 50% just to help with my own vet bills for all my rescue furries :)
 
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