Sloped barn floor

[paintedpennypony]

We just closed on a property with a lovely barn on it. Needs TLC but very promising. No existing stalls or horse structures, and the barn floor is quite sloped. I don’t know the exact angle, but it isn’t insignificant. How would a person make this barn suitable for horses? We’re thinking a short to medium term solution is to only level where the two stalls will through some sort of retaining wall and gravel, and then figure the rest out as we become familiar with the property. Maybe level the two sides of the barn where the stalls, grooming/tacking area, storage etc will be and leave the aisle sloped?

Any thoughts or ideas? Thank you very much in advance.

[Alterwho]

Was the barn built on a hill and the ground not leveled first? Seems kind of crazy if so and I have no idea how it could have been permitted.

A sloped aisle would drive me nuts and would be very hard on a person’s back, knees, hips. I know I wouldn’t want to be pushing a wheel barrow and hauling hay and handling horses every day on a sloped floor.

I would look into leveling the entire barn

[clanter]

pour a perimeter foundation then fill with roadbase or similar product which can be leveled and compacted

[Janet]

@Alterwho

I have no idea how it could have been permitted.

I do not know where you are, but around here (Virgnia) barns do not need to be “permited”.

[Alterwho]

I’m on the west coast where just about everything needs a permit. I could build a small run-in/lean’to without a permit but not an actual barn

[clanter]

@Alterwho

and I have no idea how it could have been permitted.

barns are usually considered Accessory Buildings which are not under the same standards as dwelling (if there was even a need to permit the structure)

Accessory buildings normally are governed by Size to limit the lot coverage, Height to match or not exceed the dwelling’ height and Exterior siding to match or at least not be offensive to the surrounding

[trubandloki]

Where I am, a barn needs a permit. It is considered a permanent structure, so it needs a permit. Drawings and all.

So clearly a barn needing a permit or not part is very area dependent.

Leveling the barn floor - if you want to do the whole barn I like Clanter’s idea up thread.

I think in the long run, fixing it all at once will be easier than fixing parts here and there.

For temporary housing I think deep bedding in the stalls would probably be enough for the horses to be comfortable.

I too am curious why it was built this way.
Though I doubt permitting would care if the floor is level.

[AwiUsdi]

@Alterwho

I have no idea how it could have been permitted.

@Janet

I do not know where you are, but around here (Virgnia) barns do not need to be “permited”.

And in WV, in my area at least, practically nothing needs a permit. When we had our house built the septic needed one. Otherwise, the builders were mildly surprised we wanted our house built “to spec”.

[AwiUsdi]

@clanter

pour a perimeter foundation then fill with roadbase or similar product which can be leveled and compacted

This shouldn’t be hard, and would allow you to install the floor you want and not inherit/deal with a potentially lousy floor already there.

[Janet]

20 years ago we built a 36’ x 48’ barn which abuts the house (the house has its own exterior wall, and there is a door from the garage (part of the house) to the feed room. We (or technicaly our builder) tried to get a building permit but were told “we don’t issue permits for agricultural buildings if the land is zoned agricultural.”

[luvmyhackney]

I’m in the panhandle of WV and if you are zoned Agriculture, they only require septic permits.
Housing is different and they do require permitting for the normal things.

[Djones]

In this county you can do just about whatever you want and the county does not care one bit. No permits needed for anything other than septic.

[mmeqcenter]

Filling it in or digging the floor out to level would depend on the ceiling height, for me. If the “high” floor side, or shortest ceiling height side, is only 6’ from floor to ceiling, I would not be interested in filling in the slope to match that short height. I’d rather dig out the short side.

[LCDR]

What is the headroom as is? Low may require excavation; hIgh will allow fill material. If you are fortunate then perhaps grading the high floor side downhill to create a level floor is possible. And hopefully the floor is not knee deep in years of compacted manure.

[Amberley]

@paintedpennypony

the barn floor is quite sloped. I don’t know the exact angle, but it isn’t insignificant.

Cattle and pig sheds and dairy barns are often sloped to facilitate cleaning.

[Christa_P]

How sloped is it? I have one stall that’s sloped about 3" front to back over 10’. It’s a box stall with mats over concrete and my horse doesn’t seem to have any issues with it

[paintedpennypony]

There were never any animals in it as far as were able to tell. The aisle is dirt, the sides where the stalls et al maybe are concrete underneath lots of dirt? Previous owners used it as storage and a shop. The ceiling is very tall. We don’t know for sure but estimate 30+ feet tall.

[endlessclimb]

Lordy. Yeah just fill the low side, IMO.

[goodhors]

There might be a reason for the slope, as mentioned for runoff. We get seasonal water outside, where at times of heavy rain or spring thaws, water can’t run off fast enough to drain away. So ponding occurs for a day or so. Sure would NOT want that area filled in! But 90% of the time you would never guess ponding and runoff happens because a wide, deep ditch is running thru the area. But ALL surrounding neighbors water drains into our ditch, field tiles, so water happens, then is gone again. It WILL be mentioned when we ever sell, with tiles, drain pipes marked on a drawing.

Sometimes things are designed that way for a reason, though present occupants don’t know the reasons!!

[paintedpennypony]

If we did this, would we have a road base ramp leading out of the back side of the barn that we built up to be level with the front end? I’d imagine it’s somewhere in the ballpark of 5ft to 9ft difference between the tall and low ends of the barn. The building itself is 60ft long by 34ft feet wide. I’ll try to take pics this week for more clarity.