Mini Killhouse Designs.

[toneill416]

Hi there everyone,

 

After the recent passing of my pupper Charlie I now have part of my garden left fenced off and was thinking of building a mini killhouse within the fenced off area. Although it is not big roughly 12x30 foot, not accurate measurements. 

I was wondering if there was anyone on here that would have any design ideas for the small area. 

 

Regards,

 

toneill416

[Tommikka]

14 hours ago, toneill416 said:

Hi there everyone,

 

After the recent passing of my pupper Charlie I now have part of my garden left fenced off and was thinking of building a mini killhouse within the fenced off area. Although it is not big roughly 12x30 foot, not accurate measurements. 

I was wondering if there was anyone on here that would have any design ideas for the small area. 

 

Regards,

 

toneill416

12’ wide could give you corridors of 3‘ wide which should provide a balance between the space you have, a claustrophobic feeling and enough space to carry a gun
If you aim at 3’ then you have a potential grid of 4x10 to design around 

 

It will depend on what you are after:

1)Rooms to be cleared (you need to allow space in rooms to put objects/targets/friendlies

2)Confined CQB environment (you can sacrifice space for a maze of corridors with occasional more open spaces)

 

You could build ‘walls’ with fixed or moveable panels, or overlay a framework of cables or batoning etc  on the top and suspend sheeting or hang/stand movable panels.

Something fixed will be more stable, something flexible allows you to mix it up 

 

A bit bigger than the area you have but a good example is the NPF killhouse with a couple of overhead views in the Paintfest video here:

.... and this gives an idea of what it’s like inside during one of our BR games:

 

 

 

Our TFD Facebook photo galleries for Paintfest July 2013 to July 2019 (and air fest) have sets of our games showing inside both the Kill House and the more spread out Camp Basset 

https://m.facebook.com/TaskForceDelta/?ref=br_rs&fb_dtsg_ag=AQwAp_28yZWRLRQM-GrT7T4vZiyKpVf46PdxxROGUvcddg%3AAQxB2ZWTfIgP_Y6Ot-BlsdqPphFaZX2Mp79nyS19DEkkJA&jazoest=27957

[toneill416]

Thank you for the reply was very helpful, also really enjoyed the videos. I have went for room clearing with three rooms and a corridor of the suggested 3" down the centre of the kill House, so it can double as a small range. 

 

I have also left 1 somewhat large open area at the top of the corridor totaling a third of the full area.

 

I have attached a copy of a rough floor plan leaving half a foot either way for the added width of the panels.

 

Have one more question to see others opinions about materials, I'm looking at sheet materials like plywood or chipboard in regards to the walls or does anyone have any other suggestions. Also in regards to the flooring I have 3 options, option 1 is the leave the grass and build around it although this means more care in the long run, option two is to pour sand throughout or top soil with week killer, or option 3 to put some sort of soft padding along the floor.

 

Regards,

 

toneill416

 

[Tackle]

[Schnakey]

Sorry to hear about your dog, very sucky. 

 

I'd AstroTurf it. 

[Tommikka]

For wood I would veer towards plywood rather than chipboard.

I would just imagine chipboard soaking up all the damp, expanding & distorting.

 

For the ground it could depend on what your grass is like.  If you have any level of use then it will be trampled down and only get long in any areas you don’t walk.  That can then be ignored, move around objects to change where you walk or flash a strimmer around once in a while. 
With the grass left that does mean there is some substance below the surface even if you do get high traffic then there’s something just below to hold the ground together rather than go straight to mud and wear away

 
Treating the ground such as with sand might affect the grounds recovery in the future.

(Going down to mud on occasion will allow grass to potentialy pop back when it has time to recover.  If you kill it off then it’s going to need to be brought back to life somehow one day in the future)

 

Id probably avoid laying down a surface unless you’re after a high use long term solution, and if you add a surface you’re possibly making something to slip on

If you have old carpet etc then strips could be put down (avoiding trip edges) but consider that as something that needs to be lifted and dumped every now and then 

Unless you have access to Astro turf etc

Note that any surface can become puddles (May depend on whether or not you’re putting over a roof)

 

 Is this going to be multipurpose with a bar and toilet or are they ‘feature rooms’ of the kill house.
 

I have an outdoor toilet tip:

Get a basic camping toilet bucket.  Not a chemical toilet but a bucket with a seat. Then put a bag in it and drop in some wood pellet cat litter.  Optionally an air-freshener spray for the ladies - but it shouldn’t remain long enough to need it.

For liquid chuck on another handful of cat litter, and then at the end of the day put the bag of cat litter in the bin.

If anyone lays a log then it’s up to them to deal with the bag.

 

[toneill416]

Thanks for the tips in regards to the ground think it I will be leaving the way it is and just stick a Strummer through it every so often, as you never know what may happen in the future and may have to put it back to its original state. 

 

Also think the same in regards to the wood panels plywood would probably be the best in the long run.

 

As for the bar and toilet they will be feature rooms of the kill House at the beginning with hopes of making them multipurpose in the near future although I would need to add some sort of roof. 

 

As for roofs I was thinking clear pvc this way I do no need to worry about artificial lighting, although they may become noisy during high winds.

 

Thanks for the tips in regards to the toilets. 😅

 

Regards,

 

toneill416

[Tommikka]

9 hours ago, toneill416 said:

Thanks for the tips in regards to the ground think it I will be leaving the way it is and just stick a Strummer through it every so often, as you never know what may happen in the future and may have to put it back to its original state. 

 

Also think the same in regards to the wood panels plywood would probably be the best in the long run.

 

As for the bar and toilet they will be feature rooms of the kill House at the beginning with hopes of making them multipurpose in the near future although I would need to add some sort of roof. 

 

As for roofs I was thinking clear pvc this way I do no need to worry about artificial lighting, although they may become noisy during high winds.

 

Thanks for the tips in regards to the toilets. 😅

 

Regards,

 

toneill416

I would be half inclined to say no roof, which would give you all the light and the ability to put some cameras up on poles recording an overview.  But then you're stuck with the weather.

Corrugated clear PVC will give a decent roof option, and allow light, you can still populate the place with cameras in rooms and corridors.

You can decide to have a slightly elevated roof (raised about a foot or so above the walls) giving plenty of ventilation, but would then want to allow wider coverage to stop rain going straight in.

This could have the disadvantage of making the roof into a wing in the wind if the frame holding it isn't solid enough.

A better fitted roof will make things more cosy ... and allow you more multi function use such as a man shed, private bar, kill house shooting gallery.

 

Obviously have the roof at some slope, and ideally drop a line of guttering along the back leading to a barrel - you then have green credentials harvesting the rain for the garden.

 

 

A possible alternative is one of the cheap pole gazebos for an instant roof.  Either:

• set up the gazebo frame, build the kill house around the legs and put the roof on.
• or just set up the roof frame and mount it on top of the kill house.

A white roofed cheap pole gazebo will let in a good amount of light, potentially as much as clear if you take into account 'brightening' features of white.

 

I'll get some pics up of my mates hippy shack.  This has gone through a couple of versions, originaly just decking between 2 brick sheds and a back wall, then a ramshackle built man shed which lasted many years until the tarpaulin roof took all the weight of snow during the beast from the east.  It was then demolished and rebuilt in the summer - still thrown together but to a better standard with new rather than recycled decking and a few seconds more thought before whacking together some  wood. 

 

Some shots of the hippy shack and a long pole gazebo

(depending on your actual feet measurements one of these may be shorter and not necessarily worth the compromise)

These pole gazebos do normally end up with twisted poles, but you’ll have something more substantial protecting it

 

The first edition of the shack had a panelled lower half and an open upper half (summer house style) and tarp closing the upper half in 'weather' and winter.

This version has a mixture of panels or open, with heavy duty tarp and fronted by lattice.

The white mesh is a transparent heavy duty tarp with a white grid.

With the brick walls behind and on each side, complete with the heaftt struts this will cope with anything the weather will send it.

 

[Tommikka]

Beast from the east edition:

 

 

(If you’ve followed new events in Salisbury for the last few years, that was the snow that we had 2 days before the Russians came.   We had snowdrifts etc but everything had melted before they arrived ....

 

The snow drift that I was digging up on 2nd of March and the mountain I had piled up in front which was all but gone on 4th March