Anybody had experience with FCP Barn Buildings or Elephant Barns? How about Billet?

[Hermein]

I’ve given up my plan to move my own barn to our new location, so have been steel barn shopping, and have narrowed it down to three builders, although this isn’t cast in stone.

Elephant Barns is in NC, but has sub-contractors for installations in CA. I researched the company, and found quite a few complaints in BBB (plus a C- rating) and Ripoff.com, as well as some glowing endorsements. They have the best price.

FCP has no complaints from Ripoff.com, and has an A+ rating from BBB. Pricey. Has plants in Wildomar, CA, and manufactures the steel they use.

There’s also a local company, Billet Barns, that lots of people who live in the new place have used. They are a little less expensive than FCP, but their barns don’t make my heart flutter. No info complaints/kudos on these people.

Thanks for any experiences with these builders.

[Jumper_girl221]

I just put in a garage and a horse barn with Elephant Barns. Their price is CRAZY good, however we did have a few issues. Had to get them back out because the garage had some leaking. Barn is ok, although one wall has a cant…they said it was because we didn’t have a perfectly level ground.

We did a 40 x 30, gable ends and closed sides. They left us some extra metal when they came out the second time to close off the sides of the stalls.
Whole barn (sorry best picture on hand)

We then built 10x12 stalls

[URL=“https://scontent-iad3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1383840_826909805455_1400027273591515954_n.jpg?oh=abd956544ce4d4102ec3bd1011a4eb98&oe=56085949”]You can sorta see the cant in the back wall (closest to ring) here

looking back, I should have been a lot pickier with the original installers, since I did notice this as they were doing it and didn’t bring it up (to be fair I was dealing with a VERY sick child and just wanted to sign off and get back so he could curl up and feel miserable lol).

Guys were very nice, of spanish origin but did have two out of the 3 crew members that spoke tolerable english.

[TullyMars]

The clinic where I work used Francisco Pipe. They were great. From design to permits to construction we were not disappointed. They were a little more expensive, but the quality has been excellent. We are close enough to the production facility that when we want an odd change or some modifications it is pretty quick in the turn around. Their service on repairs was quick and professional. For us here they built us a custom “barn” (clinic) with all of our special demands, stallion pens and a wonderful open air shed-row barn, and a smaller treatment center. We tried another local supplier for our exterior turn out pens and now wished that we had just gotten the FCP. I have no experience with Elephant Barns to compare however.

[Miss_Motivation]

Don’t know Elephant.

Billet- haven’t seen them myself but they look to be simple frame barns with corrugated metal. You’d line the horse areas with plywood so they can’t contact the metal. Kind of a steel pipe skeleton covered with a sheet of corrugated like a utility building.

FCP is a completely different product than Billet. FCP has sandwich panel walls that are galvanized inside, foam/wood fill center, then textured steel on the outside, in channel steel frames.

I’ve used FCP for a lot of different things, and though they seem pricey, the product has certainly performed. I also had a lot of weird things for them to figure out (retrofitting and adding to old barns, arena mirrors, corral panels in odd sizes., etc.) and they did a very good job on all that. I used an install they suggested who ended up being a real treasure.

I’ve had most of the FCP stuff for 8 years, in commercial use, and really can’t complain. Normal wear and tear, but well-designed, delivered reliably, and it all went together perfectly.

I think the only comparison for FCP would be MD/Barnmaster (same company now) which I also have some of. (My place is a little Frankensteined together!) and I’d say they are pretty comparable. I had some bids early days from MD that were very close to FCP, but FCP won my business and repeat business with their generally good customer service.

[Hermein]

Thank you all for your information. I think I’ll go with FCP based on good reviews, their location*, plus they manufacture, as well as sell, their stuff.

I keep telling myself, “At least, barns aren’t as expensive as cars.” I have a Barnmaster now that’s nearly 20 years old–which cost $14K when I bought it. I’m becoming one of the geezer crowd who remember when “You could buy a hamburger for a quarter.”

*the county right next to mine

[candico]

Another vote for FCP. Have had my FCP barn for 12 years and it still looks new. And the guy who delivered it had worked for Barnmaster, MD, and Castlebrook and said FCP barns were the best as far as quality of construction. I went with a cheaper company for my stallion panels which sadly had to be completely replaced after 8 years. In the end, I probably would have saved a lot of money with going for the better product.

[Miss_Motivation]

Highly recommend Kelly Mortenson at FCP- she’s very knowledgeable horse owner and outstanding for me on customer service.