Recintos y Cercados para Animales | PolyBrick
Cercados que se limpian con manguera y nunca se pudren
Los recintos para animales son húmedos, sucios y están expuestos a mordiscos. Los muros de PolyBrick se limpian fácilmente, no se pudren ni retienen humedad, y se desmontan cuando necesitas ampliar o reconfigurar un cercado.
Por qué PolyBrick funciona en este entorno
Cualquier instalación que albergue animales recibe un castigo que las estructuras de jardín no soportarían. Se moja a diario, se ensucia, se apoya, se rasca, se frota y se muerde, y requiere una limpieza regular a fondo.
La madera absorbe todo eso. Empapa orina y agua de limpieza, permanece húmeda en los primeros cursos —precisamente donde más importa— y, una vez que empieza a ablandarse, se convierte en un problema estructural y en un foco de bacterias y otros organismos biohazardosos. La madera tratada, además, pone preservantes al alcance de los animales que mordisquean.
PolyBrick no absorbe humedad. No se ablanda, no se pudre ni retiene humedad en los cursos inferiores, y se limpia con manguera hasta dejar una superficie impecable en lugar de quedar permanentemente sucia. El material es inerte: no lleva ningún tratamiento aplicado que pueda ser mordido o ingerido.
Al no necesitar fijaciones, un cercado también puede reconfigurarse. Los corrales se amplían, los recintos se subdividen, se construye y desmonta un área de cuarentena, y los bloques pasan al siguiente proyecto en lugar de acabar en la basura.
Aplicaciones habituales
- Corrales para aves de corral y patos
- Recintos para conejos y cobayas
- Corrales para perros y cercados de casetas
- Parques y divisiones para cerdos
- Recintos para cabras y ovejas
- Paredes de almacenes de pienso y heno
- Recintos de aislamiento y cuarentena
- Instalaciones de rescate y adopción de animales
Resumen técnico
| Montaje | Encaje por presión. Sin herramientas, mortero ni fijaciones |
| Limpieza | Superficie no absorbente. Se limpia con manguera; no retiene suciedad |
| Reconfiguración | Los recintos pueden ampliarse, subdividirse o desmontarse y reconstruirse en otro lugar |
| Contacto con animales | Material inerte. Sin tratamientos superficiales que puedan morderse o lamerse |
| Resistencia climática | Resistente a los rayos UV. No se pudre, no oxida, no se deforma ni se vuelve frágil |
| Material | 100% polipropileno reciclado, fabricado en la UE con polímeros reciclados |
| Compresión | Ensayado a 150 toneladas/m² bajo carga estática fija |
| Vida útil | 25 años bajo garantía |
Qué pueden y qué no pueden hacer estos muros
Conviene ser precisos, porque el confinamiento de animales no admite ambigüedades.
Los muros de PolyBrick forman la parte sólida del cercado: los cursos inferiores, los muros bajos, los divisores y los cerramientos perimetrales. Ofrecen una estructura limpia, lavable e imputrescible justo donde la madera falla primero.
Por sí solos no constituyen un sistema de contención completo. Cualquier animal que trepe, salte, vuele o excave requiere el resto de la solución: malla sobre el muro, cubierta o red en la parte superior, y un perímetro enterrado antiexcavación para animales que caven o para depredadores que lo intenten.
Concibe el bloque como la parte del cercado que se mantiene limpia y nunca se pudre, mientras que la malla, la cubierta y el perímetro enterrado realizan el trabajo de contención por encima y por debajo. Cuando se trate de una especie concreta, sigue las recomendaciones específicas para esa especie en cuanto a altura, calibre de malla, profundidad de enterramiento y espacio por animal.
Diseñar pensando en la limpieza
La diferencia práctica más importante entre un cercado que se mantiene higiénico y uno que no lo hace es si realmente puede limpiarse con facilidad.
Construye con pendiente para que el agua fluya hacia un punto de salida en lugar de acumularse en una esquina. Mantén los ángulos interiores lo más abiertos posible, porque los rincones cerrados acumulan cama sucia y son lo más difícil de limpiar a fondo. Donde un muro encuentre un suelo duro, diseña la unión de forma que un cepillo pueda acceder a ella.
Construye secciones desmontables donde necesites acceso, del mismo modo que el frontal de un compostador. Poder abrir un muro en lugar de trabajar a través de una puerta pequeña marca una diferencia considerable en la profundidad de limpieza real del recinto.
How it goes together
- Set out the compound and check the ground. Level, firm and free-draining is what you want, and a wet corner will be the problem area forever if you build over it.
- Decide the floor before the walls. Bare earth, hard standing, or a stabilised gravel base each change how the compound cleans and drains, and it is far easier to prepare now.
- Prepare the ground for the first course: excavate to firm ground, compact, and screed level. Everything above follows this course.
- Where anything digs or where predators are a risk, put the dig-proof perimeter in at this stage. Retrofitting it later means taking the walls apart.
- Lay the first course and check level in both directions along the whole run.
- Build up in courses, staggering the joints between courses. Where you want removable access, build those sections as loose courses that lift out.
- Fix mesh, panels or roofing to whatever framework the design calls for, and make sure the junction between the blockwork and everything above it has no gaps at the level animals can reach.
- Cap the top course for a clean finish and an edge that is comfortable to handle.
Choosing the floor
The floor decides how much work the compound is, day to day.
Bare earth suits poultry and pigs that are meant to root and dust bathe, but it poaches in winter and cannot be disinfected.
Hard standing cleans and disinfects thoroughly, which is what you want for a quarantine pen or a kennel, but it needs a fall and a drain or the washing water has nowhere to go.
A stabilised gravel base sits between the two: firm and free-draining underfoot, no standing mud, and it copes with a hosing without turning to slurry. It is often the best answer for a run that is in constant use, and it stops the perimeter of the compound becoming the muddiest part of the holding.
Quarantine and isolation pens
An isolation pen has a different job from a permanent run: it needs to be thoroughly cleanable, genuinely separate, and often temporary.
Non-absorbent walls matter more here than anywhere. A surface that soaks up soiling cannot be properly disinfected, and porous, cracked or splintered materials give organisms somewhere to sit through a clean-down. Blockwork that washes to a clean surface is a considerably better starting point.
The dismantling advantage matters too. A quarantine pen can be built when it is needed, broken down and cleaned block by block afterwards, and stored flat until the next time, rather than standing unused and deteriorating.
Biosecurity is a whole protocol rather than a building material, so follow the guidance that applies to your species and situation on separation distances, movement, equipment and clean-down. The structure is one part of it.
Get it right first time
The one thing worth knowing: sort the drainage before you build anything.
Almost every unpleasant animal compound is unpleasant for the same reason: water has nowhere to go. Rain, washing down and soiling all end up in the same low corner, and once that corner is permanently wet it stays that way, whatever the walls are made of.
Set the falls, decide where the water leaves, and make sure the floor works before the first course goes down. It is a morning's thought and it determines whether cleaning the compound takes ten minutes or an hour, every single week, for the next twenty years.
Ask our engineer
Questions about compound layouts, floors, drainage or reconfigurable pens? Ask below, or get in touch directly.
Common Questions
Why use plastic blocks rather than timber for animal pens?
Timber absorbs urine and washing water, stays damp in the low courses where it matters most, and once it softens it becomes both a structural problem and a place organisms live. Treated timber also puts preservative in reach of animals that chew.
PolyBrick is non-absorbent, so it does not soften, rot or harbour damp, and it hoses down to a clean surface. The material is inert, with nothing applied to the surface to be chewed off.
Will PolyBrick walls contain animals on their own?
No, and it is important to be clear about that. The blockwork forms the solid part of a compound: base courses, low walls, dividers and surrounds.
Anything that climbs, jumps, flies or digs needs the rest of the specification, meaning mesh above the wall, a roof or netting over the top, and a dig-proof perimeter below ground. Follow the guidance for your species on height, mesh gauge, dig depth and space per animal.
Can the walls be disinfected?
The surface is non-absorbent, so it washes to a clean surface rather than soaking up soiling, which is what a porous or splintered material does. That makes it a considerably better starting point for a clean-down than timber.
Biosecurity is a whole protocol rather than a material, so follow the guidance that applies to your species and situation.
What floor should an animal compound have?
Bare earth suits poultry and pigs meant to root and dust bathe, but it poaches in winter and cannot be disinfected. Hard standing cleans thoroughly, which suits quarantine pens and kennels, but needs a fall and a drain.
A stabilised gravel base sits between the two: firm and free-draining, no standing mud, and it copes with hosing without turning to slurry.
Can a pen be taken apart and moved?
Yes. There are no fixings or mortar, so compounds can be extended, subdivided, dismantled and rebuilt elsewhere. That suits rotation, temporary quarantine areas, and any setup that changes as stock numbers do.
Blocks from a pen you no longer need go into the next project rather than being cut up.
How do you stop predators or animals digging under?
With a dig-proof perimeter below ground, installed before the walls go up. Retrofitting it later means taking the walls apart, so decide at the setting-out stage whether you need it.
Follow the guidance for the species you are containing or excluding on how deep and how far out that perimeter needs to run.
How do I make the compound easy to clean?
Build with a fall so water runs to one place and out rather than pooling in a corner, keep internal corners as open as you can, and make the junction between wall and floor something a brush can get into.
Build sections that lift out where you need access, since opening a wall is considerably more thorough than working through a small gate.
Is it suitable for a quarantine or isolation pen?
It suits the application well. Non-absorbent walls wash to a clean surface, where porous, cracked or splintered materials give organisms somewhere to sit through a clean-down.
The pen can also be built when needed, broken down and cleaned block by block afterwards, and stored flat until next time rather than standing unused and deteriorating.
Will animals chew or damage the blocks?
The material is a solid, UV stabilised recycled polypropylene with nothing applied to the surface, so there is no coating or preservative to come off.
It does not soften with moisture the way timber does, which is what usually makes chewing and rubbing damage progressive rather than superficial.
