I have a Penn. Ag. Extension publication I’ve been looking at for specifications on building stalls. They say you can use 3/4 inch plywood instead of rough cut oak or hemlock to line stalls, that it is strong enough and because it is a bit flexible it dissipates kicks… This would be a considerable savings. I was wondering if anyone has done this, and if you’d be willing to share pics? Did you have something else, like pressure treated pine, for the first 12 inches from the ground? Did you do the stall doors out of plywood as well?
I would be concerned about the long term beauty of a plywood exposed to kicks. Although plywood is very strong/safe as far as a horse can’t kick through it- I’d think that the surface ply could break/splinter off and start to delaminate. At least with board stock- there is more of the same under a splinter.
There are probably some horses who are gentle enough with their walls that it would be fine and look beautiful- and there are other horses who would wreck it.
I’d like to see pics too!
We built an exceptionally nice barn for our area and I used the plywood. We are prone to flooding so we went with something that was relatively inexpensive in the event we had to replace. Hard to believe this is my fourth summer and everything has held up great. It doesn’t look as nice as some of the other wood but for the savings I can live with it.
I have one kick hole as we had a horse, for a very short time, that would corner others in their stalls and kick. He did not last very long and was sent on his way. I am not a techy so am unable to post pictures but if you PM me your email address I could send some off my iphone.
Thanks for the offer, quarterhorse4me, PM sent.
I’m not really concerned about beauty/looks, just about safety and functionality. My horse is not a kicker at all, but of course I still want it to be safe for most reasonable horses (a real kicker would be sent packing quickly!).
http://s1269.photobucket.com/user/jonshrry/library/Stalls
These give a general idea, 3/4" treated plywood from the floor up 4’, then regular 3/4" the other 4’. In the cat picture, the wall on the right is the “kick” wall, no damage yet.
Many of the commercial modular barns are fabricated with 3/4 plywood clad in light metal and they last forever if taken care.
They are guaranteed to be kick proof.
We have used 3/4 outdoor plywood to line sheds and in the barn.
We paint it with straight Kiln primer, that comes in white, two coats.
Some of that is still good after 20+ years.
Here you can see 3/4 outside plywood lining the barn walls and also lining the last stall:
The glue in the plywood is toxic if you have a horse that chews. If the plywood gets wet, as in horse habitually splashes in it’s bucket, the plywood disintegrates. And I know of a big warm blood that did kick thru plywood. So, not the best choice IMO.
We have a Klenepipe barn that came with 3/4 plywood, it seems to be a standard, We aren’t actually using it yet, BUT we have a pen separation using 3/4 ply on a frame built over a pipe panel. It weighs a TON.
With the exception of the fact that we got cheap and left one side open so Snort had a merry old time beavering away at the frame, (he has not chewed at all on the plywood, it’s funny to look at it) it’s commanded some respect from the pony who has the smooth plywood side… He had completely demolished an economy panel by running into it, pawing and flattening the tubes and then standing on them like a circus pony. He’s done a little delaminating of the plywood but nothing serious and it’s been there for I think three years now. 2010 right around WEG, that’d be the beginning of October. Of all the things he is though, a kicker is not one of them.
The plywood is all AbX exterior grade so getting soaked hasn’t really affected it, it’s been outdoors exposed to all kind of weather. Adding a non chewable trim strip to the top edge, the side of the plywood sheet, would have probably added some life to it but we really didn’t plan to have it up this long in this duty.
Now, my trainer had a wild mare that could kick over your head and she punched a decent dent in the siding in the indoor. As I recall it she kicked so hard and so close to the door frame that she damaged the whole wall of the viewing room. Interior trim cracked, big crack and bow in the wall. Outside it was just a dent in the plywood. No holes, no feet caught or anything nasty like that.
I can’t give you pictures, but haven’t we all seen old barns where the plywood stalls have been beavered down to about half their height by chewers, and then patched with more plywood, painted with creosote and beavered down again??
Re: beavered plywood, I’ve seen oak in old barns that looked like that too. The trick is to not give them an edge to start the gnawing, and also to get the full 3/4 thickness. Not 5/8, not 1/2.
Thanks for your responses.
SPF10, what did you use for the doors and the front panels – 2" pine? Have they held up well? I can’t quite tell from the pics – is it just one sheet of plywood separating stalls, or two sheets, with studs between the two pieces?
Bluey, do you purchase the metal piping in a kit and then assemble with the plywood yourself? Where did you get the piping?
The plywood is lining the walls of the building, screwed onto the metal framing.
We put metal on the vertical edges, horses don’t reach the 8’ top edge to chew on it.
We used regular barn trim for the edges.
In the sheds, we put the plywood 4’ high, again screwed onto the metal framing and there we didn’t put any edging and no horse munched on that.
What is irresistible for horses is new pine 2"x4"s.
One shed in the old barn we added had one such on the edge, we were going to paint it with creosote next day.
That morning early horses came into that shed from the pasture and one ate that whole board as high as he could reach,:rolleyes:
As others have said, plywood is not the best, but it can work.
Some exterior plywood is called OSB, oriented strand boards.
That is used on roofing and works for lining barns also.
The Dutchdoors came with the barn, all thick pine. We finished the inside, all the stall walls are built with studs in between, the aisle side of the stall fronts are tongue and groove pine, inside the stall is plywood
If your barn will have metal siding, I’d skip the plywood.
I’ve seen horses kick through plywood and put a foot through the metal siding. I’ve never seen a horse actually kick through rough cut oak.
We “saved money” and used 3/4" OSB to line our barn. Our external siding is T1-11 plywood. My new mare has proven just how easy it is to punch holes in the OSB. Better than nothing, but we’re going to have to replace it with something better one day.
OSB is an underlayment product and was never designed to be used exposed on walls in any environment…as noted, it will shred very quickly and easily from abuse. It’s not a substitute for quality plywood, that’s for sure!
Agree with Jim. OSB isn’t meant for use exposed to the elements, it absorbs water and swells and delaminates, and it’s just one giant splinter waiting to happen. Good exterior grade 3/4 inch plywood with an A side and seal/protect the edges.
OSB and plywood are not the same thing-- and I would hope no one thought I was insinuating that! I was just relaying my story on my own attempt at saving money.
But that does not change the fact that I have seen horses kick through 3/4" treated plywood on more than one occasion.
[QUOTE=Jim_in_PA;7527467]
OSB is an underlayment product and was never designed to be used exposed on walls in any environment…as noted, it will shred very quickly and easily from abuse. It’s not a substitute for quality plywood, that’s for sure![/QUOTE]
Yes, I meant for lining barn walls on the inside.
Ours in the old barn has been there a good 20+ years, with two coats of primer paint and is still just like new.
In the new barn in the picture, that is now almost 10 years old.
I am a person who believes in “form and function” Not much for utilitarianism But I do understand budget constraints. That being said I am not seeing any savings and or redeeming value in using plywood for fixed stall partitions/walls.
Horses can and will kick through a ¾ sheet of ply wood. As another commented we have all been in barns with “beavered plywood”. Yes Oak does get “beavered” but IMO it doesn’t look near as bad.
Personally I would never use anything other then 2X “slip” boards with a “stiffener strap” in the middle. 2X8 tongue and grove to be exact but they do cost a few more $$ but don’t require a “stiffener strap.” Using regular 2X8X 12’ pine framing lumber cost about $1.35 per inch of height. A 6 foot high wall will cost around $100 for the boards, 8’ high, $130.
There is far less labor involved to install. If a board gets damaged it is very easy to replace.
Building a wall out of plywood would need to be “framed” correctly to withstand the forces that even a small horse can and will exert on it. Also with wear and tear in mind.
A construction grade sheet of ¾ plywood is going to cost $25-30 per sheet. 4X8 sheets.
If you go with a 4’ high wall you are going to need 3 sheets, assuming that it will be sheeted on both sides and secured to a wood frame, $75-90. Add in the framing materials and a fair bit of labor and I can see this costing a lot more then using “slip boards”. It will cost more in materials even if the labor is free.
I wouldn’t worry about the glue used in plywood. Horses would have to eat a lot to have an ill effect. I would worry more about them ingesting “splinter wood”.
I would not use Hemlock. It has lousy shear strength and splinters easily IMO.
OBS that is not going to be exposed to the elements will do the job if you are on a extreme budget. But I would look at as “temporary” it will not stand the test of time in pretty short order.
Given the weather and horses we have and work with I would not paint the stalls white. Made that mistake. Muddy, dirty horses leave their “marks” pretty quickly. Along with manure stains. Looked nice and bright after it was painted and if I had never put any horse in the barn I would still be happy with the results.
The interior of our barn is going through renovation shortly and I will only clear coat or stain and clear coat. Very easy to pressure wash without the fear of taking off paint in places. Any more then the horses already have.
To each their own on this.
A lot of folks do use OSB for “finish” purposes…honestly, half my woodworking shop has painted OSB on the walls because I ran out of money for what I really wanted at the time!
If I were doing a horse barn interior myself, I’d be cautious about using 3/4" plywood as “the only” material. I’d either double it up (with adhesive between) on a wall or sandwich 2x material between two layers of plywood for stall dividers. But aesthetically, I’d prefer “true” 2" thick T&G oak. 
If the pocketbook allowed, of course…
