Converting metal building to a barn

[blondejumper]

My fiancé and I are currently looking at a property to purchase. There is a 2800 square foot metal building on the property that I would love to convert to a barn. I was wondering if anyone has input or could share what worked well for them.

The previous owner has full insulated the building and added heat and A/C as well as epoxy floors. It does also have its own well and septic.

1. Building currently only has 2 regular household sized doors. We would need to have a large door cut on one side for equipment, etc. Can this be done without compromising the heating ability completely? Any idea on costs? Obviously we would be running the A/C or heat on a regular basis, but would like to keep the option in the case of unusually cold weather.

2. We we’re thinking of using stall kits, however am trying to figure out if we would need to have a drain put in to every stall location. Flooring is currently epoxy and I’m wondering if we would end up with an absolute mess if we did stall mats and shavings if the urine isn’t able to drain anywhere under the mats? Would stall skins work better? Our herd lives mostly outside but gets brought in sometimes during nasty weather.

Im hate to even ask how much it would cost to run a drain since the floor is obviously already in place.

3. I also worry that there might not be enough ventilation and air flow to store hay. Thoughts?

Would just like to get some ideas as my fiance cringes a little everytime I talk about cutting doors in and making too many changes that will compromise the money already spent on the building. The owner obviously spent a lot of money but for our purpose we would need a barn not a very large storage unit.

[Bluey]

@blondejumper

My fiancé and I are currently looking at a property to purchase. There is a 2800 square foot metal building on the property that I would love to convert to a barn. I was wondering if anyone has input or could share what worked well for them.

The previous owner has full insulated the building and added heat and A/C as well as epoxy floors. It does also have its own well and septic.

1. Building currently only has 2 regular household sized doors. We would need to have a large door cut on one side for equipment, etc. Can this be done without compromising the heating ability completely? Any idea on costs? Obviously we would be running the A/C or heat on a regular basis, but would like to keep the option in the case of unusually cold weather.

2. We we’re thinking of using stall kits, however am trying to figure out if we would need to have a drain put in to every stall location. Flooring is currently epoxy and I’m wondering if we would end up with an absolute mess if we did stall mats and shavings if the urine isn’t able to drain anywhere under the mats? Would stall skins work better? Our herd lives mostly outside but gets brought in sometimes during nasty weather.

Im hate to even ask how much it would cost to run a drain since the floor is obviously already in place.

3. I also worry that there might not be enough ventilation and air flow to store hay. Thoughts?

Would just like to get some ideas as my fiance cringes a little everytime I talk about cutting doors in and making too many changes that will compromise the money already spent on the building. The owner obviously spent a lot of money but for our purpose we would need a barn not a very large storage unit.

Plenty of those out there today, an all purpose building with added portable stalls in there for a horse barn, like these pictures here:

https://www.steelfactory.com/horse-stalls-barns.htm

I know a trainer that had one such barn with no ventilation and he put an overhead door on one side and a bigger fan high up on the opposite wall and he got very good airlflow thru there in all kinds of weather.

Many concrete floored barns don’t have drains in the stalls.
The bedding absorbs most moisture.

[clanter]

1. Building currently only has 2 regular household sized doors. We would need to have a large door cut on one side for equipment, etc. Can this be done without compromising the heating ability completely? Any idea on costs? Obviously we would be running the A/C or heat on a regular basis, but would like to keep the option in the case of unusually cold weather.

yes. The opening would need to framed in, usually a steel building just has used steel purlins, once framed the wall can be removed. Any type of door can be made… sliding barn doors or overhead like on a garage, either can be insulated. Type of door system used would depend on the buildings’ sidewall height as normally you need about 18 clear inches above a standard overhead door for the torsion assembly

Just a note usually there is a desire to have some amount of air flow in any building housing livestock… so really would not think air tightness would be desired

As for adding drains in the proposed stall area… from my experience not needed. We put drains in the center of each stall when we built our barn nearly thirty years ago thinking we would wash the stalls out every so often… which has not happened even once.

[DoubleDown]

I have concrete in my entire barn with no drains. I bathe in the aisle where the concrete was slanted out the back door to drain. If it doesn’t go out fast enough for me, I just give the water a push with a push broom. Not super efficient, but it’s just me using it.

[et_fig]

My god, I hate paying to heat or cool my 1400sqft a frame house that’s recently been re insulated and wrapped, let alone a 2800sqft barn!

[YankeeLawyer]

My prior farm had a similar very large (40x70) workshop (by Morton) when we bought it. It had 3 garage doors on one end, which we removed and replaced with traditional sliding barn doors. The floor was stonedust but we put in a concrete aisle, built stalls, tack, feed, and washstall, etc and rewired the barn. It ended up being almost as expensive to redo the space as it would have been to build from scratch, and we had a pretty good head start given that this Morton building was very similar to their equestrian buildings. That said, we were able to do the improvements in phases once we got the essentials (stalls!) in place. If you are handy, you can save quite a bit by finishing out the interior yourself. You might check out the Morton website to see barns that might be similar to the structure you are considering:
https://mortonbuildings.com/

Regarding heat, etc… in our barn, we had heat/ac in the tack room only, and that kept the pipes to the washstall (immediately next to it) from freezing during the winter. Personally I would not heat/AC areas for the horses because (besides the cost) horses need a lot of fresh air/ ventilation to stay healthy. I’d rather leave the barn doors open and blanket if needed.

Regarding drains / no drains - imo drains are not needed. Even if you powerwash the stalls periodically, you can wetvac or push the water out with a broom. Regular rubber mats or stall mattresses should work fine.

[TCA_Arabians]

OP - How high is the building? What is the pitch of the roof? If it’s high enough, you’ll get air flow above the stall walls. If it’s only about 15 feet - it will be hot in summer. I agree that you’d only want to close the doors in the worst of bad weather. And, you’ll likely need large doors at both ends of the structure to enhance air flow. I also agree that you don’t need drains in the stalls. Buy really good stall mats. The bedding will absorb moisture. I’m not familiar with a epoxy flooring. So, I don’t know if you should think about a layer of DG under the mats. Perhaps someone else could answer that.