I’ve finally purchased some horse property (a life-long dream). The barn is only partially finished with a center aisle that is crushed gravel. Suggestions on flooring? Porous concrete is economical, but not pretty. And concrete is pricy!
Concrete is a little expensive but so worth it. It’s maintenance free and so easy to clean. It other options such as rubber brick get more costly from there.
Our BO did a concrete aisleway, 200 ft long poured in two days. The good thing about concrete is that you can leave a rough surface so traction is good. Rubber mats between the stalls. It’s much easier to sweep and keep clean. Looks good after 20 years. Don’t do asphalt, it gets too slippery.
A friend has pavers, looks beautiful but it’s a pain to sweep. I would do concrete. I remember the barns I rode at as a child often had wood floors. Not nice smooth finish planks but instead they had slightly rounded uneven surfaces. Sounds ugly but held up forever during the many years I was there.
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A friend has pavers, looks beautiful but it’s a pain to sweep.
Sweep? we use a battery power handheld blower to “sweep” our barn’s pavers
Asphalt is (or at least was) a more economical alternative to concrete. We had a concrete crosstie area, wash rack, and feed and tack room with a dirt barn when we built our barn. A few years later we paved it with asphalt after doing some research and visiting barns with both concrete and asphalt surfaces. The consensus was that concrete was more expensive, more durable, and had to “rough” to reduce slippage by shod feed. Asphalt had minor durability issues (mostly damage from equipment) but was adequate to routine use and cost less to put in and about the same to maintain. We went with asphalt 15 years ago and it has been fine ever since.
One common objection is that asphalt, being a petroleum based product, might aggravate a fire in a barn. I looked at this when we were considering the matter and was informed by one of the Ag. professors at UT Knoxville that the ignition point of most asphalt mixtures will be north of 900 degrees F. If you’ve managed to get your barn up to that temperature then burning asphalt is not really a concern!!!
Asphalt is more plebeian than concrete. But, then, I’m not out to impress anybody with my barn floor!!! 
G.
She won’t use those.
Asphalt really does get slippery. My BO was in a leased barn temporarily with an asphalt aisleway. I was leading a horse out of stall. When he stepped over the sill one front leg slid ahead of him several feet. The other side didn’t slide much. He regained his feet and didn’t fall down. It easily could have been much worse and it convinced me that what they say about asphalt is true.
Looks good!
BO and ex-DH were still communicating when the barn was built. He had a pretty successful foundation business so he did the labor, and BO’s uncle happens to have a huge company that makes concrete. Good thing, because the aisleway is 14 x 200 feet.
It was poured on two separate days. What they realized they had to pay attention to was timing. If it was poured too fast they couldn’t keep up. It set up too quickly to get a good rough finish.
Stalls are packed dirt with mats. We also have a double row of stall mats down the middle of the aisleway between the stalls. Every once in a while the farrier has to use the end without mats. My horse has some sort of a problem keeping his balance on the concrete. Perfect when he is on the mats.
I went on a horsey trip with a large group of friends years ago. We were accommodated in a couple of barns. The barn a few friends were in had a porous (popcorn) asphalt aisle. It was a brand new construction…the first horses in were my friends, the farm owners didn’t have enough fencing up to move their own horses home. It doesn’t weep like concrete laid without a vapor barrier and it’s nonslip, …but a friends horse placed a pile of poo in the aisle and you couldn’t get all the bits out of the nooks and crannies.
I did concrete with a vapor barrier and a rough finish in my barn, with the option to add mats later.
With a packed surface, you could just do mats or pavers.
We have the thick rubber stall mats over crushed limestone in our aisle. Not fancy, but I don’t like concrete. Easy to sweep. Nice to walk on. They are not slippery, but if they get a wet spot I just throw some shavings on them.
