Ours have compacted dirt, 3" of limestone screenings and skins.
Sorry, wasn’t clear on that Bluey.
My foundation sits mostly below ground, only a few extra inches sit above the ground. My barn is a pre-fab, so it needed an extra bit to sit above ground level so they could attach the walls to it. The foundation is poured with rebar added. :yes:
What is Under Your Stall Mats?
Jimmy Hoffa
Sorry, I couldn’t resist.
Don’t currently have them, but the last barn had packed clay
Compacted bluestone and the mats are interlocking. Been down 12 yrs, no problems.
A really big a$$ groundhog 
NancyM
How much space between planks if any, and how long do they last? I’ve been in a wooden floored (bank) barn, but it was decades ago. There is a lot of space to fill up to level the floor in the stalls in the barn we recently purchased. Barn has dirt floors now, and for 40 years, apparently all they did was take stuff out, not put anything back in. Some of the stalls are down a foot or better, and I don’t want concrete again, cost prohibitive. Don’t really want more dirt, just makes a mess and at least the dirt is hard packed now.
I guess I’d have to find a sawmill. I’m in Kentucky, how hard could that be?
Oh, what type of lumber?
[QUOTE=2ndyrgal;7240212]
How much space between planks if any, and how long do they last? I’ve been in a wooden floored (bank) barn, but it was decades ago. There is a lot of space to fill up to level the floor in the stalls in the barn we recently purchased. Barn has dirt floors now, and for 40 years, apparently all they did was take stuff out, not put anything back in. Some of the stalls are down a foot or better, and I don’t want concrete again, cost prohibitive. Don’t really want more dirt, just makes a mess and at least the dirt is hard packed now.
I guess I’d have to find a sawmill. I’m in Kentucky, how hard could that be?
Oh, what type of lumber?[/QUOTE]
No space between boards, they butt up against each other tight. The walls of the stall hold them from any shifting, I didn’t nail them down, no need. Butted up a crossmember at the door sill, to hold those ones from shifting forward. How long they last is unknown, depends on many things, type of wood, environment. Since they are fully supported underneath, if one breaks, no problem. Easily removed and replaced.
We had planks in stalls when I was a kid (a long time ago). They lasted a long time, in fact, when we sold that farm and moved, some neighbours came and got the flooring planks out of that barn, and put them in their new barn. Oak I think. They had already been in our barn for 25 + years, and as far as I know are still in their barn (another 25?). When rubber mats got invented, everyone got all excited and everyone started using them instead of planks. But in retrospect, perhaps they are not that much of an improvement, IMO.
The installation was easy, I did it myself without hubby’s help. I have a tractor, and a gravel pit, and a shovel. Put the 4 X 4s in, levelled them enough at a decent elevation, and backfilled with gravel. Then put the planks in on top. Slightly springy at first, but they are fully settled now, and this is the best stall floor EVER, IMO.
[QUOTE=NancyM;7241227]
Put the 4 X 4s in, levelled them enough at a decent elevation, and backfilled with gravel. Then put the planks in on top. Slightly springy at first, but they are fully settled now, and this is the best stall floor EVER, IMO.[/QUOTE]
How far apart/how many 4x4’s per 12 x 12 stall?
A few years ago, I installed Stall Grids, over a crushed granite base. I backfilled to fill in the grids, and that flooring has held up wonderfully. However, the surface was a tad hard and slippery. The horses seemed to have no problem lying down and getting up, but I am fussy and wanted something a bit softer (and a way to save a bit on shavings).
So I put interlocking mats (special order from Tractor Supply) on top of them.
I have to say, I consider that combination to be perfect flooring. Stays flat and hard and dry because of the stall grids. The interlocking mats do not have the edge and corner problems that straight-edge mats do. The interlocking joints stay perfectly flat.
[QUOTE=allanglos;7255874]
How far apart/how many 4x4’s per 12 x 12 stall?[/QUOTE]
My stalls are 12 X 14, roughly. Actually a bit smaller than that. I used 10’ 4 X 4s, so they did not go exactly to the far walls, but close enough. Obviously, I used them across the narrower width of the stall, and put the planks longways on the longer stretch. I used four of them. The two at either end about a foot off the wall, and the other two evenly spaced between them. They are just to keep the support of the floor planks relatively level even if the gravel shifts, compacts, or gets dug out by rodents etc. I did not nail the floor planks down (I was going to, but they fit so well that there was little point).
OK, thanks! I am getting a barn built this winter (FL) and am looking at all options. I had never considered a wood floor, until now.
Is your barn center aisle? Did you put a wood floor there, too?
No, this barn is not a center aisle configuration. It is just a couple of stalls at the end of my indoor arena. They open into the arena. I have rubber mats outside the doorways, to combat horses digging out there when the doors are open (I have one who opens ANY latch, then excavates whatever she can get to). The excavator horse was the impetus to change to the full wooden floor, as she located the edge of the ONE rubber mat I had at the door, and excavated where the rubber mat was NOT. Daily. Such a sweetheart she is!
Figuring out what to put in barn aisles is always a dilemma IMO. I’ve done dirt/packed clay, asphalt, cement, rubber mats. All have their problems. Hard packed dry clay is probably the safest I think. Not fancy though. Nor easy to keep super clean. But at least not slippery. I’ve had and seen horses startle and go down on cement aisles, one very fancy show barn I shipped into for lessons was famous for it. Very pretty, but horrid. Cement had a fancy pattern of colours in it, and deadly dangerous.
My mats are on concrete. If I did not have a concrete floor I would go with wood and no mats as Nancy suggested.
I love my mats on concrete, never had a corner lift or curl and obviously they are flat. I love being able to wash them down.
I have been in several barns with wood floors in the stalls, they are great except that they do hold urine smell and you must be pro-active about bedding and ventilation. The best thing about them is being able to replace one board if it breaks, very inexpensive to maintain and quite comfortable for the horses.
In one of my barns*, I have mats over cement. I bought interlocking mats for one of the stalls, and they’re great. I bed the mats with pelleted bedding. I have the original-type stall mats in another cement floor stall and they slip around. PiTA
What sort of machine do you use to compact and level the soil/gravel after the stall is already in place?
wood floors, with mats over 2/3 of the stalls. i’m amazed how many people seem to have limestone and such floors. must be a regional thing but i have mostly only ever seen wooden or concrete floors with the occasional crusher dust stall floors…
even my shelter which is completely separate from my barn has a wooden floor lol
I’ve only been at one barn that had wood for flooring, and back then, they were replacing it all because it had rotted through. This was prior to stall mats being common, and I found the wood nasty and slick and can’t imagine willingly putting it in a new barn now. And I’m in the land of relatively cheap wood! Obviously something that varies across the country…maybe wood flooring in a dry climate fares better.
I’ve never found wood slick unless the stalls were unbedded and even then i have put him horses in unbedded wooden floored stalls temporarily and never had an issue. but it definitely can rot fast if the pee isn’t cleaned out often enough. my stalls just had the floor board replaced last spring after 6 years, and they actually had started to rot not from pee but from my barn unfortunately flooding a few inches under the stalls and the bottoms of the board could not dry out.
if i ever get a new barn i’m thinking i would like concrete floors.
i’m in eastern Canada, unfortunately not so dry, it gets extremely humid here.
