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 boon
Posts: 4
| Hello there everyone! I am so excited, we are finally building our own barn and facility at our vacant property down the road. We are just drawing up plans right now, but I had a few questions first. What do you guys do to make sure your barns are fire safe? I've lost a horse to a barn fire before...so just wanting the prevent this. Do you stick to metal barns? Have a really good sprinkler/fire system and alarm in the barns? It's not going to be huge, just a 10 stall barn. Thanks!
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 Shelter Dog Lover
Posts: 10277
 
| All my stalls open to huge pens that all have gates at the back. Rarely are mine closed in their stall and we can get them out the back if we had too. I have a metal barn, I do store hay in it and I have wood stalls, no sprinklers. I am sorry you lost your horse to a fire :(, that is terrible. |
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Regular
Posts: 57
| We have a metal barn but one of the biggest things is want you store in the barn. We have a separate barn for hay that is around 150 feet away from the horse barn and other than some medical supplies no chemical are stored in the horse barn. Breaker for the electrical and all wiring is in conduit. The way the stall fronts are my horses can not get to fans or the cords at all. Keeping the barn clean and things picked up and put away is also a big part of fire safety. |
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 Warrior Mom
Posts: 4400
| I have a metal barn, no wood at all... we store our hay in a seperate metal barn far from the horse barn.. I keep 5-8 bales in my feed shed at a time that's seperate from the horse barn as well. Barn fires are one of my worse fears. |
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boon
Posts: 4
| Thank you all for the replies! Sounds like a metal barn with attached runs is the way to go then. I was planning on building a separate shed for hay storage, but may as well make that one metal also. Thanks for the ideas, god bless. |
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 Expert
Posts: 3815
 
Location: The best kept secret in TX | Barrel_Hunter - 2017-10-20 2:31 PM Thank you all for the replies! Sounds like a metal barn with attached runs is the way to go then. I was planning on building a separate shed for hay storage, but may as well make that one metal also. Thanks for the ideas, god bless.
Make sure you study up on hay storage, rotating, airing out, etc before building a barn. There was so much I learned by a quick google.
Our hay barn in Oklahoma had doors on all sides to air out and to make stacking and moving easier. The tractor could easily get to all sides of the barn. It made it easy to air out in the summer and close up when it rained/etc. |
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 My Heart Be Happy
Posts: 9159
Location: Arkansas | Totally OT, but I  your avatar!!!! And welcome to BHW! |
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| There are probably 10,000 things to think about when building a
new barn ... the first two ... do you want the stall area to be a show
barn and labor intensive picking and stripping stalls or to you want
it to be functional and use a tractor front end loader or bobcat to
use to strip your stalls ...
The reason you build a barn is so you can have everything under
one roof and stay inside on the bad weather days.
Everyone seems to be concerned with a hay issue ... simple fix ..
increase the size of your barn with an open area at one easy in
and easy out to back into trailer area... buy you one or two flat bed hay
trailers to back into barn and never unload the hay. Feed it bale
at a time off the trailer with no lost hay due to wicking moisture
or hay mess if you had unloaded onto the ground. Or you can have
a shedrow along one side of the barn to park them under. No
loose hay or mice/rat problems.
First thing on building site ... know where your water runs when
you have a week of heavy rain. Build your barn away from this
run off area. And make sure you build a dirt/sand/clay barn pad
at least one foot higher than the surrounding ground.
Then use Tposts to outline all the stalls and perimeter of barn and
stretch hay twine for a more visual picture. This is also the time
to lay any water lines and faucets depending on your method of
watering horses. Bury them deep enough so they do not freeze.
Define your wash rack on the south end of the
barn outside next to doors with frost free faucet and if necessary
build a shedrow over it. Drive your truck and trailer and tractor
down the tpost alleyway to note the side clearance ... 16ft is
what you want ..
Here are some dimensions you will never regret ..
10-12 ft side walls on barn .. peak vents so heat from metal roof
will rise and escape thru the peak and it's tall enuff you will be able to drive
trailer and truck into barn or tractor with a cab on it. Also makes
good ventilation in winter time so you don't end up with a barn
full of sick horses.
12x12 stalls .. with at least one with a swing gate wall you can
pin to the back wall for a 12x24 stall for foaling or sick horse
width of barn 40 ft ='s ... 12ft stall .. 16ft alleyway.. 12ft stall
is what you will be looking at .. truck mirrors today will skim
the stall fronts on a 12ft alleyway with no walking room on
either side if you pull truck and trailer inside at night or bad
weather to unload horses etc .. and have room to walk around
the vehicles.
STALL FRONTS ... the older you get the more you wish your stall
fronts were 12' swing gates so you can use tractor or bobcat
to strip your stalls ... it is easy to use 12 ft gates as your standard
in and out or encase a 5ft door in a moveable 12 ft section ...
Look hard at the U shaped partial metal swing gates used at
race barns ... money saver and safe for horses .. cost is around
$50 bucks ... we get crazy on making stalls into cells ... most of
the million dollar earning race horses stand behind a wire gate
like the one above or a $30 nylon webbing "gate" .. lol
STALL WALLS .. rough sawed oak is one of the best ... do your
building while they are green freshly sawed .. they will turn
into concrete in a matter of days ... The 4ft walls with 2x12x12
oak boards are over 30 years old and still solid as a rock with
no chewing or cribbing ... use lag bolts to install ..
AND FOR GOD'S SAKE ... if you are going to make runs out from
your stalls ... put rain gutters on that side so your runs do not
turn into mud pits ...
FANS ... run your flexible conduit so you have a plug in on each
stall front and on front of feed/tackroom ... use $20 box fans
instead of any type of fan that brings roof heat downwards
onto your horses. Your roof metal can heat up to 140-160
degrees and function as if you locked your dog in your truck.
This 16ft alleyway is also a decent horse exercise pen when needed
and very convenient to train babies in regardless of weather or
night time. You will find you can increase your hay storage and
ease of feeding by stacking 2-3 bales of hay at each stall front..
and it even looks good.
Electric ... wire lights so you do not have to turn on every light with
only one switch ... do at least two .. one switch for lights at front
of each stall for each side of alleyway .. don't forget a tack/feed room
Wire extra lights in the alleyway in front of it with switch inside of tack
room and motion sensor lights .. one looking down to front and rear
barn doors ... these will let you know if there is movement in your
alley as security and also when you walk into the barn .. no looking
for light swtiches .. lol ... extra lights are for grooming a horse at
night or cloudy day and good for vet use also ..
With 10 ... 12x12 stalls your barn will be 63 feet long to compensate
for how stall fronts fit if you buy them .. The rule of thumb is to build
more barn than you have in mind ... for instance .. increase this barn
footprint to 96 feet and do without some of your wants to do it .. .....
... you will NEVER REGRET IT ..
A COUPLE OF MAKE SURES WITH YOUR BARN PEOPLE ... use heavier
upright "poles" at 12' intervals to match the width size of your stalls ...
and add an extra sidewall runner at 4' so it will be easy to screw your
3/4 or one inch 4x8 sheets of plywood kick boards to protect horses
from the metal siding. Do not use particle glue boards ... they will
fall apart or horse will eat them and colic ..
DOUBLE MAKE SURE ... THAT YOUR BARN PAD IS LEVEL AND BUILDERS
PUT BOTTOM RUNNER ON THE GROUND so you do not get into the mess
of hauling and spreading dirt if they build 6-10 inches above your pad.
This is very common for lazy barn builders to do when they use a
laser to square up everything ... grrrrrrrrrrr
Make the right decisions before you build with 50% oversized
from what you think you want. Once you have the walls and
40' width ... then you can outfit it over time without running
out of space .... do your major building first and add your
pretty things later !!
ONE MORE NOTE: I mentioned the U necked stall gate above .. it is very functional .. you can hang a feeding tub on the outside of it and hang a
haybag in the alleyway side ... and put your water bucket in the front
corner of the stall. Horse does not waste feed or hay and does not eat
any shavings or mix hay up with shavings and end up with colic ...
google race track barns to get a look how neat they are ..
GOOD LUCK ...
(BTW .. building barns is the 2nd biggest reasons for divorces)
lol
auto correct and a goblin made writing this lots of fun ...
grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
Edited by BARRELHORSE USA 2017-10-21 11:07 PM
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boon
Posts: 4
| Thank you for the welcome! Also, wow, thanks for all the information! I appreciate you taking time out of your day to answer my question. Very informational, I am jotting down notes as I read this! |
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