I'm Building a Barn

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We did a barn three years ago and the 2 things I would change are a wider aisle mine is 10 ft and I wish it were at least 2ft wider so tractor could go down the middle with a little more wiggle room and I would have doors to each stall leading to the outside which I didnt do. I wanted to but got talked out of it. Still may do that sometime in the future but will require more ground work now. Could have been done when we built it.
 
I have heard mention of "Foam" Footing. Are these like stall mats ??? Also I really like the prefeit (Not sure of spelling) Stalls. The idea of putting a tarp over looked like it would work for Foaling mares. It just made the barn look bigger. I doubt we will do a loft. I think I have my father convinced that lofts are, catch-alls, dirty, invite vermin and insects, and when you have toddlers it's an accident waiting to happen.... I'm Bad... I just don't want a loft...... I am trying to convince him we need a small area in one end of the barn to work horses in bad weather and that a wash area with hot water is a MUST !@!!! We have 5 horses all together, I like the stallion stall idea, with it being taller. Also the feed/tack room being in the middle of the barn makes alot of sense. We will also be building our house onto the barn at a later date. Has anyone done this ??? How do you like it ? Anything you would change about that ?
 
Well -- our barn is 40 x 48 -- aluminum sided barn with trusses. We finally finished installing the electricity yesterday (electric company connected it to the power and installed our new meter). The lights are not in these pictures -- but it turned out to be just what I wanted!

You can visit this webpage to see all the pictures (sorry they don't line up right with the descriptions -- I need to fix that) and read more about our barn. We have 12 minis in it now -- one is pregnant.

Fox Holler Farm - New Stalls

Here are a couple of pictures -- sorry they are large.

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ok, here is another question. We will only have enough room for the barn and outside "Runs" on the

property. For the runs on the outside, how do you battle "THE MUD" ????? I see some people gravel

their lots, what type of layers do you use ? We have all the horses in temp. pens right now and the

mud and smell is a Big Problem. I do not want to treat the area with lime, because it's part of our

back yard. So what type of yards do you have ? Do you prefer Gravel or concrete in your aisle ways ?
 
Glad you liked some of my ideas -- -they work for me!

Our aisle is cement. The stall floors are dirt. Cement aisle is easier to sweep and wash down than gravel. Also, to me, gravel can get up into hooves & cause problems.

Dunno how you'd battle mud. We have our own fights with it!! But as our horses get further away from the barn run-in and other shelters, the ground stays more solid. I don't know how you'd fight mud if that's the only area the horses have to go outside.

I would suggest tho, if you're going to give hay in those outside areas, that you get feed bunkers that have hay racks above. Or perhaps attach hay racks to the outside of the barn in each area. Either way, you'll at least keep hay out of the mud! Regardless of what kind of surface you have, you still have to clean up the manure periodically to avoid odor & fly problems.
 
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Do you prefer Gravel or concrete in your aisle ways ?



I definitely prefer concrete for my aisleway. Much cleaner, can be swept and/or hosed off, is nice and level for the farrier to trim horses or for me to measure horses, etc. We had it "textured" so it isn't slippery for the horses but still is easy to sweep. Inside the stalls is hard-packed dirt with heavy rubber mats on top.
 
As for as the footing for barns, etc. A really good book that I have found very helpful is "Horsekeeping on a Small Acreage"(Designing and Managing your Equine Facilities) by Cherry Hill. She goes over everything, footing for barns, arenas, roundpens, etc. Plus lots of good diagrams for laying out your farm, etc.
 
Novel_tfarm,

How neat that you are building a new mini barn! We built our barn several years ago for quarter horses but have since converted it for the minis.

I do think it is a good idea to have at least one stall with solid walls for your foaling stall, some of the mares can get quite cranky if they feel another horse is close to her baby. Plus if it is cold weather, it makes it more draft free for the new foal. We have a kalglo heater in one stall and it is the greatest!!

I also am a firm believer in LOTS of windows, I feel the natural light is great with the added plus of venilation. We have a window in every single stall.

We started with a dirt aisle and have since put concrete in. It makes it so much nicer and easier to clean plus it is easy to disinfect. Our stall are all ground underneath with 3/4 inch stall mats on top. I feel stall mats are one of the wisest investments we ever made - there again, they are so much easier to clean, saves on bedding and can be easily disinfected.

We added a lean to on to one side of our barn and I love it. Wish we had done that when we did our original build, I'm sure it would have been much more cost efficient.

Good luck with the building of your mini barn - and I absolutely LOVE the idea of someday adding your house to it. To me that would be just the GREATEST!!!
 
Due to several moves throughout our life, we have built several barns and learned what not to do the next time. So when we built this barn, I had saved a written list of what needed to be included. In fact we built the barn before we built our house.

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Here are a few things that we included in this barn.

First ensure that you spend the money to have the foundation graded and leveled.

Our aisles are 14 foot wide

stalls vary from 8 to 12 - 10-12 and 12-12

Slider wire mesh stall doors

Large fan ventilation at eachend of the barn.

Hay storage is on the ground - layer of plastic - then skids on top of the plastic with access from both ends of the barn- Stalls are all tongue and grove

Locked grain storage and separate tack room

Doors to the aisle are overhead garage doors (can easily be opened when you have a deep snow)

Bulk Shavings can be delivered in the back of the barn and stored inside

Washroom is directly across from the groom room

Groom room is double matted with a wrestling 3 inch mat for extra cushion for everyone, insulated, enclosed with both air conditioning and heat

Entire barn is wired for fire alarms to an alarm company and into our house alarm system as well

Sleeping quarters are in the office with a separate bathroom and shower

Video camera system to the house - extra telephones

The aisle between the stalls are matted (had not yet been installed in this photo ) - Concrete concerns me when horses flip over and I don't like dirt floors - so we just matted them and solved both problems. The Mats came in 125 foot rolls so it is one solid piece. (installing was a challenge however and required heavy equipment)

Insulated water buckets,

Each stall is wired for its own light and one electric outlet per stall

The back half of the barn is an overhang with 3 individual paddocks that can be opened up and cleaned with a skid loader for quick manure removal.

Plenty of parking and ability to turn a large semi trailer without having to back up. Outdoor lights that provide lighting for the outdoor arena that is within 20 foot of the back of the barn.

Hot and cold water.

It is truly our dream barn and I'm very thankful to my husband and our sons for building the entire inside of the barn - including the stalls - It took them over 2 years to complete the entire project.

I hope this is of help - Good luck with your barn - If we can be of help, let me know as we sure made many mistakes along the way - some of our earlier builds had very expensive mistakes which could not be corrected unfortunately.
 
Getitia,

I can't tell you how much I appreciated your post.

We have relocated and will be starting construction on our new barn in spring. Until then we have been "working" with an old large tobacco shed. We have tightened it up the best we can, Wisconsin winters demand it. In spring with the new constructions this will be tightened up the rest of the way, resided and roofed, and used for hay and equipment storage.

Your barn has hit all of the things I have been wishing for and some important details that will be added to "our" plans. We don't have it all designed just yet and are constantly "rethinking" the details.

This helped! Thanks again.

Anne
 
Anne,

You are most welcome. We have also refitted several barns which can be more of a challenge. For this particular barn - Prior to building , we took the plans and spent several hours actually determining how best to lay everything out so that it was efficient. We first had the pad graded and leveled- it is so important to raise up the actual base (pad) approximately 8 to 12 inches or more depending on your area rainfall - this will facilitate all of the drainage needed to keep everything dry. (our first barn building nightmare). A skilled contractor will be able to provide a level building base. Then we set everything up with cones - to measure and remeasure and make sure that the set up was as efficient, safe and functional as possible. We made many adjustments in the plans before we actually started to build. For example installing a quick easy to access cut off to the water lines in the case of a line bursting. We have fire extinguishers at every entrance and no equipment is stored in this barn.

As we are getting older now, we wanted to ensure we could use equipment as much as possible to make the "normal" care chores easier. Hence gates in the paddock that swing either way - gates that are wide enough for equipment to enter. We did not want to store hay overhead anymore - as it cut down on the ventilation and was so much work to store and then to take down to use. I didn't want to be a 60 year old woman climbing up a 12 foot ladder to throw down hay. :bgrin

Our grain room has double doors both open up - helps with unloading the grain. Double light switches for the barn at each door entrance - having the main lights split in half to save on energy costs. Having a walkway half way through the barn to cut the stalls in half - makes everything much easier. Also should we ever move, this barn can easily be converted for full size horses - an important thing to consider.

The hours spent in planning upfront to figure out all of the details has made the biggest difference in this barn. Good luck to you - and if you ever have any questions, just e-mail me - I'm truly glad to help in any way - not really an expert in barn building, however I know "what" not to do :new_shocked:
 
:new_shocked: GETITIA...WILL YOU ADOPT ME AND MY HORSES?

Seiously, your barn is awesome. Your guys all look very cozy, comfy. I too prefer something other than dirt or concrete in the aisles.

We will be building a barn within the year, so I appreciate all the good ideas.
 
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We have been to Getitia's a couple of times and am amazed at her set up! It is so awesome! Ron still talks about it. He was like a kid in a candy store.

Fran
 
Getitia, I think you are going to have to adopt ALL of us! Your barn is gorgeous! This topic is great. We are going to add on to our barn some day (it started out having 4 12x12 stalls and now has those four plus 2 12x6 mini stalls and one more 8x8 mini stall in the works). My four stall barn has been converted to a seven stall and needless to say is getting a little cramped! It is great to see what other people would do differently and what works best for them.
 
Getitia

I love the look of your stalls, Were they custom made by someone ? We are looking at Prefeit dividers, but I like your look better. Also where did you locate the Mats at ? I agree about the Flipping over, it's so hard on them, even though it does not happen often,,,,It Happens... Could you send more pictures ???? Of your tack area, groom room and wash stall ? We are looking at putting a round pen inside the end of the barn. We are headed to Graber post tomorrow to make arrangements and we have bumped the building up to a 60 x 80 freespan, I'm SOOOOOO Happy. Its finally happening :new_shocked:
 
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HERE ARE SOME PICS OF MY BARN. WE PURCHASED A COVERALL LAST YEAR AND HAVE BEEN WORKING ON ALL THE STALLS AND TURNOUTS AS WE GO. EVERTHING HAS COME TOGETHER VERY NICE. WE HAVE 9 MINI STALLS THAT ARE 6X12 AND 4 BIGGER STALL FOR FOALING 2 10X12 AND 2 12X12 WITH A FOALING MONITOR. I HAVE REALLY ENJOYED THE COVERALL AND FOR THE COST TO BUILD A 4OX60 BARN IT WAS ABOUT 1/2 THE PRICE. THE SKYLIGHTS ARE AWESOME TO GET NATURAL LIGHT IN THE BARN AND IT HAS A 20 YR. WARRANTY. THERE IS ALSO A PIC OF MY MINI VELVET IN ONE OF THE MINIS STALLS. THANKS FOR LOOKING! :saludando:
 
Our barn was built for big horses, but adapted for minis. Of course, we don't have mares foaling all the time, so we leave open-ish areas above the wooden walls in between stalls. When a mare IS foaling we put up big boards to supply privacy.

We also used barred things for big horses (supposed to go at the top of the outside door so they can peek their head out) as the mini's door facing the inside of the barn. It lets them be social and talk to you when you feed. VERY good idea.
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