How to Build a Dog House

hey everybody i'm burris today i'm going to be building a modern take on the traditional doghouse but i'm also going to be adding some additional features that are sure to make the neighborhood dogs jealous so if you guys are ready let's go in this video i'll show you how to easily construct this modern and functional design using some plywood framing lumber deck screws and a few other finishing elements no need to get out the pen and paper just yet because we've got a full list of materials tools and instructions in the description below so let's get started [Music] i'm going to begin by framing the base the side walls and the roof i'll finish out my base and then attach the side walls and the roof frame to create the main doghouse structure later on i'll be adding plywood for siding measure twice cut once now that i got the base pieces cut i'm gonna go grab my drill and fasten this together [Music] so when you're measuring if you're only off by an eighth or so it's it's not going to be perfect that's totally fine when you go to put the plywood on then you can really kind of nudge it one way or another and that plywood's really going to hold it down all right and that's it the base is done so we're going to be cutting some angles if you've got a miter saw where you can set the angle have it up against the fence and make a nice perfect cut great if you don't a speed square is definitely what i'd recommend it's inexpensive it's quick and this is framing so it does not have to be perfect you just got to be in the ballpark now if you're going to cut all your framing pieces all at once it might be best to go ahead and just label everything as you cut it otherwise you're looking at a giant pile of two by twos and you're trying to figure out what's what and you're having to re-measure everything so just go ahead and mark it with a pencil it's your framing it won't be seen anyways all right now that we've got our framing all cut we're gonna assemble it so we're cutting and assembling two by two so they have a tendency to crack if you put a screw through the end so i'm going to drill some pilot holes and we're going to put this all together and put it on our base [Music] all right number two all right and there is the back so with two by twos you can see it it moves a little bit right now once we put all four walls together it's really going to sturdy it up if you were building with two by fours it'd be a little stiffer but for a dog house this is perfect all right so we're going to go ahead and assemble our walls on the base now if you're working by yourself you might think it's easy just to hold two walls together and try and screw them together you might be able to do that what i'm going to do i'm going to mark where this back wall goes and screw it into my base first that way it's like i've got an extra set of hands holding that wall while i screw on the sides and then my front left side on so we got three sides up last one is front all right so you can modify the door area if you need to if you have a taller dog and i made it approximately two to four inches wider than her shoulder blade so she can go in and out obviously if your dog's a different size you can customize it accordingly all right so we've got our front built it's starting to look like a doghouse now [Music] now this is going to hang off the front about 12 inches it's going to be flush with the back so if you come around to the back and you look at the edge obviously we didn't cut this at an angle and this is going straight up this is kind of going back so do yourself a favor and just move this forward just a little bit so that this top edge is flush here that way you don't have this top kicking your plywood panel out this way [Music] all right so we're going to measure and we're going to cut all our walls we're going to do our sides and then our roof [Music] all right we're going to measure and cut the front and we're going to go ahead and just cut it and lay it up there see how it fits and then we'll mark our opening for the door another quick thing to think about the grain is running uh vertical i made sure that all the other size grain is also running vertical because this is what my finished wall is going to look like so i thought having them all running the same way would work out nicely so line it up side to side grab a pencil and just kind of get inside there and mark your door all right that'll do it we got our walls now let's go put on the roof all right so i'm getting ready to cut the plywood for the roof our width and our length we're going to add three quarters of an inch to each side so both sides add three quarter of an inch the front and the back that way we have room for our trim and we can put our drip cap right over top of that beautiful the last thing we're going to do before we wrap for the day is go ahead and cut all of our trim pieces that way we can get them painted and we can stain the doghouse [Music] left all right it's a new day our paint and our stain is cured so we're gonna finish this thing off by putting our drip edge our shingles and our trim on so let's get started here we go drip edges on [Music] so in my 9-5 i don't typically do a lot of roofing so i'm not sure how other roofers do it but when you measure your pieces for the end to cut them just flip them over score them with a knife fold them until they break [Music] make sure not to cut through to cut your tarp paper [Music] all right the roof's done time to do the trim i'm gonna put this on with brad nails but i'm also gonna use some construction adhesive if you want you can even use a little bit of silicone right behind here to kind of waterproof these seams [Music] so while we're building this we want to make sure there's nothing sharp poking through so that when our pet's inside they're not going to get cut or anything so we're making sure there are finish nails our screws our regular roof nails everything is just long enough to go into the lumber but not so long that it goes through the lumber [Music] i think luna likes her new doghouse but if you want to take this modern design to the next level i've got a few ideas that i want to try out so one of the first ideas i had is cut this wall open hinge it at the top so it folds out creates a little bit of shade maybe a little bit of airflow i think luna's really going to like it [Music] there we go so i've got my rough door cut out i had to put in a little bit extra framing at the top for this hinge but the hinge should cover up all these screws nicely so to be able to get the door to shut nicely i took off this piece of framing pop my trim back on and voila there it goes nice and easy [Music] and just like that our doghouse has a side door now we could stop there but i've got one more idea that you might like all right so for this last modification we're gonna build a ramp so luna can get up on the roof we're gonna tear off this asphalt shingle and put down some artificial grass so she can do some sunbathing all right so i took the roof off down to the felt paper i'm going to build a border around it to hide the edges of this artificial grass [Music] all right so i'm cutting out the ramp with half inch ply which is what we built our doghouse out of that way when we stain it'll match on the inside however you really won't see the ply so i'm using a three quarter inch to provide more structural integrity [Music] [Applause] so for the outside face of the ramp you could try just screwing your panels in all from the outside but if you want to hide your screws try using something like a pocket hole jig it's inexpensive it's easy to use and it keeps all those screws hidden [Music] so you don't have to do this i use the pocket holes on the three-quarter inch on this half inch stuff i went ahead and threw in some little stringers and some brad nails just to make it a little stronger i'm gonna do a quick weight test [Music] all right so i think it's passing the weight test i'm going to build a few spacers so it ties in nicely to the doghouse and then we'll put our grass on so you don't have to permanently attach your ramp i'm going to my dog's a little bit bigger so i'm going to fill in these gaps do a little painting and permanently attach it to the dog house all right the dog house is done there's just one last thing and that's figuring out where am i gonna put this in my yard i think i know just the place looks like luna's a big fan of her dog house and i have to admit i am too so get creative get to work let us know how your doghouse turned out in the comments below and remember you can find all the materials dimensions and instructions in the description below thanks and see you soon

Channel: Lowe's Home Improvement

Views: 647,997

Keywords: how-to, how to, diy, lowe's, lowes, how to build a dog house, how to build a doghouse, how to build a modern dog house, how to upgrade a dog house, modern dog house build, diy dog house, dog house with porch, dog house with roof deck, dog house with convertible wall, dog house with ramp, dog house with fake grass, upgraded dog house, dog house upgrade, best dog house, coolest dog house, best dog house 2020, world's best dog houses, most awesome dog houses

Id: b-wM9XWdDFY

Length: 10min 31sec (631 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020