Building stalls-pre made or diy?

[Stormers85]

So we just recently put an offer in (and the sellers accepted!) on a property with 11 acres. I can finally stop boarding and bring the pony home! The property has a huge workshop that we are planning on converting to a barn. It has a high ceiling, good light, is wired with lots of outlets and has water right outside. Here is a picture from the ad:

So anyway, I was looking at putting stalls in and they seem so expensive. If that’s just the price of putting stalls in then fine, but I didn’t know if there were better ways to be a bit more cost efficient. The floor is dirt, no cement, and we are planning on 3 stalls (husband and 7 year old can finally get their own horses!). My horse, a 4 year old TB, currently does best when he’s out 24/7- he goes into his stall 2x/day to eat and then right back out. Right now we are looking at the Priefert stalls and priced it out at just under $6k for 3 stalls. It’s a metal building so we’ll be lining the inside of the stalls with wood in case any of the horses kick.

If anyone has any suggestions or ways to save some money without sacrificing quality, I’d love to hear any input. I’m sure I’ll be posting a lot more as we start the renovations!

[candysgirl]

My ex and I built 3 stalls with hay storage above them for significantly less than that. We used plywood, 2x4s, 2x6s and 4x4s for the corner posts. We used wire panels (I forget if they were cattle/hog/whatever) for the top half of the stalls and the top half of the stall doors. We spent under $1000 for all of it. It took us two weekends to put up.

[Simkie]

We just did this. It was cheaper to find the prefab stall pieces used on Craigslist. STILL cheaper to buy them new.

We were going to have a carpenter/builder/handyman dude put two more stalls in our barn, to match the two that he’d put in for the previous owners.

His price? $4k

Prieferts, used off CL, great shape? $2500

Gets even more compelling with more info: guy’s price didn’t include the wood for the walls of the barn.

Tongue and groove for the barn? $1500

And those Prieferts we bought? Totally complete with wood kits and were two complete stalls, so 2 fronts + 1 solid side + 4 barred sides.

Oh, AND, the stall gates for the carpenter built option would have been $500.

So we could have spent $6000 (SIX GRAND!) for two stalls to match what we had or the four grand for the Prieferts with three extra pieces (and all the extra wood for those pieces.) Even if we’d just bought the Priefert pieces we NEEDED, brand new, with wood kits, the price would have been about that same ballpark. We probably could have done it for less with tongue and groove sourced locally.

I don’t doubt that you can build stalls for a lot less than what we were quoted, but this whole thing is just an excellent illustration of why it’s such a good idea to really shop around. The people we bought this place from were really cheap about everything else, so I’m perplexed why they spent so much on the stalls.

You can poke around in this folder for pics of the whole thing:

http://s155.photobucket.com/user/simkie/library/House?sort=3&page=1

I FAR prefer the Prieferts, too.

[Bluey]

The advantage of portable stalls is that they are portable.
That means you can re-configure them as you see better ways to house your horses, move the stalls with you when you go, sell them if you don’t need them any more.

If you build some, unless you build portable ones, you are stuck with what you build and have to tear down and rebuild if your needs change.

[Texarkana]

Looks like a nice future barn!

If you and your husband are handy and have the tools, it is WAY cheaper to build them yourself. It will cost you lumber, hardware, and a weekend or two of time. And you can save money a number of different ways without sacrificing quality and sturdiness.

However, if it’s not a job you’re comfortable taking on yourselves, I’d probably go pre-fab. You’re not going to save that much money if you hire a carpenter. And like Bluey said, you can rearrange portable stalls or take them with you if you ever move.

[China_Doll]

I bought kits from tractor supply and the lumber separately. Easy to build. Can’t remember what I spent but about 1k for 3 stalls 12 years ago. So I would double that total maybe.

[SonnysMom]

DH and I are pretty handy. We would build our own. It would be way cheaper for us even compared to a well used pre-fab on Craigslist.

In our area we also have a fair amount of Amish and Mennonite that would be cheaper than pre-fab.

[fredsaid2]

DIY for the 3 stalls we built. No where near the price you quoted, even adding in the cost of hardware, fasteners and stall doors. Check out Pinterest for ideas of something you’d feel comfortable replicating.

[China_Doll]

If that were my space after looking at photo I would use the overhang as a run in shed and fence that as part of pasture and forget the stalls. You could do panels for an emergency stall

[ArabDiva]

Designed and built these totally myself, no kit.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1199/1369575538_ae42e85faf_b.jpg

Total cost per front was under $150. (not counting the posts; those were already in place.)

The wire mesh is utility panels from the farm supply store. bought in 12’x4’ lengths and then used a bolt cutters to cut to fit.

ETA: Someday when I’m feeling ambitious I might change out the swinging doors for sliding ones; but these have served me well for the past 8 years, for what they cost.

[HungarianHippo]

we bought the grill and door kit, but built the structure and walls ourselves. We used ARC stalls, and are super happy with them. The owner was really helpful, even cut the stalls to custom lengths for no extra cost. High quality hardware, and the aluminum wont rust or collect dust like galvanized does. All in, with standard dimensional lumber (not tongue and groove), we spent less than $3k on four stalls.

If you can swing a hammer, I’d encourage you to diy.

[Sparky_Boy]

DIY is much cheaper. Not difficult if you have a few tools and are fairly handy.

[candysgirl]

[QUOTE=ArabDiva;8032890]
Designed and built these totally myself, no kit.
https://farm2.staticflickr.com/1199/1369575538_ae42e85faf_b.jpg

Total cost per front was under $150. (not counting the posts; those were already in place.)

The wire mesh is utility panels from the farm supply store. bought in 12’x4’ lengths and then used a bolt cutters to cut to fit.

ETA: Someday when I’m feeling ambitious I might change out the swinging doors for sliding ones; but these have served me well for the past 8 years, for what they cost.[/QUOTE]

Mine were VERY similar to this, but we had sliding doors. They work very well. When I build my new barn, I will be doing something similar again.

[Stormers85]

Thanks for all the replies! ArabDiva, I think that is what we will be going for. Good to know $6k is not what it costs all around the board- my horse is out 24/7 and only comes in to eat, so you can imagine the look on my husband’s face when I told him it would be the price for approximately 20 minutes a day of use!

Luckily the husband is pretty handy and has a bunch of big important tools that he rarely get to use in the cookie cutter subdivision house that we currently rent.

[Jumper_girl221]

My husband and I are in the process of putting stalls in the new barn.

Stall walls, 2.5" thick rough cut then 3/4" pressboard. I’m still debating putting walls up higher…

Stalls - Hardware and track from TSC, galvanized metal pipes from a welder friend of DH.

Two stalls

Now granted, a good bit of the lumber came from my current barn that we are taking apart (ie. the kickwalls). But the fronts and everything else is new built, we’ve spent about a grand so far and have 3 stalls with hardware, the grills, and part of the framework for the other 2.

[Horseychick87]

Not to hijack the thread but,

Simkie, ArabDiva, and Jumper_Girl221, how tall are your stall fronts from the ground to the top board/ bottom of the grill and which size lumber did you use?

I’ve also been looking at DIY stall fronts and love the way those look.

[Jumper_girl221]

Mine are 52" tall (roughly). The center dividers are 2.5x8 rough sawn lumber, the fronts are 2x8s from lowes.

To do the grills we driled the holes into two 1x4s, fitted over the poles, then screwed to the top and bottom.

[Jumper_girl221]

Oh and we will be putting lumber into the doors. It’s a 2x4 frame with a 2x8 at the top for rhe hangers. It’s not going to last once I have hungry horses pawing at door at feeding time so we are going ro add some wood for added support inside the square.

[IronwoodFarm]

We built 3 slides and a loft. We used prefab stall fronts. It worked rather nicely.

[Foxglove]

Daughters and I built five stalls and a tack room --cost was about $200 a stall but $100 was the track and trolly for the sliding door. Everything else was wood and screws --we used salvaged rebar for our stall fronts poles as the draft horse could and did bend conduit pipe. Two suggestions --when you drill for your poles or rebar in the front of the stall, make it totally through the top board so if a horse gets a hoof stuck, you can just lift the pole up and slide it out – secondly, we left about a 1-2 inch space between our boards on the wall between in and front to allow for better veneration. Saved a bit on wood doing that too. But I wouldn’t do that if I had the chance of a foal in the barn --could catch a small hoof. Did all that about 25-30 years ago --stalls still look good. About half the wood was salvage wood. If you go to the lumber yard and ask, there is usually a pile of rejected wood --knotted, or bowed, or split on one end. They’ll let it go really cheap --We’d just find ways to make it work. Everything in our barn (remember we have a draft horse) is made with 8x8s and 2x8s. I think there are parts of the doors that are 2x6s, however.

Foxglove