Can I see your DIY Stalls?

So I got the quotes back on stall fronts; 8k, not including the lumber :scream:
And also that’s just the fronts. Not the dividers. It’s probably going to be another 1k on top of that just in lumber per stall.

I’m considering building them myself. Any advice or pics would be helpful. I have to have swinging doors due to the barn design, but it seems I can buy the doors for about $300 each.

Well, that depends on how elaborate you want your barn to be:)

My 24 x 40 barn is metal. I have pipe panel stalls with either hardwood or 3/4” plywood against the solid barn walls. I have 3/4” plywood “kick panels” tied to the bottoms of the pipe panels dividing the stalls and on the doors.

My stalls are 12’ x 14’. You could probably make three pipe panel stalls for the cost of one wood stall.

The pipe panels stalls started out as a temporary thing until I realized how much air flow they allowed in my small barn. Horses in California and other western states are used to living in pipe corrals, so I just left them in. Plus they are easy to remove and redesign if I ever wanted to.

The stalls will be 19 years old this fall. I took this foto yesterday, after we power washed the stall walls.

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really do not remeber the cost but we had a metal shop that specialized in metal duct work bend 1/4 inch flat steel plate into a U channel …cost each was under $10 …the channels are about 2 inches which allows a standard 2 inch board to be dropped into place. Main post for the stalls were 4 by 6, the channels where just lag bolted to the posts. … plus is that to remove a wall to make a foaling stall of 12 by 24 takes about ten minutes if that.

Lumber for walls is not T&G but we added a one inch decking board (has rounded edges) mid run of wall to lock the wall together

Been up for almost 35 years now no issues

We built the bar walls on site out of stock steel, then painted

barnstallsHovenknamp

here is one of the stalls that we downsized into two miniature horse stalls (6by8 each with a 4 by 12 ft access)… all was lag bolted to the wooden walls which allowed easy removal when the kids got another real horse,

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We built ourselves these a while ago and the material was 2" x 2" heavy square tubing, 14g sheet metal, 1/4", 2" x 2" wire mesh, for 12’ x 16’ x 8’ tall stalls with swinging doors.

Materials ran almost $1800 per stall, steel prices have gone up so much and that steel mesh is very expensive.
Some use the lighter 2" x 4" wire mesh that is much cheaper, but is not very strong for such a confined space. Is what we used for the top of the stalls in our quarantine barn (second picture) because at that time they didn’t have the better mesh.
That lighter mesh is ok in panels and gates for pens.
Do check lumber prices, here is more than steel is and wood quality is iffy.

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@walkinthewalk That definitely is the cheapest option, but just in my area there were 3 major accidents involving pipe corrals and one of the horses had to be euthed, so I’m really leery of using them in any capacity now.

@clanter If you get the time, could you post an up close pic of the U channel? I’m having a hard time imagining it.

@Bluey Those are beautiful! I have very limited welding experience though. How difficult were they to put together?

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well do tomorrow, currently under a storm watch (first actual rain in many, many months)

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I’ll try to get a picture later, but my DIY stalls are 2"x12" rough cut lumber installed horizontally, with a 3/4" gap between the boards for extra ventilation. My walls end at 4’ (plus the 2.25" of gaps) with no rails above, but I do have a layer of metal at the tops of the boards to prevent chewing. I also have “U channels” between each pair of stalls in case I ever wanted to make one big stall. My “U” is formed just from two 2x4"s on the back wall making a slot, and boards on the post on the front of the stall. I’ve had this set up for 20 years now and have never had the need to remove the center divider. If I did it again, I would probably do it differently because the long 12 foot boards have warped slightly and one gets knocked askew by my geriatric mare from time to time. I think they should have had a brace of some sort in the middle, or I should have just built them as permanent or removable only with a hammer.

Not sure what your barn looks like, my walls are metal channel and we did the wood drop ins ourselves. The mesh gates are on 4x4s that i pounded rebar thru to hold in place. Hubs took a hole saw and drilled out holes for the mesh gate “feet” and then we bolted the two gates together. I have the gate that hits the wood wall bolted against the wood with U bolt looking fasteners. The gate side that is on the outside opening area is chained thru a screw eye in the metal and pulled tight so my guys cannot wiggle it loose. They never really try to push them over either thank goodness. I know you need swing doors so my stall fronts bolted n fastened into the carport openings do not help but I hope part of it gives you ideas! :slight_smile:

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They were easy to make, really, went very fast.

I chose ARC Stall components because they’re aluminum and anything metal will rust in the humid southeast. Also because it all comes in pieces and could be shipped UPS. They also sell U and L shaped pieces for making walls between posts or protecting edges.

Some photos in this album:

Note that we started this project before prices went way up. I have no idea what it would cost now.

Your time is valuable. If you don’t already have construction experience and all the tools, it really may not be cheaper to DIY vs. just buying stall fronts that can be set in place.

Installing these has meant making a hundred decisions where we didn’t know what we didn’t know. If I have the energy after it’s all finally finished I may write up better instructions and advice.

If you are going to use gates or panels, please consider using square topped ones that fit tightly together. Those round tops can trap a leg between the gate and the post if they try to go over and don’t make it.

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My fence guy built my stalls. We ordered from two places and we unable to get anything in time for when the horses had to move in. It was in summer 2020 when lumber was high. There are 3 12 x 12 stalls and I think it ended up being a little over $5000.

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We built our stalls in an existing pole barn/garage in the summer of 2020. Lumber was high then, but not what it is today. I ordered the grill kits and U-channels from Ramm, and we ordered southern yellow pine tongue and groove from Menards.

I have a tack room, feedroom, wash stall, two 16x10 stalls and a 20x10 stall and I believe the total
cost was around 7k. Doors were going to be another thousand per stall, but a friend had extra welded mesh doors that I was able to buy from her instead. We did all of the labor ourselves. I still don’t have the tack room or feed room enclosed, there were not enough 4x4s available at the time, and I have just procrastinated finishing those rooms ever since!

Took about a month from start to finish, but I am beyond happy with how everything turned out and it was far cheaper than having someone to put them in for us.

P.S. My mom and I did 100% of the labor ourselves. Totally doable if you know how to use a table saw, circular saw, and have a hammer drill to anchor the posts. I’m sure the cost would have been doubled if we’d hired it out. #girlpower :grin:

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That looks so very nice!

I would caution for anyone wanting to use that 2" x 4" mesh, do run the mesh vertical.
With the 2" opening up and down is a bit safer if a horse decides to lick or run teeth/tongue on the mesh.
This way it won’t hang teeth on 2" as readily as in 4" spacing, as it is when the mesh is run the 4" horizontally.

Also weld your mesh on the inside of the frame, like best I can tell in that quoted post stall gate.
There is less to weld to there, but if welding on the outside, where a horse can rub themselves on the edge, they at times will do so with so much gusto they rub manes and tails offf and may even make sores on their tender skin, which then they rub even more.
I know of several show stables that happen to, they had to remodel to avoid that.
Just some of the many little fabricating details that could keep horses a bit safer from themselves.
Hope that makes sense?

Here are pictures of where we use not square welded mesh vertically, always on the inside of frames, last picture (internet picture) welded on the outside, where horses may love to rub themselves on it, not ideal, but some times, that is all you can get:

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8475768B-7CC3-40D6-8DEB-3BA554F4C3F1_4_5005_c

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these U Channels were made at a local metal shop who has a metal brake that we paid to have 1/4 inch flat plate bent into a 2 inch U Channel

The U Channels were attached to the post (if wooden post a lag bolt was use, if steel post a spot weld was used)

The stall walls are of 2by8 boards that dropped into the channels … the vertical board in the cent is a 5 quarter decking board with rounded edges, this is just used to lock the 2by8s in place.

The stall’s metal dividers are of standard 1/2 inch square stock that we welded to U Channels (just set up a jig to hold stuff in place as the panels were fabricated

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This old post and beam barn was pretty decrepit on the outside, but it’s bones were still strong. When we renovated it, we jacked up the floor beams, mortared a stone foundation, put a new cedar skin and removed the above ground floor in the large 30x30 hay barn

… Took out the upper portion of the interior wall and added bars for ventilation along the breezeway. We had a crew of three guys and it took us 9 months. And this old barn will go on another hundred years i hope!

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That lumber looks so very nice to work with. :slightly_smiling_face:

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when we first saw it we knew it had potential!

one of the leantos on the back (south) side


here is what was inside that doorway you see in above photo

Here’s that same section stripped down and getting ready for it’s new skin

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And here is a view of the entire south side finished. The photos above show the right side of this (behind the gray arab)

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Potential but oh so much work.
Turned out wonderful, bet you enjoy it all now. :grinning:

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This was not my barn and ignore the fact my horse is wearing a visor. I literally couldn’t not find a decent picture. :rofl: But I boarded at this barn for many years and always thought the stalls were tastefully done. They were just wooden planks floor to ceiling with “bars” created by cutting notches in the wood.

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I love seeing the different DIY barn ideas! Thank you to everyone.