Talk to me about barns...

Our barn is really old but my neighbor built a pole barn with his fathers help and it s really nice. Maybe you coluld find someone local that can build pole barns? He had horse stalls in his but I m not sure how many.

Good luck! Barns are alot of fun. We have a fall party every year in ours.

I'm also barn shopping and I've had the same experience with the steel building manufacturers!  High pressure to buy before the end of the month when prices are going up 20%, or to buy something from inventory at a discount, and VERY difficult to figure out how much it's really going to cost.

I am most likely going to go with a Carolina Carports building.  Yes, they also do barns.   If you look at their "triple wide" and "vertical roof" options there is extra bracing, and you can get heavier gauge metal posts.   http://www.carolinacarportsinc.com/Gallery/Gallery.html

I initially wanted a regular pole barn, but after battling the carpenter bees this spring I don't think I want to put up anything wood!

--
Wendy

We have an old barn that was built with rough cut lumber then sheeted with galvanized tin. Nice 2 story.
Only bad part is they built the dang thing into a hillside and after 40 years it is going down.

Now there is a tack room and a tie up area for the horses. The horse area has a chute that comes down from the hay loft and into the two hay mangers. That's how they fed the horses. there is also a feed box per horse. (4 horses)
In the back part there are (3) 9x9 pens, an area we keep hay in and an open area the entire length of that end.
We calve our cows in there when the weather is bad.

I want in on this too, My little goat barn burned down a few weeks ago and my poor babies are sleeping in an industrial shipping crate
We don't want a huge barn but if you look at the prices they are too much, We went to a place that does both steel, pole and those prebuilt little storage barns and they don't even use high grade stuff, We  can build our ideal barn for what they want. I love framing nailers !!! I can't decide on the FINAL DESIGN,  I also don't want to use anyone out of state to build us a  barn. I think mines going to end up being made of trash lol.

My husband and I want to have one of these built once we get up to N.C.  We loooove these:  http://www.barnpros.com/products/apartment/index.html


For right now (we live in Florida) we have this barn:


My husband and I built it two years ago (and added the new stall last May)...all total, this barn cost about $4,000 - including the stall mats for the three stalls, 4 industrial fans, saddle racks, waterers, and the cement wash rack.  It's perfect for our Florida heat!  I think that this would be too drafty up north     but it would be easy to bring up the back side of the barn...and it wouldn't cost that much more.

Good luck with it all!  How fun to have a nice, new barn!!!

OK.  Well....my husband and I had never built anything.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  But we were like you - we were finding estimates that were too high for our budgets...we were getting quotes as high as $30,000 for a four stall barn.  It would have been prettier than what we built, but not any more functional or sturdy/strong.  We built it to code - which in Florida, the standards are pretty high because of our hurricanes.

I drew out what I wanted, and my husband and I took it to Home Depot, and they helped us buy everything we needed to build it (I can make a list for you if you want) - right down to the hardware.  They were actually very helpful.  Here is what I drew:


...as you can see, my drawing wasn't even close to being done to scale!

Then the stuff sat there for two months.  We were overwhelmed and didn't know where to start.  Finally, one day I got fed up looking at the pile of expensive wood laying on the ground - and my soggy pony:


So, I told my husband, "It needs four corners.  Let's start with that."  And we did.  We measured out the ground, staked it out, started digging holes to bury the 4x4 posts for each corner, and when they were done we put in the rest of the posts.  When that was done, we started putting up the 5/4 (five quarter) boards that make up the stalls.  When that was done, we made the doors...and so on.  We learned as we went along...there was cursing.  A lot.  But we did it!

One area we needed some guidance was with the roof building...Home Depot gave us some instructions and some friends gave us some advice (and lent some hands to help us).  One thing we learned is not to use shingles - a lot of work for nothing.  We should have used rolled roofing.  We also should have made the pitch of the roof steeper (if you live up north, you'll really want to make sure you do this...it helps deal with the snow.

Here are some shots as it went up...these were all taken on the day that we started the roof (hence the number of people there)






And this was their first night in the barn once the stalls were completed (but not the wash rack or the additional stall we added last May)

I also do not have wood floors in the barn.  It has a sand base that we raked flat.  Then we spent $250 on each stall and put down six 4'x6' stall mats.  The stall mats will last you much more than wood.  Each mat weighs 90 pounds, and each stall needs 6 of them (for a 12x12 stall)...it was back breaking work, but I am in love with them!!!  It makes cleaning stalls a cinch!  One of my horses was a stallion (now gelded - yeahhhh!) and those mats were indestructable!  He could paw all he wanted, and they were not going to move an inch!

...and speaking of stall mats - don't even mess around with the ones that are 12"x12" and fit together like puzzle pieces!  Those things are a nightmare...they are hard to keep down (the horses can easily move them with minimal pawing) and are a nuisance when it comes time to clean the stalls - the tines on the pitchfork contiinually catch on the seams.  They will make you crazy!

I also know of people who put cement floors down, then stall mats...with enough bedding on top, I'm sure it's great!

Let me know if you think of any questions - I know about building a barn on a budget! 

Read my BYC page - we have a lot in common!

I rode Arabs for years...in Dallas and Miami.  When I moved up here to Tampa, there were more Morgan and Saddlebred barns, so I eneded up with them.  But I still love me a dish faced horse!  I'll have some gorgeous Russian blood, Please!  I loved Muscat and Moment and Padron.  I was thrilled as the iron curtain drew back and some gorgeous, gorgeous horses were coming out of there.  I was so jealous - I wanted one soooooooo bad!  I also love all of Sheila Varian's horses - I'll take anything she has!

Right now I have 2 Norwegian Fjords (one pictured in my previous post) and an American Saddlebred.  I use them as part of my lesson program (saddleseat), and am LOVING having them on our own property and not having to board them. LOVE it!