Barn ground surface choices

[BigDogs & LittleHorses]

Hey there,

I just brought in some clean fill dirt to bring up the floor elevation in the barn, to prevent flooding that has occured in the past few years. This dirt is very powdery and now is coating everything in there and aggravating my allergies. It's just no fun to be in there.

I can wet it down a little bit but that just evaporates... Any ideas on what to do?

Bring in a layer of sand or something else to put over the dirt?

Is there some sort of dust control oil that would be safe for the horses?

Any feedback would much appreciated!

Thanks!

Daryl

 

[MinisOutWest]

i put rubber mats in my entire barn, love it

 

[Marty]

How about this stuff?

This is chat, a combination of crushed limestone, crushed gravels, mixed with sand. Sounds a bit silly but its wonderful around the barn for isleways, paths that usually will get muddy, and also round pens. This is Dan working with it as he just finished putting it in my barn. Soaks up moisture and no chance of dust. Feels great on my bare feet too! It needs to be referbished about once a year or in my case, once every two years. I love it. You can find it at your local quarry or wherever you can get loads of dirt or gravel. Its cheap. We got a huge dump truck load for about $135.00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rfyo22b47YU

 

[lilmiraclesfarm]

I'm in the process of building my mini barn. My floor is based on process, then stone dust for the top layer and then rubber mats will be placed ontop of that.

 

[Sterling]

When we had our new barn built in April, I did a lot of searching about what I wanted for the inside that was not dusty yet holds up well. Also very important it had to be easy on little mini hooves. In talking with a few barn builders we came to the decision that stone dust would work for us. We had our ground's contractor excavate and he filled that with dirt fill then we had over 6 inches of stone dust put in. He tamped that down with his Bobcat. We still have a little pile of it sitting behind the barn that we have to finish setting in. But I am very happy with how it turned out and how it works for us.

 

[~Lisa~]

If I had the money to re do my entire barn I would asphalt the entire thing

 

[Becky]

If I had the money to re do my entire barn I would asphalt the entire thing

When I built my show barn 9 years ago, I concreted the whole floor. So happy I did! The stalls are wall to wall mats with shavings over them. I just sweep the barn aisle every day to keep it shiney and new.

My mare barn has a concrete aisleway with dirt stalls and mats over the dirt. I wish it was concrete too! The mice burrow through the dirt under the mats and keep the floors uneven. A real pain!

 

[BigDogs & LittleHorses]

The stalls are concrete with rubber mats (this is 1/2 of the barn) but the other half aisleway is just bare dirt. I think it would to too expensive to install rubber mats in the rest of the barn.

I'll call the local quarry place and see what is available, including "chat" and the stone dust!

Thanks for all of the responses.

 

[rosaroca]

The barn I used to train out of had carpet on the alleyway floor. I'd never seen it used in a barn before, but it was wonderful! No dust, great traction, and we'd just run a leaf rake over it to clean off the spilled hay. Only problem we had with it was that if it was urinated on. Then you had a damp spot for a few days.

Pat