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Regular
Posts: 57
| Hello! What does everyone have for their stall flooring? What do you love and what do you hate? Thanks everyone in advance. |
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 Expert
Posts: 4121
 
Location: SE Louisiana | I hate dirt... Love mats on lime with a base of sand. |
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 Midget Lover
  
Location: Kentucky | I have dirt and dint have any problems. |
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Expert
Posts: 4121
Location: SE Louisiana | Every barn I ever worked in with a dirt floor, the horses would dig holes.... I mean BIG holes.... |
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Regular
Posts: 61
Location: Missouri | I want dirt so tired of sweeping concrete! I would have a dirt alley with dirt, packed chat and mats in the stalls as long as u don't have pawers dirt would be fine especially with mats I would think. |
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 Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | I want to try those things called Grids. Suppsose to let pee drain through. |
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 Money Eating Baggage Owner
Posts: 9586
Location: Phoenix | The place where I keep my horse is just dirt and we add shavings a couple times a month to keep the bedding and footing nice. There's only one horse that paws and we put a rubber mat where she digs and it seems to have stopped it. |
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 A Gopher's Worst Nightmare
Posts: 5094
Location: Southern Oregon | I use belting. Similar to mats |
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Expert
Posts: 1586
Location: west of East Texas | Dirt. And I have a dirt alley. I knew there was no way I was going to spend my time sweeping in the barn if I couldn't even remember where I stored my broom in the house! I do have a 12 x 12 wash rack that is also the wak through area on the west side of the barn and it drives me crazy after a couple of days. I am SO glad I went with dirt. If and when mine paw a hole, I just fill it back up but it rarely happens. |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 448
Location: lone star state | Clay works well. Many public facilities in my area have as well as barns I have been in the past. Packs firm but not as hard as concrete.
My family had a barn that had railroad cross ties for stall flooring. Lasted many many years and never got wet. Had to keep lots of shavings on top. Urine would run thru to dirt underneath if not dilgently kept clean. |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| Thank you so much to everyone that has taken the time to respond! I'm getting lots of good ideas to check into. I appreciate all of your time. Keep the ideas coming :) |
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
| Mats over crushed concrete that has been leveled and stamped (?) down- pee drains- no odor, no holes from pawing. |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| Thank you! Do you put shavings down also or just mats? |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| Thank you to everyone that has taken the time to respond. Does anyone else have anything to add? Would like to have as many options as possible. Thank you! |
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Member
Posts: 29
| I am also looking at the best options for stall floors. I have clay now, but am not real thrilled with it. No where for the pee to go, so it gets wet. I have recently found that a mixture of pellets and shavings help if there are just a ton of them in there. Anyway, does anyone have experience with STALL SKINS? Saw those at a barn the other day. The crushed concrete idea is a new one. Makes sense. Do to keep tons of bedding on top? I would think it would be pretty uncomfortable otherwise. |
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Location: Midwest | Use to have limestone for aisle and stalls. Only thing I didn't like was the ground would get to unleveled and I'm prone to trip over everything. Currently now it's concrete aisles with limestone and rubber mat stalls. I like it but you need good ventilation. My friends barn smells of urine because of the rubber mats and she cleans her stalls everyday. Even in winter it's so gross. But I like mine! |
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 Underestimated Underdog
Posts: 3971
Location: Minnesota | I have dirt floors and put rubber mats over the top with shavings. My walk way is concrete. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 210
| My stalls are dirt and when we put our well in for our house we had lots of that really fine stone/dirt from the well drilling. It was enough to level our three stalls and then we put two mats on top and shavings. I love it. It doesn't get dug up and there's no moisture held underneath the mats. Granted I live in PA so our soil is a little dirt with lots of rocks lol. And our well was 500ft deep. But I'm sure you could find something equal to it. If you go with just dirt I highly recommend mats. A lot easier and bedding lasts way longer. My aisle is dirt with mats down the center.
Edited by burning ember 2015-01-23 10:58 AM
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  Twin Sister to Queen Boobie
Posts: 13315
Location: East Tennessee but who knows?! | Most of mine are dirt and it helps tremendously to use pellets because they're so try. I have one stall with gravel and mats on top. Wish I could do them all like that!! |
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Member
Posts: 11
| May be lacking salt. |
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 I Sell Dreams
Posts: 1654
Location: Freestone TX | I have the stall grids with dirt on top. It works great as long as the horse doesn't live in the stall. Then the dirt gets packed and even though there are grids underneath and a layer of crushed limestone under the grids, the packed dirt does not drain. With all our recent wet weather, I ended up putting shavings on top of the dirt. So I now have grids, dirt AND shavings.
The grids keep a pawing horse from un-leveling the floor past the the depth of the grids. |
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 Sock eating dog owner
Posts: 4557
Location: Where the pavement ends and the West begins Utah | Concrete with a slope and a irrigation drain to carry it outside the barn. I know of a barn with concrete and drains in the middle and no mats just bed with heavy straw. |
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 Veteran
Posts: 126
Location: Ohio | Does anyone have any experience with the comfort stall system (the foam pad with continuous rubber top)? I am building a barn in the spring and have been leaning towards this on a concrete slab foundation. Also have looked at the crushed rubber mattress systems with the same top. Just wondering if anyone had any comments about these? |
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The Resident Destroyer of Liberal Logic
Location: PNW | We have rock fines in our stalls and then mats on top. It makes for GREAT drainage, but is also super stable and heavy duty. |
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Blessed 
Location: Here | I have sand and was advised by this very board a couple of years ago to put rubber mats on top!
WOW YES!!! Makes stall cleaning easy! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 696
Location: Sunny California | Two of our local vets have some type of this system. If I had a regular barn I would definately put these in. When I had to have one of my old horses at the vet for a couple of weeks he didn't stock up at all even being confined to the stall because of the mattress system. This horse would stock up at the drop of a hat. |
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 Banjo and Baby
Posts: 7259
Location: South of Canada and North of Mexico | I have 2" rough cut oak over top of sand and clay. I use mats and shavings as well. I put 3 coats of waterproofing on the boards. They have a little give to them vs concrete and I love them way more than I did with clay and shavings.
I usually use more shavings than this.
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Regular
Posts: 57
| Thank you all sooooo much for all of your great ideas, suggestions, and pictures. Also a huge thank you for others that are looking for suggestions for their stalls also. It helps to have lots of great questions. I am getting some great ideas. Thanks again everyone. |
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 Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
Location: Texas | Stall savers!!! We love them and I heard they were really easy to install :)
I think we just had regular dirt under them.
http://www.stallsavers.com/ |
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Blessed
Location: Here | livinonlove&horses - 2015-01-17 2:57 PM I want to try those things called Grids. Suppsose to let pee drain through.
Anyone have any information on the grids? |
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Don't Wanna Make This Awkward
Posts: 3106
Location: Texas | SG. - 2015-01-24 7:30 AM livinonlove&horses - 2015-01-17 2:57 PM I want to try those things called Grids. Suppsose to let pee drain through. Anyone have any information on the grids?
The stall savers I posted let the pee drain through them.. |
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| We've had the Stable Comfort (crushed rubber under the solid mat) in our stalls for several years now and LOVE it. Well worth the cost to put it in. |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| outrundaizy - 2015-01-24 12:24 AM
Stall savers!!! We love them and I heard they were really easy to install : ) I think we just had regular dirt under them. http://www.stallsavers.com/
Thank you! I just looked on their webpage and they sound great! I appreciate you taking the time to post. I really like the looks of them. |
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Ms. Poutability
Posts: 2362
Location: In my own world | SG. - 2015-01-24 7:30 AM livinonlove&horses - 2015-01-17 2:57 PM I want to try those things called Grids. Suppsose to let pee drain through. Anyone have any information on the grids?
http://stallgrid.com/Stall%20Mats.htm
so that didn't wirk!! It's www.stallgrid.com
Edited by livinonlove&horses 2015-01-24 6:32 PM
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 300
| burning ember - 2015-01-23 10:55 AM
My stalls are dirt and when we put our well in for our house we had lots of that really fine stone/dirt from the well drilling. It was enough to level our three stalls and then we put two mats on top and shavings. I love it. It doesn't get dug up and there's no moisture held underneath the mats. Granted I live in PA so our soil is a little dirt with lots of rocks lol. And our well was 500ft deep. But I'm sure you could find something equal to it. If you go with just dirt I highly recommend mats. A lot easier and bedding lasts way longer. My aisle is dirt with mats down the center.
500 ft deep! Wow, we have to redo our well this year and our current one is at 290, that is very deep for our area.
And to the OP, my husband got really creative. He put highway fabric down, then heavy duty plastic, then 2-3" crushed rock, then belting instead of mats. He built the stall flooring so that the front of the stalls (isle side) is about 2" roughly higher than the back of the stall (outside wall) so that any urine will run out and away. Our barn base was built up so it will never flood, heavy rains, spring melt, etc. will run off down the hill as well. I am not a fan of belting though in place of mats. It is a little slicker than mats so I always sweep a little dirt from the isle in there to mix with shavings. We did not pay for it is the only reason we went with belting. |
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Veteran
Posts: 210
| ChicksInferno - 2015-01-26 8:39 AM
burning ember - 2015-01-23 10:55 AM
My stalls are dirt and when we put our well in for our house we had lots of that really fine stone/dirt from the well drilling. It was enough to level our three stalls and then we put two mats on top and shavings. I love it. It doesn't get dug up and there's no moisture held underneath the mats. Granted I live in PA so our soil is a little dirt with lots of rocks lol. And our well was 500ft deep. But I'm sure you could find something equal to it. If you go with just dirt I highly recommend mats. A lot easier and bedding lasts way longer. My aisle is dirt with mats down the center.
500 ft deep! Wow, we have to redo our well this year and our current one is at 290, that is very deep for our area.
And to the OP, my husband got really creative. He put highway fabric down, then heavy duty plastic, then 2-3" crushed rock, then belting instead of mats. He built the stall flooring so that the front of the stalls (isle side ) is about 2" roughly higher than the back of the stall (outside wall ) so that any urine will run out and away. Our barn base was built up so it will never flood, heavy rains, spring melt, etc. will run off down the hill as well. I am not a fan of belting though in place of mats. It is a little slicker than mats so I always sweep a little dirt from the isle in there to mix with shavings. We did not pay for it is the only reason we went with belting.
Yeah it cost my SO around $15,000 to do. But where we live its pretty common. 290 would have been much better! |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 964
Location: Alberta, Canada | We did one winter with a dirt floor. It was terrible. Because of being in a climate with harsh winters, spring came and it was stinky and muddy.
We put down wood floor with the boards approx. 1 cm apart for drainage. We bed directly on top of that. We thought about mats but were advised against it because of drainage and fear of rotting out the boards quicker. |
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Stall Flooring