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Putting stalls in barn
Oliver,
We are also about to move to a new place so my wife can keep her horses in the back yard. Our barn was built by a pole barn specialist. He did some things very well, others not so well.
The Bad: cheap door latches with rough edges that could cut. Stanley makes some nice ones for about $12, avail. at my local hardware store -- I'm going to upgrade. Sharp edges where horses can rub or walk aginst them are potential vet bills.
The good: stalls are lined with 2x6 "car decking" tongue and groove planks stacked into aluminum channels. The channels are mounted to the 6x6 corner poles. The T&G is removable, so for example we can open two stalls into one larger one (typically done for foaling), or replace damaged boards, no tools reqired. You could use any 2x lumber, it does not have to be T&G, but T&G will be stronger as adjacent boards reinforce each other. Important if the horses kick.
The stall bars are premade aluminum units with channels that sit over the 2x6s. Look for ads in any horse magazine for stall manufacturers and then find their local dist. I agree you should choose the bars and door hardware first. The 12x12 is a pretty standard size.
Don't forget water and food buckets/holders. A pass thru door for food is handy. There are also swing out water bucket doors (we forgot to ask for that so I'll be retrofitting when we move in).
One way (recommended by someone with 12 horses) to reduce cribbing (chewing of the stall) is to attach metal drywall corner edging to the vulnerable edges. Be sure that all nails are deeply embedded and you must routinely patrol for sharp edges and loose nails, particularly low down on the vertical edges. It also helps to give the horses as much time out of the stall as possible. My wife insists that horses don't really need stalls and confinment makes them crazy, hence the cribbing.
I just helped repair the field shelters where our horse is now boarded and I added some sacrificial 2x4s along the walls where the chewing was worst.
As for treated wood - the arsenic formulations (CCA) were phased out in December but are still being sold from inventory. The new copper formula (eg. ACQ) should be safer, but I suggest using the treated lumber only at grade level and untreated above that. Color is NOT a guaranteed way to tell them apart.
The Small Acreage is a good book.
We did not wind up using them, but BarnMaster makes a great barn & stall system with well thought out door hardware, pass throughs and grills. The panels are a sandwich of metal, foam, plywood and Hardipanel with metal frames. Although pricey they are fire, rot, insect and kick proof.
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Putting stalls in barn
Oliver,
I don't know where my barn builder gets his Al channels, but they should be available at any big lumber yard, hardware store or metal supply house. They are just 2" wide, 8' long Al channels. There are two channels at each corner, facing 90 degrees away from each other, bolted into the 6x6 pole beams. Another way to think about it is there are two channels per side, facing towards each other. They butt against each other at each corner, so almost none of the pole beam is visible to the horses.
And yes, the 2x6's span 12 feet with no center support. Since they are T&G the wall as a whole can take quite a kick before any board will fail, and my builder says none of his ever have. The wall seperating two stalls is just one layer of the 2x6 T&G.
If this is not clear enough I can take some pictures of my stalls.
By the way, you don't have to use Aluminum. There is nothing that says you can't use a couple of 2x4's or 4x4s bolted to the barn frame with a space between them to form the channel. The Al is nice because it won't rust or rot, and it is smooth so the T&G is easy to slide out.
Hope this helps,
Neal
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