Building a lighter stall door that is still sturdy?

[4LeafCloverFarm]

When we gutted and rebuilt the stalls, feed room, tack room, etc. in our 1900 pole barn 17 years ago, I admit I went a bit overboard on the stall doors. They have a 2X4 frame and center brace, 1X6 boards on front face and 3/4" plywood on the back side. They weigh a ton. :lol: But they are very sturdy and there’s no worry a horse will come through them. I wanted them to match the front wall of each stall, so the thickness of the frame and wood on the front was important to me.

My current project is working in our smaller hog stable, converting part of it into horse stalls.Not worried about the whole “everything has to match” thing - its amazing what goes out the window as you get older, wiser and less picky! Now that I’ve determined a 5’ tube gate doesn’t really exist (unless special ordered or fabricated from a larger gate), I figure I’ll just build them. Want them to look nice, but because of the size they need to be (5 feet wide approximately), trying to figure out how to accomplish that, and still have a very sturdy stall door.

I would assume using a welded wire or maybe a hog/cattle panel for part (or the entire) stall door. But I just can’t quite picture what that looks like. Figured there were some builders on here that could share pics of the doors they built, what they liked or what they’d change, etc.

Thanks in advance.

[clanter]

sort of,

I divided one of the 12by12 stalls into two 6by8 stalls for two of our miniatures …built this from floor up leaving the stall mats in place by laying a footer down over the stall mats then attached everything to this then screwed to walls. This allowed me to use standard 4 ft gates with center divider that was fabricated to need, Used just stuff we had around the place but needed to make the stalls removable.
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Center divider wall is stock panel which is attached to the rear wall with the conduit clamps the front part of the panel extends through the front wall to secure the front from being pushed forward . The stall front, the uprights on the ends are screwed to walls which holds the front in place. The latches allow the gates to to open inward or outward

All just stuff we had

All of this was removed in about 15 minutes when we need to move this to the smaller barn after daughter getting the new horse who now lives in this 12by12

[4LeafCloverFarm]

Well, @clanter I was trying to do the tube gates like your pic above (which you had posted in another thread a while back), but the posts down the isle of the hog stable are 5’ apart (or thereabouts). Using a 4’ gate would require setting a post in the aisle way, which, unless tied to the rafters, I’m afraid would lean over time if somebody leaned on the gate. There is so much rock here (I’m talking boulders under the clay) setting a new post properly would be problematic.

The red bars on the attached diagram are where the new 5’ stall doors go. So these aren’t your typical “stall fronts”. The aisle only being 5’ wide means horses won’t actually be going in/out these doors - just humans. The doors are just a way for us humans to get from one stall to the next, without having to climb over. The horses/ponies will enter/exit from the run-in shed.

Hope that makes sense.

Pig Barn Plans (2019).pdf (11.6 KB)

[clanter]

If a post is need it can be attached to bottom cross board from the bottom up before being attaching this bottom cross board to the side walls then which how I had to mount the gates when moved to the new stall… I will photograph that this evening

I have one post in that installation that extends to the cross rafters

[4horses]

Here in Florida, we are using a single wood bar as a stall door. It locks in place with metal pins and brackets. I tried stall chains and that only works for 2 of my horses.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

@4horses

Here in Florida, we are using a single wood bar as a stall door. It locks in place with metal pins and brackets. I tried stall chains and that only works for 2 of my horses.

I think stall chains (the type with the rubber bumper on them) are fine if someone is there to supervise (like during day light hours in a large boarding/training barn). However, my horses be in/out of the stalls at liesure, unsupervised (well, except for 4 times a day at feeding, bed check, etc.). I would not feel comfortable without a solid barrier that goes all the way to the ground. Ponies are smart too - he’d go between the chains or under the bar! :lol:

[Bluey]

I still think that, in your situation, you could possibly buy 2 6’ gates.
Then cut the pipes down a vertical line, cut what you need out to make it fit, be it 10-12-14" off them.
Then either add bit bigger around pipe lengths to connect those cut pipes by sticking them in there.
Or a smaller pipe and put the two ends over those pipes .

We have done both and it works great, even in spots where we had to cut two 16’ gates down to 15’.
Builder framed opening for 16’ forgetting posts width, that happens.

We welded the ends, but in your situation, if you can’t weld there, use some super strong glue.
Even duct taping where they meet would work.

You can later remodel those two gates to fit any other place, if you ever find that elusive 5’ gate.

[4LeafCloverFarm]

I have been searching for a welder that could work on gates (that isn’t an hour away). May or may not be successful. At least wanted to get a quote just to see what cutting down a 6’ gate would be or cutting a 10’ gate in half. We’ll see how that goes.

[Bluey]

@4LeafCloverFarm

I have been searching for a welder that could work on gates (that isn’t an hour away). May or may not be successful. At least wanted to get a quote just to see what cutting down a 6’ gate would be or cutting a 10’ gate in half. We’ll see how that goes.

Ask your high school shop teacher.
Here they will do small jobs just for a donation and use that to teach their students to use tools, weld, etc.
They made our ranch entrance sign and did a beautiful job.