We’re finally at the point in our farm renovations when we’re ready to put stalls into our open barn. We’re looking at doing 2-3 12x12.
What are your thoughts on building them vs buying them? DH is pretty handy but we don’t have a whole lot of spare time. Could they be built in a day or 2? Anyone have plans for stalls prepared? What about brands to look at if we decide to go the buying route?
TIA!
I would buy portable stalls, so you can take them down easily, they are made out of panels and reconfigure any time your needs change.
Check locally, there will be someone close making them.
Priefert and MDBarns have very nice stalls and they are not so far from you.
Several local barns have used the MDBarn stalls and they look very nice and safe.
See who just built barns around you and what they used, where they bought them.
If you google portable stall images, you can then click on the ones you like and it will show who makes them.
Some nice portable stalls tend to keep their value and you can re-sell them easily if you later decide, with more time, to build something else yourself.
We built the stalls except for the fronts. It was much easier to get the premade fronts with the features we wanted. They have worked well for over 15 years.
[QUOTE=IronwoodFarm;8950311]
We built the stalls except for the fronts. I was much easier to get the premade fronts with the features we wanted. They have worked well for over 15 years.[/QUOTE]
agree! We used rough cut hemlock for the back of the walls, bought u channels to create the dividing walls, which then can be removed if I need to create a double stall. Bought a stall front kit from Classic Equine which I am very happy with.
same as above, we built the stall structure and sides, but used a kit for the fronts.
Even with a kit for fronts: A day or two? Nope. We’re experienced with all our tools and building stuff, but 3 stalls was a 2.5 weekend project for the two of us. Granted, we had unusual circumstances of fitting stalls into a 120y/o barn, so there was a fair amount of cutting lumber to fit odd dimensions. And the barn roof is 30+ft so we had to first establish an 18ft and 15ft header, dig out / create footers for posts, etc. We needed to install very solid posts and frames (since they were essentially “swimming in space” without a ceiling to attach to.
So, if you already have roof rafters to attach your posts to, the initial framing would probably go much more quickly for you. But it’s still a lot of work, especially when you include the “ancilliary” tasks like unloading and staging materials, getting tools and saw horses set up, cleaning up work area. Three 12x12 stalls is a lot of wood to move around.
If time is at a premium, the full kits are probably the way to go. They’ll keep resale value a very long time.
I’m going to be the odd one out. I’d say build your own stall fronts. It sounds like you’re pretty handy so could do your own.
We built our own stalls in a few days, our barn is 200 years old and it took a bit to square things up, but once that was done, it took us one day to do the stall fronts (4 x 8.5 foot fronts) and two days to do the doors. They were pretty custom for us and we had to fit them in the right place (so it was easier in the long run to make them ourselves), but we did it for a fraction on the price and in my opinion, look much nicer.
We did our barn a year ago and it still looks just as nice as when we first installed it.
Thanks everyone for the responses! Our barn is a new (built 2013) open pole barn that should be quite easy to fit stalls into. My husband is pretty handy but I’m not exactly haha. I think we’re going to look for some used stall kits and then if we can’t find any we’ll build our own
My three daughters and I built 5 stalls. But, it took us about 2 days per stall as we were determined to have metal bars on the front of the stalls and on the doors. We didn’t know much about what we were doing and cut all our metal pieces using 12’ conduit pipe. I later learned one can actually buy rebar and other metal pipe in 2’ or 3’ lengths . . .duh. And then we hand drilled every hole in the wood to hold each bar (again, who knew there were drill presses? We used an electric hand drill) . . .but we have a beautiful barn that has 5 hand made stalls --it’s stood for 30 years and nothing fell out or fell down. Our cost was $100/stall --the majority of the $ was in the trolley track that allows the door to open --everything else was “seconds” from the lumber yard --mostly green oak --but then we live in an area where such would is easy to come by. We did use “firsts” on the fronts to make the stalls and the doors look special nice. Here’s a picture: Four women, one week, a saw, and a power drill, 5 stalls, $500.
http://i236.photobucket.com/albums/ff31/foxgloveweeks/P1180056.jpg
It depends on what you want your stalls to look like and how much money you want to spend.
Stall fronts that I built only took about an hour and half total (including digging a hole for a post in the ground) by myself. And that’s with taking lost of “oh I need more red bull” and “oh I have a text message” as well as “ugh this sucks! Facebook!” Breaks. Lol it was surprisingly easy. Not counting my 4x4s) it only cost roughly $50-55 per stall front. That’s all the wood and hardware. That also doesn’t include any “metal bars or metal mesh” on the front of the stall. I’ll get around to putting that up, but it’s relatively inexpensive. If you go the metal bar route, that would be time consuming. Mesh wire, no more than 20 mins alone. Quicker with an extra set of hands.
For my stall side walls, I wanted seething easily moveable, so I created a tract and slide 1x6x12s in them to extend 5’ up. Cost less than $100 per wall and too less than an hour to install. Again, this was all done alone. And I’m not really handy and usually make one of my guy friends do stuff for me 
I could have easily gotten all 3 of my stalls done in a day if I didn’t get bored so easily. With you and your husband both, there is no reason this task would take more than a day. I can get pictures if you’d like to see how mine turned out.
[QUOTE=Ready To Riot;8952611]
It depends on what you want your stalls to look like and how much money you want to spend. [/QUOTE]
This.
These “fronts”: https://flic.kr/p/e4Ub7t took about an hour and a half for a friend’s husband to put in. I supplied all the wood, the gates, the latches and the concrete for the two posts that needed to be added. He brought the tools and his skills.
They’re not the prettiest ones out there, but they work very well for my needs and were very inexpensive. (Kick walls were put in by the builders, and I used the leftover wood for the fronts.) One of these days, I’ll probably put in u-channels so I can add a divider and buy grills for the fronts, but I don’t need that now (mainly because that would make it that much easier for me to justify another horse, which I need like I need a hole in my head).
The stalls in my barn were built from oak trees felled on the property, and the metal bars were each handmade by the farrier who used to own the farm. Every piece of wood in the stalls is a different size, and the bars aren’t spaced evenly. They look very unique - but each stall is different. They aren’t even all the same size. If you want that “handmade” look, build your own. If you want consistency, buy premade.
Stalls are so easy to build. Do not be discouraged. I am 55 years old and did mine myself with help from my 29 year old daughter.
I ordered grills from Ramm horse fence. I was skeptical but bit the bullet and ordered them. They were very nice quality and much better than expected. I put together the fronts much cheaper then buying a stall kit. Remember with a stall kit you still have to buy the lumber inserts. Here is a link to Ramm grills if you are interested. I used two 48 inch for the fronts and made my own doors with the 24 inch.
http://www.rammfence.com/horse-stalls/pro-line-horse-stalls/pro-line-grill-sections
Here is a link to some pics of my barn. Feel free to scroll through.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153401301028577&set=a.10153199302423577.1073741907.665443576&type=3&theater
Good luck! I had a lot of fun actually and looking at it now and knowing I did it myself is very rewarding not to mention the satisfaction of the money I saved.
My farm in PA I had someone build the stalls with the aluminum grills. They are still working 18 years later or so.
I am currently remodeling the interior of my barn. After much deliberation and some time management issues , I had an Amish gentleman who fabricates come in, measure (the poles in my pole barn were not true 12 x 12 because of a loft that was built pre-Pennywell Bay) and is making them. He’ll also install them.
They are due here Dec 6. I can barely wait…
Bumping this up!
We decided to go ahead and build our own. For those who have built, what did you use for materials?
[QUOTE=dani0303;8986049]
Bumping this up!
We decided to go ahead and build our own. For those who have built, what did you use for materials?[/QUOTE]
We used metal and made them portable, so we can remodel as needed.
We have since remodeled several times and will again soon.
We insulated the outside walls, placed a plastic sheet up for a vapor barrier and finished it with plywood. We also placed basement windows in each stall, easy to find at home depot. We protected the windows on the inside with pig rail that we hinged to flip up when needed. In the winter, we put the storm windows in, in the summer it has bug screening. Has worked great for almost 30 years.
The side walls are 2x10s, half walls with pig rail to the top. This allows great airflow and the horses can see each other. Its also very easy to attach fans and water buckets to.
The fronts are also 2x10s with a sliding door. The top half of the door is again pig rail, the inside is plywood.
We used steel wood protectors on all exposed wood to prevent chewing.
We built our own. They are “over built”, very strong, built to contain elephants. Which turned out to be a good idea, because they have contained some fairly wild opinionated and determined horses on occasion.
For the stall fronts, we put vertical bars, home made. Drill holes in a 2X6 for the top and bottom. Cut rebar to the desired length and place in the holes on the bottom 2 X 6. (Put them close together, like 2 inches center, so that feet can’t go through). Then fit the top drilled 2 X 6 on the top of the rebar lengths to hold the top ends of the rebar. Then a header on top of that, to tie everything together with the vertical corner posts (8 X 8s), which are sunk deep into the ground.
You DIYers impress the heck out of me! :eek:
But then, I am the original hammer-to-finger handywoman. :uhoh:
I went with stalls provided by my barn builder, but not before looking at some prefabs at Home Dept. They had a nifty CAD that lt you design your whole barn & priced it out.
Google tells me they no longer have the product, but if you have Rural King they carry Priefert:
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