We’re considering making an offer on a piece of property with an old bank barn in excellent shape. The ceilings in the lower cellar level are too low for my horses, and it looks as though managing drainage would be difficult. Does anyone have experience with building stalls into the upper level of a bank barn (where the hay is usually stored)? Surprisingly I can’t find anything about this online, though I know it’s been done. Any input/pros/cons would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!
I would think you’d want a REALLY good structural inspection to ensure that the floor would support the weight of horses. If the structure is sound I see no reason why not.
G.
I wonder if the UVM Morgan folks could help you with that. Their facility has that wonderful two story barn with the ramp.
Yes, we’d definitely get the structure thoroughly checked out and reinforced if necessary. And I’ll look into the UVM Morgan barn - I didn’t know they had a two story barn - sounds like they could be a helpful resource for sure.
I don’t know about actually building it, but my favorite barn ever had stalls on top and the manure spreader parked below. Stall cleaning was SO easy with a trap door in the floor!
I thought of that, dumping manure DOWN into a spreader sounds like a major bonus to me!
I was once in a barn near Reading, PA that had stalls in the top. Seemed to work out fine for them.
a lot of older barns in New England are like that… I had several friends using that setup when I was growing up there 20-30 years ago. The plan I saw most had the bottom part as either a run-in/shelter (fenced into pasture), or parking for manure spreader and tractor. The top half would have stalls and tack one side and hay storage on the other. They floors were uneven and the hay tended to make everything a little dusty, but they were warm and cozy all winter and worked well for a smaller number of horses.
This is encouraging! After hours of scouring the internet I decided to finally make a profile on COTH and just ask you all - so glad I did- thank you! I’m sold on the spreader below idea. A run in shed would work there too. As long as it’s structurally sound I think we’re going to make an off this week! I’ll add pictures if I can get some.
Guess I would want to know what happens with poop and urine on an upper floor? Does it rain down on the lower lever, rot out the wood? Especially with stalls not stripped daily. Upper level is meant to be airy, allowing continued air movement to dry hay and straw.
We have wood floor stalls, stripped daily, good drainage under them, still need floors replaced on a regular basis from plain wear of hooves.
You might be better off adding a new building for stalls or putting on a lean-to the length of old barn, with a higher roof, put new new stalls in there with good footing. Put a wide aisle between or in front of stalls so you can drive the spreader thru for stall cleaning. Absolutely less work, saves time over wheeling tubs or wheelbarrow loads across the barn to dump into spreader or a manure pile. Stall to spreader is less handling of dirty bedding.
Unless there is some unique barn flooring method for the upper level in NE that we
Midwesterners never used, I think stalls in the hay mow is a bad idea. Could kill your beams keeping them wet under horses. Flooring is wood, for unmoving loads, not horses. Barns are made to work for the farmer’s needs. Changing the barn radically is costly, often plain doesn’t work with old design, harms the building.
I remember visiting a barn with two stories of horse stalls and upstairs stalls back in the 1990s. At the time, I was working as a riding instructor at a summer camp in the Pocono Mountains. Our riding director, who lived locally, had arranged a field trip to some “real” horse farms in the area for one of our more advanced groups of campers.
The whole trip was a blur, but I distinctly remember that barn. I’ve been trying to find the place online for years, but I don’t remember the farm name or where it was located (we visited farms in PA, NJ, and NY that day). I think they showed appaloosas, but I may be mixing up details with other farms we visited that day.
It drives me crazy because it’s the only two story horse barn I’ve ever seen! Although I have worked in a place with a “basement.” It is pretty awesome when you can dump manure right down a chute into a dump truck or manure spreader.
The floors in the barn I was talking about (in Maine) were thick oak planks. We kept the stalls well bedded, and because there was good airflow to the undersides the boards didn’t stay wet if a stall happened to be wetter than usual. The main aisle didn’t get chewed up either, it was old, old hardwood and held up well to shod hooves.
I have seen this done is a number of bank barns over the years.
I have a great book called “Barns”. It has lots of pictures of barns and the details of their construction based on their geographic locations around the country. Gives lots of historical information. If you are into "real barns, not the generic ones that are built today this is a book to have.
There are a fair amount in it where horses and other live stock were stalled on the “second” floor.
Obviously the urine draining to the lower level maybe a problem depending on what you are using he lower level for. The smell factor comes into play also. Especially in the summer.
All things being equal and it is in good shape/repair it certainly would have been built strong enough to hold the weight of a horse. Depending on what the flooring is made of the wear and tear a horse will put on the surface will come into play. Especially shod horses.
If you use very absorbent bedding a lot of the pee will be sopped up and mucked out.
I have a very big early 1700’s bank barn. Most bank barns the grade level had low ceilings because they were basically used for cattle. All the ones that I have been in that were converted for horses have been dug out. The ceiling height in mine is around 8-9 feet. I work with a lot of young horses and don’t want high ceilings for a reason. Horse that stand over 17 hands have plenty of room also.
If I were going to put stalls in the “loft” I would put down easily replaced “wear boards”. 3/4 inch sheets of pressure treated plywood. Around $30 a sheet. I would lay heavy weight roofing “felt” lapped first. Seal the lapped edges with roofing tar that can be had in caulking tubes. Caulk around the edges of the plywood also. This should seal it really well and keep it from dripping below. And keep the existing boards from absorbing the pee and possibly causing early deterioration and increase the “smell factor”.
Use proper screws to secure which will make it easy to replace when needed. I would counter sink the screw heads also.
Just a suggestion but it should do the job nicely.
I worked for a TB trainer who had a 3 story bank barn with a wing off the lowest level.
3rd story was a loft, 1st and 2nd story had stalls, there was also a lowish loft over the wing.
My current farm has a circa 1790 bank barn with a partial loft. I keep hay and chickens on the main floor, though there are stalls which were in use in the not too distant past, and my mares use the bottom as a pasture run-in.
(There is a newer 4 stall steel barn as well.)
Excellent suggestions/inspiration…
Gumtree, that sounds like a pretty brilliant plan. I came across something called rubberizeit
http://www.rubberizeit.com/Equine.aspx
I’d be curious to know if something like that would work too. Seems like the shod horses would rip it up pretty quickly, but I’ve never seen the stuff in action.
[QUOTE=bijoux_88;8716848]
Excellent suggestions/inspiration…
Gumtree, that sounds like a pretty brilliant plan. I came across something called rubberizeit
http://www.rubberizeit.com/Equine.aspx
I’d be curious to know if something like that would work too. Seems like the shod horses would rip it up pretty quickly, but I’ve never seen the stuff in action.[/QUOTE]
Thanks, having a big farm and low budget one becomes pretty good at MacGyvering. I have gotten/made a lot of T-shirts worth keep and a lot that were thrown out shortly after.
Internet forums can save others a lot of time and wasted money, lol.
I have no direct experience working/using Rubberizeit but have seen it used by others. I would give it a try. If it is the same stuff I checked out it dries on the hard side of things. Not really “rubbery” so to speak. But I think this would preferable so it won’t “peal” if it gets “cut” into in places.
The website says it is good for horse stalls and trailers. But they don’t show any pictures of either to show the “test of time”. Especially in a trailer. You could be the first.
I just bought a nice used B-H “run-around” trailer with wood floors. I think I will get some and see how it works, holds up.
Aside from insuring that structural concerns are handled, my one thing would be to figure out how to deal with the “liquids”, both from the “obvious” issue of drainage as well as their affect on the wood structure over time. Otherwise, it could be a really nice setup!
Would it have enough ventilation/ insulation? The biggest plus of our bank barns are that the bottoms stay warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The lofts are like ovens on a hot day though.
I boarded once at a bank barn. My horse was smaller and got a downstairs stall. I think there were two stalls under and four stalls above. I recall the old, thick floorboards in the upper aisle, but don’t recall the inside of the upper stalls. I do know that it didn’t “rain” downstairs.
An aside for gumtree – Who’s the author of your Barns book? I looked quickly on Amazon and didn’t see it. Thanks!
