Anyone have any cheap (is it even possible) ideas for tack room walls that look nice too? My new tack room has studs up but I cant decide on what to cover them in. We will be doing the project ourselves so if anyone has any diy tips or photos they would like to share that would be great! Floor are concrete and there will be insulation in walls too. I have heard some people say just use thin 1x6 boards stacked on each other all the way up the wall.
My BO used 2x8 tongue and groove for everything, including stall walls. For a tack room it depends on what you are going to be screwing into the walls. If nothing then 1x6 would be okay. A few of us are in a tack room that shares a wall with a stall, so there are no studs. DH wonât allow saddle racks to go up there, which makes sense. Bridle hangers, brackets, etc. are okay.
Try Habitat for Humanity. The one here always has re-claimed 1970âs wood paneling. Cheap.
They sometimes have the white, or wall papered looking paneling that is used in mobile homes.
Both usually come in 4â x 8â sheets.
The issue I have seen with 1 x 6 board walls is the wood shrinks and rodents take advantage of any tiny gap. boards if rough sawn get very dusty.
Think very hard about making the walls rodent proof.
I like the Roxul Safe ânâ Sound insulation for a barn, [it is non-combustible] better than the pink fiberglass, but not sure what will be the best where you live.
I saw a lovely tack room that was outfitted in T1-11 that had been painted. I plan on doing the same thing 
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Thatâs what I was going to recommend. Itâs easy to install and very sturdy for supporting hooks, brackets, shelves, and whatever. If you donât like the look you can add vertical boards over the grooves to give it a board-and-batten look like this surface:
http://barnguru.com/sitebuilder/images/IMG_0471-600x400.jpg
Did this when we built our barn 25 years ago (I donât know if it was T1-11; we just called it âparticle boardâ and so did HomeDepot!!!).
It has worked quite well.
If you want to put âpegsâ on the wall to hang bridles, halters, etc. get some synthetic corks as is used in table grade white wine or âblendedâ reds. Use a long screw down the center of the cork and you have a very nice peg that wonât do anything untoward to the leather.
G.
âcheapâ is subjective. Figure out how much you want to spend. Measure the the walls to be covered and do the math to give you the amount of square feet. Lets say the room is 12X10 with 8 foot walls. Walls are 12 long 8 high = 96 x 2 = 192 sqft. Two wall are 10 long 8 high, 80 x 2 + 160. 160+192 = 372. Make it 400 sqft in case of screw ups, and or all the material canât be used in itâs entirety.
Say your budget is $500 divided by 400 sqft = $1.25 per sqft. With this number you can shop around to see what materials fit your budget.
My favorite is T&G bead board I can get decent/clean 16â boards from my local Pole Barn builder and supply for around $12 per board which comes to around $1.20 per sqft.
T-111 (referred to as T one-eleven) siding as suggested covers around 32 sqft per sheet at around $45± per sheet, $1.40± per sqft. For me it would not be my first choice. rough surface, looks like siding, doesnât hold screws well, they can and will âstrip outâ when used to hang saddle racks on over time. Or any thing that is heavy.
3/4 plywood sanded one side is around $35±, around $1.35 per sqft. Even nicely sanded plywood looks like, plywood, painted or stained. The joining seams maybe be visually annoying. But you could cover these with thin âbattensâ to give a nicer/acceptable appearance. 3/4 inch will hold screws much better than T-111.
The cheapest will be drywall. 5/8ths thick so it will stand up to some abuse and has a firecode core. But anything of weight will have to be screwed to the studs behind it. At around $12 sheet 25 cents per sqft. More labor intensive to get a nice finished look. Wonât stand the test of time in a tack room IMO.
IMO and experience nothing beats 1X6 or 1X8 bead borad for the job. Pretty easy to install and a nice finished look, stained or painted. Just about anything can be screwed to it that has to hold weight. Cheaper to buy in in 16â lengths and cut down to 8â. If your wall have been âstick framedâ you will have to install horizontal ânailersâ to nail the vertical boards to. Not too difficult of the average DIYer. Framing 2X4s are cheap, 1X4 can be used. Any scrape/recycled lumber if enough can be had.
Bead board can be installed with the âbeadsâ out or flipped to give a âV-grooveâ appearance. Check the âknotsâ for looseness. Glue if needed before installing. If you plan to stain do not get any glue on the staining surfaces. This will âsealâ the woodâs grain and the stain will not penetrate and it will have âblotchâ marks here and there.
I just picked up 1x6" red pine tongue and groove factory seconds for a fraction of a price of new, and significantly less than plywood.
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T&G the ones in the picture are 1X6 and it can be had in 1X8. If installed on the reverse side it is called V-Groove. The âbeadâ is only on one side
Stamped/faux plywood bead board sheets can be had but they are very thin and need to be installed over drywall or construction grade plywood.
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We have 2x6 T and G in our stalls, then a framed wall between the 2x6 and a 1x6 T and G on the inside. all our saddle hooks go on the framed posts for strength, and the framing gave us space to put in insulation so we can heat the room successfully.
We have three tack rooms. One is drywall, one is 6â tongue a groove vertical, then topped with drywall rest of the way and across the ceiling. Last one is not as fancy. It has horizontal tongue and groove on one wall (a stall is next door) and plywood on other walls (probably 3/4"). In the all drywall tack room, the walls are white. Where ever I needed to mount things to the wall that needed more than a stud, I some mounted 3/4 plywood to the area where various racks would be mounted that required more than just a stud. I then painted that white to match the rest of the walls. Works well. Looks decent.
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I put up T-111 20 years ago. I have never painted it and it still looks nice enough. Would never paint it white because flies love to dot everything that is light colored.
Of course my barn is just a barn and not palatial. It would have been nice to have pine tongue and groove, stained and urethaned, with polished brass saddle racks and bridle holders â and barn rats to keep them polished â but that will maybe happen in another life.
Fly specks, bleh. Never had that problem. Ours are just barns, not palaces either. The white drywall tack room was painted only once, and that was 14 years ago. Itâs a sealed normal room with a sealed door. Also has a screened window. Door is kept shut at all times. No flies, not much dust. Now, the tack room with the stained and urethaned vertical tongue and groove topped by painted dry wall has a few flies get in there but not many either. It still has the same roll of fly paper hanging near a light thatâs been there for the last 7 years. So little flies, Iâve cut off the old pieces maybe 3? times. I have no idea why there arenât more flies in the tack rooms. We definitely have all sorts of flies. We do feed a feed thru fly control but there are still flies. We donât have any special manure disposal system either. The manure piles are all about 300 feet from the barns. Several neighbors have livestock.
If price is a big factor for you the Habitat Restore is a great idea. Ours often has a lot of the wire closet shelving in various sizes. It might take dropping in from time to time because their inventory changes often.
Ask around at your local lumberyard or even the big box stores to see what marked down or slightly damaged things they might have. It is amazing what you can find that way. Making friends with the local lumber yard might find you some great finds.
