How to Make a Doghouse for your Pooch

Making a doghouse may seem like a difficult task, but, it’s actually something that’s very easy to make. You only need a few materials, and you can get the whole family involved too. As long as you supervise them, your children will love helping out with this project and seeing the results.

Today, there are a lot of different ways to make a doghouse yourself using different recycled materials. One of the materials that you can recycle and that’s trending is wood. Pallets have become one of the cheapest, fastest ways to reuse wood. 

Normally pallets are used for handling and storing merchandise using hydraulic devices. Made out of plastic, metal, or wood, wooden pallets are the most common and can be reused for all types of DIY projects. 

For instance, you can make a headboard or a footboard for your bed and an infinite number of other things. However, in this article, we’re going to teach you how to make a doghouse using pallets.

What do you need to make a doghouse?

The materials that you’ll need to make a doghouse are very easy to find, buy and come by. Here’s a list of the basics to get you started:

• Pallets: the number of pallets you’ll need will depend on the size you want your doghouse to be.
• A hammer
• Nails
• A hand saw
• A mattress for your dog
• Tar paper (if you want to waterproof your doghouse)
• Paint (optional)

Make a doghouse: where do you start?

The first thing you need to do before you make a doghouse is to make a plan. In other words, make a plan that’ll be your guide. To do this, you’ll need to work out what size you need the doghouse to be.

You’ll also need to keep other aspects in mind that include:

• The size of the doghouse entrance.
• If you want it to have windows, how big will they be?
• The roof: what shape will it have? For example, will it be flat, sloped, or have two slopes?

It’s also important to remember that the roof should stick out a couple of inches beyond the walls. This will help to prevent water from getting inside the doghouse when it rains. 

Depending of course on the size of your dog, the measurements we suggest are:

• 63.5 cm wide
• 92 cm deep
• 63.5 cm high

These measurements are a good size for a small dog.

1. Disassemble each pallet to make a doghouse

To start making a doghouse for your dog, you have several options. One of these is to disassemble each pallet and use the slats as they are. The advantage of doing this is that you can use the best slats and remove the ones that aren’t in such good shape.

The other advantage is that you can use entire pallets, meaning that you can work faster. But, on the other hand, the doghouse will be as big as the pallet.

In both cases, before you start to make a doghouse, we recommend that you sand the pallets and treat the wood with some kind of varnish.

2. The foundation

The next step is to get to work and you should start by focusing on the foundation. This will be the floor of the doghouse, so you’ll build your walls off of this. Then you’ll put the roof on top of the walls.

For the foundation, there are several options too. You can use a whole pallet and then put up the walls. You can also use a whole pallet and put the slats of a disassembled pallet on top of it. You can also make it without a wooden floor, which is fine, as long as your dog won’t spend a lot of time or a whole night in there.

3. Make a doghouse: the walls

The next step is to put up the walls by putting a slat on top of a slat and so on. Then, nail or fix them together.

If you want to, you can use extra strong wood glue instead of nails. The walls can also be made with whole pallets. If you do this, remove the feet from the pallets before you begin.

Just make sure that there aren’t any gaps between the slats. And, if you see any, fix them with a little putty or cold glue.

4. The roof

Finally, there’s the roof. If you want a sloping roof, you’ll need to cut a diagonal in the last two slats of the walls, then place the slats from one end to another.

Of course, you can use other materials besides wood for the roof, such as roof tiles or aluminum roofing. Equally, you can use tar paper on the roof to make sure it’s completely waterproof.

Make a doghouse: conclusion

As you can see, making a dog house is relatively easy and simple. The best thing about this is that if you’re handy, this is a super cheap option as opposed to buying one in a store. And, you can get the whole family involved too!

As an additional recommendation, why not decorate the doghouse? You could also put wheels on it, which will make it easier to transport and move.

Finally, don’t forget to put your dog’s bed in there so that they’ll be completely comfortable and feel at home.