Stall Floors

[Bluey]

In one European top barn we had wooden floors in the stalls.
The barn was concrete, the front of the stalls had a 5" x 2" or so channel where any urine or water would run thru the boards and down the concrete into the channel and out of the barn.
Those were thick wide boards and had been there some decades now and were still in excellent shape.
All that time the stalls had been bedded in straw.

Worked fine, except the barn was closed up and the urine smell was very strong, even with us hosing the channels down regularly. We thought the wood was soaked all the time and that was why it was so smelly in there, plus under the wood the urine took it’s good time to drain over to the channel. That was before mats or shavings or pellets, any of those may make a difference,

I think using wood in an open shed would be fine, in a closed barn, not sure.

[lenapesadie]

I farm sat for a woman once that had wooden floors in the stalls. They were fine to clean as best I recall. Shavings were bedded deeply directly over the wood. I personally thought the barn held odor, but I was there in winter and they kept the barn closed and heated overnight and I suspect that had more to do with the odor than the wooden floors. I do think the wood floors had more give than mats over concrete.

[Simkie]

That’s interesting, thanks!!

[NancyM]

Yes, sawdust right onto the wooden planks. No, never had any problem with forks catching on cracks… boards fit pretty tight. We did these stalls when we moved here and built accommodations. Local private saw mill right close by, ordered the planks from them.

When I was a kid, my Dad built the first barn for my Mom’s equine habit. That would have been in the mid 1950s. He put wooden floors into the stalls. repurposed oak boards that he got somewhere for nothing, since they didn’t have a lot of cash. We sold that farm in 1987, and some of our friends who boarded with us took those oak boards out of that barn, and put them in their own barn which they built on the hobby farm they bought and built. As far as I know, those boards are STILL in that barn. The farm we moved to, we built barns and put in compacted sand, with rubber mats. It was OK, but sometimes there was wear on the mats, and sometimes the edges came up. We sold that farm in 2008, and moved and built this farm. We are semi remote, and don’t use the stalls here much. There are only two stalls, in one end of the indoor arena. I used them when I had the stallion, he was old, and had (obviously) to be kept separate from the rest of the herd. So he and a friend would overnight in those stalls, and go out for the day in the snow. So I used them a bit until he died, and I used them with some overwintering race boarders who wanted early spring time light exercise in the arena. So they haven’t had as much use as that old barn did. But they are nice, not expensive, and work well. I used one last year for early backing breaking greenies, racetrack style. Traction with sawdust on top of boards was fine for walking around in there on greenies. There was no drama.

If you put wood floors in a run in, you would have to support the boards all the way around the outer edge, to make sure that they don’t move or shift. Without sawdust bedding on top of them, they may become slippery with wear, especially if someone wants to torque out of the run in shed at full speed. Our stalls in our FIRST barn, above, were open 24/7 to paddocks, and they could be a bit slippery when a quick exit was attempted.
Wood floors in barns are very “old school”, usually used in tie stalls 100+ years ago. But they still work the same, if they are easier and cheaper than other options.

If you want to put them in, gravel underneath them, and the treated 4 X 4s set into that gravel to make sure you get a level bearing surface. Then just lay the boards on top of those, fit tight together. You don’t have to nail the boards down, they stay in place. IF one ever breaks, easier to pry one out and replace it if not nailed down. I’ve never seen one break and need replacing.

[NancyM]

Answered above, I couldn’t figure out how to reply to two at once LOL. Tech dinosaur.

[sascha]

I think I’ve stabled at every type of flooring available, except for mattresses (which I do have some experience with from my days working with dairy cattle but dairy cattle are TOUGH on flooring) so I’ll leave those out because I’m not sure where I’d put them in my list - I like the looks of them and they feel lovely, but the only people I know who have them only use the stalls maybe a couple of hours a day.

My personal list from best to worst (all were used with traditional DEEP bedding):

Concrete with properly fitted mats

Wood

Concrete without mats (can be awful with the wrong combo of digging horse and light, fluffy bedding)

Pavers with mats (rats and smell)

Pavers without mats (rats and smell)

Stonedust with mats (too much maintenance and smell)

Clay (too much damn work and puddles of urine can accumulate under bedding)

Stonedust (too much maintenance)

Sand (WHY?? in the name of all things holy would anyone think this is a good idea?)

[clanter]

sawdust right onto the wooden planks

in the South this would be an idea harbor for termites

[B_and_B]

I love, love wood floors. But, they have to be built in a particular method which is not well suited to modern building codes. If you look at old New England barns, you will find that generally the ones that lasted have a stone foundation which was often piers not complete foundations. On top of that rests the wooden sill and then the floor boards. This the base of your post and beam barn. The floor boards in barns are, in my experience, usually true 2" rough sawn, generally at least 8" but preferably 10" wide, today mostly oak (white if you can afford it, red or black otherwise). One might find different wood elsewhere of course. Generally, there is an air gap between the floor and the ground ranging from 4" to in the case of my barn over 2 feet. The wood floor is therefore not in contact with the ground or with concrete (which rots wood faster than anything). It is only in contact with the stone at the support piers. Because of the air gap it stays very dry.
A wood floor built in that method is going to drain quite neatly. It also has a wonderful sprung feeling to it, so very forgiving for the horses.
One side of our barn has been in constant use for both horses and vehicles for over a century. We’ve only replaced a few boards recently. The other side had tie stalls, those did have to be replaced at least once when they were in use (1870-1929). The box stalls were in use 1870 to today, we only had to replace them around 1990.
The only place we have had rot issues is on the front face of the oldest section (built c. 1830/1840) because the barnyard was raised and a concrete ramp for cars was put in place which was poured directly onto the wood sill. Do not do that!
Bedding has been sawdust or shavings.
I would hesitate to use wood in ground contact or concrete contact situations unless you are really on top of the drainage. Unless you can get black locust. I saw an awesome floor done of end grain black locust pavers with the joints filled with limestone dust. Really wonderful, but must have cost the earth.
Not being far enough south (thankfully) termites aren’t an issue

[kaya842]

I don’t have as much experience with different flooring types as some of the above, but I did board at a barn with Stable Comfort stall mats (mattresses?) and oh man they were TERRIBLE! I fed hay and grain a few mornings a week for reduced board so saw every stall (somewhere around 30 stalls), and every single one had divots / lumps and a fair amount had holes or tearing fabric. The entire facility is not that old IIRC, maybe 20 years? Not sure how old the stable comfort mats were at the time but this was 7 years ago so likely about 10yrs. You couldn’t pay me to use those.

Our current farm has a native soil (dirt) floor for 3 stalls with grid mats on the top (which are packed in) I suppose to level the floor? We bought the barn that way. We also have one stall on packed screenings with regular mats on top. The native soil + grid mat stall that is in use is the bane of my existence. Bedding packs into the parts of the grids that aren’t 100% full, the grids seem to hold urine, ground water will seep UP through the grids when it’s really wet out (like now), and the fork gets caught on the grids all the time. The regular mats + screenings is fine. We bought mats from a barn that was being demolished, so while we laid them nice and neat, parts have shifted and come up some but I don’t blame the floor more so our install/ used material choice. That stall is quicker to clean, uses less bedding (because it doesn’t stay wet/ have water come up) and does not smell like the other.

I’ve worked a barn that did the concrete + mats snugly fitted and thought it was great. Easy to clean, no smell, and they had it set up to where we could power wash the barn and it would drain/ dry quickly. The key with any mat set up to avoid smell (IMO) is to understand that mats aren’t a substitute for proper bedding. If there is enough bedding to absorb the pee, it should run under the mats which is where the smell comes from.

[sascha]

@kaya842

If there is enough bedding to absorb the pee, it should run under the mats which is where the smell comes from.

Pssst - I think you mean enough bedding means pee shouldn’t run under the mats. Just a heads up in case you want to edit.

[Simkie]

@kaya842

The native soil + grid mat stall that is in use is the bane of my existence. Bedding packs into the parts of the grids that aren’t 100% full, the grids seem to hold urine, ground water will seep UP through the grids when it’s really wet out (like now), and the fork gets caught on the grids all the time.

I boarded at a barn that installed the grids when they put up a new barn. I think it was less than a month before they covered them all with mats. No one could stand them! You’re definitely not alone in that dislike

[Sammy_the_Saddlebred]

@NancyM

Just for a different idea for you… I have wooden planks as floors of stalls. They are rough cut fir planks a full 2 inches thick, and 12 inches wide. They sit on four 4 x 4s which are embedded in gravel. They are not fixed to the 4x4 s they just stay in place butted up against the walls of the stall. A sill at the doorway. Nice and springy and warm. They settle firmly into place with use.

We have wood floors over sand (our native soil). Our planks are rough cut white oak. We have horses in overnight and have had them for 8.5 years. One of our horses has front shoes on with borium head nails in winter and he paws. All of the floors are still in great shape. Like NancyM, ours are just laid on top of tamped/leveled dirt and pressure fit wall to wall.

Don’t put mats over wood if you do decide to do wood floors. The mats will trap moisture and rot the wood. We don’t bed heavily and when we clean the stalls we take the extra step of sweeping the pee spots open and letting them dry over the coursenof the day. I have a horse with heaves and worry about ammonia. Our barn pretty much never stinks.

They can get slippery if the horses have snow in their feet at all, but sprinkling barn lime on the bare spots helps to give traction. There are never any holes to fill in or mats to re-level, so that’s awesome! Plus we don’t use as much bedding.

[B_and_B]

I like it! We don’t have sand here, instead wet glacial clay till soils that just trap water. Which is why the air gap. But with proper drainage and a sand subbase that looks very comfy!
Yes, sweeping the pee spots and letting them dry is critical! We would sprinkle them with lime as well.

[js]

If using wood planks, would it help to put something like Thomas Water seal on them? When we boarded a horse years ago, the barn had wood floors, a few of us did buy mats to put down over top to keep them from being slick. Never an issue with smell but never thought about the wood rotting underneath.

[B_and_B]

I doubt it. Unless you can get your hands on the true old copper based treatments (genuine Cuprinol), even treated wood will rot, unless you have air flow and drainage. The speed is going to depend on the type of wood. Not all species of wood are the same, and not all methods of growing wood are the same. For example old growth White Pine (that is, cut in the eastern states before 1830) is remarkably rot resistant. Plantation grown White Pine (grown from the 1870s onward) is most assuredly not rot resistant. Nor are its structural qualities the same. The same is true of Western fir or Southern pine.
Your mats probably sped up both the rot and the slickness of the floor. Sorry! Left alone, wood with excess moisture (pee) is going to end up with a raised grain and a soft surface. If that routinely dries out, it doesn’t rot, but it does wear. So it ends up fairly rough. Put a mat on a wood floor and you end up with an ideal location for a very, very slick biofilm, probably an algae, in between the mat and the wood.

[Sammy_the_Saddlebred]

@js

If using wood planks, would it help to put something like Thomas Water seal on them? When we boarded a horse years ago, the barn had wood floors, a few of us did buy mats to put down over top to keep them from being slick. Never an issue with smell but never thought about the wood rotting underneath.

My only experience with mats over wood is at the boarding facility where we learned about wood floors. My friend moved her horse there and the barn owners laid a brand new white oak floor in her horse’s stall before he arrived (right over the sand as the rest of the floors were). My friend insisted on buying mats, saying the wood would be too hard for her horse to lie down on. She put brand new perfectly aligned mats down over the brand new floor. Everything was nice and level and lovely.

I helped do chores at that barn to learn about management and cleaning of a barn for when we would get our own place, and I thought mats over wood were actually quite nice. So easy to clean, etc. When she had to move her horse to a different stall 2 years later, she moved the mats too, and that’s when we discovered the wood underneath had already gotten soft and turned black in areas. So the other floors that had lasted 20+ years with no mats definitely out-lasted one with mats. It was the first time the barn owners had tried mats over the wood. Lesson learned.

As I said, ours have been in daily use for 8.5 years and very little change from new. The horse that paws has roughed his up a bit but not much. Some of the stalls have a polished spot from sand in the hay, but we put their hay in the same place every day so they don’t actually walk there. And lime works really well for grip if needed.

The older floors at our previous barn had that nice worn, grippy “soft” feel to them like @B_and_B said. I was a skeptic about wood floors when I first moved to that barn too, but after being there through my first year, I was sold. That’s when we decided we would do that ourselves when we bought a place.

I would not recommend using wood floors in a run-in shelter or in a stall they can freely go in and out of through the day, especially if you live where you can get snow or ice. Then, I think they would get too slippery. We have 2 run-in stalls with dutch doors and those just have mats over dirt.

[Bluey]

This one lady built a barn and stalls were concrete floors.
Worked just great for her horses for years.
She was getting older and leased it all, barn and house and pastures to a race horse trainer.
He didn’t like concrete floors, asked if he could take them out and put mats and she agreed.
He tore the concrete floors on most stalls, had a big pile of concrete chunks outside when other came up and didn’t get the last few changed.

After a while, he realized his concrete stalls were the ones that took the least care and the horses in those were doing better, surprise!

I was talking to him once and mentioned the pile of concrete chunks outside.
He said it used to be bigger, he was using that material to fill in a couple ditches out in the pastures.
Then he told me about being set against concrete stall floors and now, after having horses in some, he was sad he had torn them out before he had horses in those.
He liked that pile there to remind him how foolish it is to have set ideas that maybe should get a second thought, especially expensive ones like remodeling barn floors had been.
He wished he had first just put the mats on the concrete, why didn’t he think about it?
Live and learn, the hard way.

[Equibrit]

Concrete is very good for horse legs.

[Bluey]

@Equibrit

Concrete is very good for horse legs.

I think standing in a stall many hours is more detrimental than what they are standing on.
Is the lack of movement that is not so good for horses first, with adequate bedding and for some mats on concrete, they seem to do as well as same hours, same horse on any other flooring and bedding.

We had a concrete pad from an old grain barn in some pens.
Over decades, you could see that horses would stand on the concrete by choice to nap, then move over to the dirt to lay flat out to rest.
Seems that the concrete may have given them a nicely flat place for their hooves to stand to rest, maybe, or who knows, maybe the lay-up of the pens made that a preferable spot, we will never know.
All vet clinics I have ever seen have concrete stalls, are the best to manage as far as as clean a space as they can, being able to disinfect them and an easy flooring to care for, fine with the right bedding for each horse’s needs.

Is nice to have choices in flooring. Different strokes …