Hi all,
I’m thinking of putting a run-in shed in an existing pasture. I know I will need a level place to put it, but will I need to worry about securing it to the ground? I live in central NJ and get occasional bad storms, but nothing regularly.
If I need to secure it, what would the best way be? Concrete footings with post holders? Piers? Something else?
Thanks!
Amy
We had some good discussion about this sort of thing in this thread here:
Thanks Simkie, but I didn’t really want to use cables to tie it down. I was wondering if it was necessary to secure it or not.
Yes, it’s necessary, and there’s discussion on that thread about why cables aren’t a good idea and better ways to do it. Did you read the thread?
What kind of run-in? The wooden prefab ones are so heavy they don’t need securing.
I have a carport as a shelter and they used 3’ mobile home anchors to secure it to the ground (4 on each side I think)
SMF11, not true. One here locally lifted off while the owner and horse were inside, no injuries, during a wind storm. So when I get some, I’m definitely anchoring them in some fashion, thinking mobile home anchors.
I didn’t see a definite yes/no in that discussion regarding the need for securing the sheds. Thanks for making it clear to me. I’ll probably go with the concrete footings and the rod idea. Now to find out about renting an auger. ??
[QUOTE=SMF11;8738224]
What kind of run-in? The wooden prefab ones are so heavy they don’t need securing.[/QUOTE]
LOL. I can show you a photo of one of my wooden prefab sheds upside down from a storm 2 summers ago.
[QUOTE=amymoyer;8738794]
I didn’t see a definite yes/no in that discussion regarding the need for securing the sheds. Thanks for making it clear to me. I’ll probably go with the concrete footings and the rod idea. Now to find out about renting an auger. ??[/QUOTE]
Dig yourself or ask around who builds fences and get someone to dig post holes in each corner, drop a chain in there with a bolt sideways on the bottom, so it will work as an anchor, then fill the hole with concrete mix and bolt the part of the chain sticking out of the hole to your shed corner.
Has always worked fine for us, easy to move again if you need to by unbolting it.
We built these sheds in 1994 and have dragged them miles here and there over the years.
They are cattle sheds, 30’ x 12’ and not lined with OSB or outdoor rated plywood because it is not for horses.
Those horses just happen to be in the cattle pens when we took that picture.
You can see the chain coming up from the concreted hole in the ground.
We welded it to the pipe there, one on the corner, two in the middle, since those are two sheds butted to each other, each one serving one pen, picture taken thru the gate, with that panel between them and each one has it’s own chain tying it in each corner:
Those chains on a footing is pretty good Bluey! Nothing to snag an animal on if exposed by moving sheds. Extremely strong as anchor points. I bet the shed would come apart before it ever pulled that anchor up.
Thanks for sharing, I will pass your method along to some other shed owners to use.
What I have recently ordered is, more or less, stand-alone stalls/glorified run-ins.* The corner pipes are cemented into the ground, for sure, and I believe that the pipes in between the corners are to be cemented as well. This may be overkill for what you want to do, but I’m pretty sure that they won’t blow away.
When we built our run-in shed, we used old cresote rail way ties as the base and then bolted the frame of the shed to it. We then drilled 3/4" hole through both the base and the frame and using a heavy sledge hammer, we hammered 3/4" rebar through both pieces and into the ground about 2 feet. I do not think it will be moving in a very long time. It is safe and effective.
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