5 Signs Your Dog House Is Not Weatherproof

A dog house looks fine from the porch. Walk out and put your hands on it, though, and you'll often learn something different. Georgia weather is rough on outdoor wood. We get long stretches of heat and sun, heavy afternoon rain, damp mornings and the occasional hard cold snap, and a house that isn't built or kept up for all of it starts to fail in small ways first.

Here are five signs to check for this weekend. Catch them early and a little work can save the house. Wait too long and you'll be shopping for a new one.

1. The floor feels soft or springy

The floor is where a dog house loses first. It sits closest to the ground, it takes moisture from below, and it holds wet paws and bedding on top. Press down on it with your hand or a knee. If it flexes, sags or feels spongy, water has gotten in and the wood fibers are breaking down. Lift a corner of the bedding and look for dark patches, flaking or a sour smell.

A floor that sits flat on dirt or grass has almost no chance. Air needs to move underneath so the boards can dry out after every rain. If your house sits on the ground, set it on blocks or pavers as a first step.

2. Dark stains or peeling along the bottom of the walls

Splashback from rain, sprinklers and wet grass lands on the lower few inches of the siding, so that's where the damage shows up first. Look for gray or black staining, paint or stain lifting off in sheets, and edges that have started to swell or fray. Those are signs the wood is staying wet longer than it dries.

Press a fingernail or a screwdriver tip into the stained spot. Sound wood pushes back. Rotted wood gives way and crumbles. If it's only surface staining, you can sand and refinish. If the tool sinks in, that board has to be replaced.

3. Rain blows inside, or the bedding stays damp

Check the bedding after a storm. If it's wet, or the whole house smells musty, rain is getting in somewhere. The usual culprit is the door. A door that faces straight into the prevailing weather catches wind-driven rain and hands it right to your dog's bed.

Placement is the cheap fix. Turn the house so the opening faces away from the direction your storms usually come from, and tuck the back of it against a fence or a wall if you can. Better still, buy a design that handles this itself. The houses we build use an offset door and a protective awning, so rain blowing sideways has a much harder time reaching the bed.

4. The roof edges are curling, lifting or leaking

Walk around the house and look at the roof from a few angles. Shingles that curl at the edges, a ridge that gapes, or a sheet of roofing that has lifted at a corner will all let water into the deck underneath. Once the deck is wet, the damage moves down into the walls.

Look inside, too. Daylight showing through a seam in the ceiling, water spots on the underside of the roof, or dark streaks running down the inside walls all mean the roof has failed somewhere. A good overhang matters here as well. A roof that extends past the walls sheds water away from the siding instead of letting it run down the sides.

5. Rusty nails, loose seams and wobbly corners

Fasteners hold the whole house together, and plain steel nails rust in our humid climate. Look for rust streaks running down from nail heads, nails backing out of the siding, and seams where two boards have pulled apart. A corner that wobbles when you push on it means the joints are working loose.

You can drive screws into loose spots as a repair, but if the house keeps coming apart, the problem is probably in how it was built. Hardware that's galvanized or coated holds up far better outdoors than bare steel.

What a weatherproof house looks like

A tough dog house starts with materials chosen for the outdoors. At Clark's Woodwork, our dog houses use 5/8 inch T1-11 exterior-grade siding, a 3/4 inch Advantex floor with a 50-year manufacturer warranty, and pressure-treated legs that lift the house off the ground. The roof is an OSB deck topped with asphalt shingles carrying a 20-year warranty. We put it together with galvanized spiral nails and coated fasteners, and we place the door off-center under an awning to push wind-driven rain away.

If you're checking your own house and don't like what you find, give us a call at (706) 372-6294. We're glad to talk through a repair, or help you pick a new house from our nine sizes.