I’ve got a 30 yo barn with one stall that needs help. It has water/drainage issues and therefore has wet spots and moguls. I’m not going to tear it up and put in a drainage system. Too costly and not worth it to me. Years ago when the barn was built the stall had a chat base but that has now sunken badly. I need to put in something that will last. I did another stall years ago in concrete with mats and shavings and it’s pristine. It is currently unoccupied. All my stalls have outdoor pastures attached so no horse has to stay in if it doesn’t want to however right now they prefer to be in with fans and no bugs. I’m willing to double mat if necessary. I’d like to keep the entire project (rock, concrete, rebar and mats) in the $1200 range. My concern is that concrete is hard on legs and I don’t want horses developing bed sores.
I’d like to hear from others who have concrete and what their thoughtsexare. I’m also open to suggestions.
Thanks! I’ll be watching for posts.
Following this as I was thinking about concrete stalls also in a new construction barn.
Growing up with horses on concrete, well bedded and working for decades in most barns with concrete flooring and all that before we had mats, I can say under our management, horses were fine.
Now, if someone starts with the idea that horses are not ok on concrete, why even go there?
There are other kinds of flooring today, many choices out there.
Originally posted by Starsnstripes View Post
I’ve got a 30 yo barn with one stall that needs help. It has water/drainage issues and therefore has wet spots and moguls. I’m not going to tear it up and put in a drainage system. Too costly and not worth it to me. Years ago when the barn was built the stall had a chat base but that has now sunken badly. I need to put in something that will last. I did another stall years ago in concrete with mats and shavings and it’s pristine. It is currently unoccupied. All my stalls have outdoor pastures attached so no horse has to stay in if it doesn’t want to however right now they prefer to be in with fans and no bugs. I’m willing to double mat if necessary. I’d like to keep the entire project (rock, concrete, rebar and mats) in the $1200 range. My concern is that concrete is hard on legs and I don’t want horses developing bed sores.
I’d like to hear from others who have concrete and what their thoughtsexare. I’m also open to suggestions.
Thanks! I’ll be watching for posts.
Growing up with horses on concrete, well bedded and working for decades in most barns with concrete flooring and all that before we had mats, I can say under our management, horses were fine.
Now, if someone starts with the idea that horses are not ok on concrete, why even go there?
There are other kinds of flooring today, many choices out there.
I have an old converted dairy barn that has railroad ties with mats as flooring. 40+ years of horses on them.
I put the mats out a few times a year and wash them off. Sweep the ties and replace mats.
I used to ride at a barn that had large bricks over sand. it worked very well. No mats, and bedded with shavings. I don’t know how to describe bricks, but they were big, and had holes (so drained well and were grippy.). Might be an easier alternative. I have also been at a barn with railroad ties as the floor. On their own they are slippery, but with a mat, they would probably be great.
We did have mats over concrete at the last bar I was at: I wasn’t a huge fan as they seemed to collect pee under them, but I imagine better mats/installation could be good. I am also guessing mat technology has improved since then.
Dealing with concrete floors in stalls right now and if it was my barn, I wouldn’t have it. It is very hard on older horses no matter how deep you bed, and they will develop sores when laying down.
I have redone stalls three different ways. I have used the plastic grids with sand - no good, they were slippery and then required mats because they were also hard. I have done concrete with mats - pretty hard but easy to keep up and then my favorite - level sand with a one piece 12 by 12 mat - I think they are sold at Big D and they weigh 600-800 pounds They won’t move and allow for the cush of the sand underneath and your pitchfork never gets stuck on anything. I would do this again in a heartbeat
I am not sure Rebar is warranted, really do not think so… concrete mesh would more than enough,
Th only stall that we have poured concrete into was the one that was converted to a tack room, just concrete at 4,000 PSI, nothing else… that was many years a go and no cracks at all, but really no weight on it
Our main barn has concrete pavers set on a base of crushed stone with sand on top then the pavers… those pavers are 10,000PSI concrete… none have moved or broken. Stall have 3/4 inch 4by6 mats. Horses may be up for days due to weather but we have never had a soundness issue with any horse due to being stalled (and several were used in competitive trail covering up to 60 miles in two days
Main barn was designed so it could be converted into a hobbyist garage if we were to sell the place as being a “garage” the building is worth more than two times that of a barn
A friend was using an old barn with clay floors. The stalls had runs outside.
He fought that clay flooring for some years.
He said it was impossible to keep young horses that are so active from tearing up the stalls and making holes here and there.
He had to continuously keep adding and leveling.
About a dozen years ago, he fixed the base and concreted over it and is super happy now.
He said horses now seem to like the stalls much better to take naps and cleaning in there is a snap now, no more irritating hard work.
Moral of the story, may want to consider not using clay for the floor.
Yeah I’m with Bluey. Clay floors are IMPOSSIBLE. Absolutely awful. I have had horses in concrete stalls a couple of times. They did have rubber mats down. My solution was to deep bed with sawdust (it will pack some) and put shavings over the top. Now that said, I’m only cleaning up after myself, not a barn full. I did not have any trouble with hock sores.
However… one barn I interviewed had concrete stalls and OMG the place was cold. Never mind it was February and only about 18*, it was freaking cold in there. Like the concrete absorbed every bit of moisture in the air and just held it in place. I had not noticed that in the other places with concrete stalls.
Some people love concrete floors but I hate them. I had concrete floors in stalls in a barn I was co-oping. Even with mats and lots of bedding the urine ran under the mats with no where to go. I also have dealt with clay floors in stalls in the pre-mat era. That was a pain two, especially with geldings that peed in the middle of the stall. When I finally was able to afford my own place I used crusher run aka stone dust in my stalls as a base. I watered it and rented a compactor from Home Depot and leveled and compacted the base. Then I put in interlocking mats. I think the secret to this is compacting the base and interlocking mats. I have a stall I did 20 years ago which is level to this day with no problems. The stall with cheap mats is level but the mats get stuff under them and needs to be redone with interlocking mats. However nobody locally sells interlocking mats and the freight for one set is pretty awful so I have not fixed it.
I am building a two stall shedrow barn and have opted for concrete floors. After fixing shifting stall mats or pulling out stall mats to dig out smelly sand at boarding barns (which may have accumulated over years?), I decided I had had enough. Rubber mats are heavy and replacing and leveling the sand every year is back-breaking. We have a small exit to outside at the floor of each stall so that the floor can hosed off. Another consideration is whether we use enough bedding and change it frequently enough that all that urine shouldn’t collect under the mats in the first place. I am thinking about interlocking mats or a stall liner though just in case.
I built a barn once with rough-sawn 2X8 oak floors in the stalls. The BEST! But level the clay, dig a French drain in the spot where horses seem to urinate most often, then put mats down.
We have used concrete in stables for decades in the UK. Before that, it was brick. The key is to get the drainage right.
Concrete is great for legs. Cover with mats and bed properly, your horse will never take a bad step because of the nice FLAT floor. At school the stable floors were quarry tile, with grated drains at the threshold.
Good points Equibrit. .
What is the nature of the drainage issues that are currently undermining the base in that stall? Assuming it’s groundwater-- whether seeping up from below, or water is running in from higher points? I know you don’t want to dig it all up, but putting concrete over a wet or unstable base will lead to cracked concrete eventually. Water always wins.
I put concrete in my barn that I built 3 years ago. Absolutely no issues. I bed appropriately so all urine is absorbed. I’ve been in boarding barns most of my 25 years of riding, and having to deal with mats on clay or gravel of some sort- the mats get dug up, holes get dug in stalls, rodents burrowing under the mats. All that got old really fast, and they still got bed sores which is just a result of not enough bedding, not the clay or concrete.
We built a barn last year and the stalls have concrete floors with interlocking mats on top. It is GREAT. The mats don’t shift, ever, and we have had no problem with urine getting under mats, smell, or discomfort. The stalls are bedded with a reasonable amount of fluffy shavings and are cleaned daily. The shavings absorb any urine and soiled bedding is removed before it could even hit the floor in a meaningful way. Dutch doors to paddocks let the horses come and go as they prefer, but they choose to be inside in the heat of the day to enjoy their fans and lounge around. We have had no sores at all, and I do have one horse that had been prone to them at other barns (and used to have to wear a fetlock ring). I would much prefer to have a level and solid base for stalls than packed aggregates, which tend to settle or get tunnels (from mice) over time. I think the worst thing for their legs would be to have an uneven and/or too soft surface.
