# Redoing interior/exterior barn



## Tazmanian Devil (Oct 11, 2008)

DiamondSMRanch said:


> 1. Do you have a paint scheme for your barn interior? Yes, I will get horse-friendly/safe paint. I'm thinking of like a faux dark brown wood color, hunter green, and black. I have had it white and grey but it get's SO dirty.


I love dark colors. Fortunately, my wife puts her foot down and insists on light colors. Yes, light is harder to keep clean. But dark colors are DARK. Even with good light, the area becomes very dark - some would say dreary. If you do go dark on an interior wall, go with the brown or green. Don't go with black walls. Even with some dark colors you need a light color for contrast. My interior and exterior is all wood. Indoors, I am staying with the natural pine color. Exterior I will stain a little darker to match my house.



> 2. What is your paint scheme for your barn EXTERIOR? We are redoing ours this summer and it will be white with hunter green doors and a hunter green metal roof.


Interesting that you avoid light colors on the inside but want white on the outside. I admit it will look good, but seems like a barn exterior would be much harder to keep clean than a center aisle interior. 




> 3. Do you have lights on each side of your barn?


I have a shed row barn right now and will start building my full barn in a week or two. You can never have enough light... I have floods on the outside of my shed row and plan for lighting on all sides of my full barn.




> 4. What is your flooring in your stalls? Right now three of my stalls have dirt, one has full concrete, and the other one has a half concrete pad and the rest is dirt. I'm thinking of a really cheap alternative to concrete. Is dirt ok?


I'm a fan of concrete (topped with mats and shavings). Dirt is certainly less expensive, although it requires more maintenance in the long run. If there a reason you are looking to change? If the current dirt and concrete don't pose a problem, why reinvent the wheel?



> 5. What is your flooring in your aisle? Mine is concrete as of right now and I'm not really sure if I want to change it or not, my horses don't come in the aisle except to go to their stalls, I've tried putting them in the cross ties but they get really not 'spooky' but fidgety and wide eyed.


If you have concrete in the aisle and it is in good condition, why change it? Ripping out concrete to make a new surface is a big job. If you want to throw that kind of money around, take a look at rubber pavers. You can install them directly over the concrete.



> 6. What is in each of your stalls? Do you have a salt block holder, hook for a bucket, a bunk, a hay bag, a hitching ring? On the front do you have a rail for your blankets/sheets, do you have another hook for a halter/lead?


Salt block. Three bucket hooks - two for water buckets and one for grain. I don't like the idea of hay bags in stalls - seem like an accident waiting to happen. I prefer to place hay on the floor. If I was going off the floor I would install a hay rack/feeder. Definitely have rings for halters/tack outside each stall. I also like a folding saddle rack by the stall.



> 7. Anything else you have!!!!!!!!!!!


Lighting in the stalls (protected), lighting in the aisles. Lighting outside the stall doors. Lighting outside the barn doors. (Again, you can never have enough light). All electric lines in metal conduit (and installed to code). A designated area to store all equipment when not in use to keep the aisle completely clear. As construction begins on my new barn I am sure I will think of some more things.

Why not consider automatic waterers? That might be a better way of spending money than ripping out the concrete and building a new floor surface.


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## greentree (Feb 27, 2013)

We built my barn 5 years ago. We are still working on finishing it! My aisle is concrete. My stalls are full dimension oak boards over a deep gravel base, so a good bit of urine drains out. I have had dirt based stalls forever, even with stall skins, and that was too much work. (I do my own horse keeping, and have 13......) 

I divided 3 of the 12' stall spaces into standing stalls. This, and the 16' wide aisle, was my best barn building decision. I can bring them in, send them in a slot, they eat, and all the manure is right there to be picked up. I live in a fairly mild climate, so the horses spend a lot of time outside. 

The next best decision was not turning a square space into a tack room. My barn builder made by pass doors for reach in closets just deep enough for the biggest western saddle, so the saddles do not have to be carried anywhere. They come off the horse, onto the rack. I know from previous experience that needing to carry them into another room results in portable saddle racks in the barn aisle! I am old, and tired when I get through riding, and the last thing I want to do is schlep saddles around. It is also one less room to clean.

We used MDF for the interior (non horse contact) walls, painted a light cream color. 

The walls in the horse stalls are the same heavy oak lumber as the floors. It has naturally aged to quite dark. The stall fronts are custom metal panels from an Indiana manufacturer, powder coated black. We used a swivel feeder/hay rack. I am not super crazy about this, but it is ok. The doors are sliding , and the entire fronts have top bars with pine filler. I would like to stain the pine, but have not yet.
Painting horse contact areas sounds like a lot of maintenance to me. 

I was not planning on having any more colts, but I did, and one draw back to my stalls is that there is no place to high tie a colt. I like to teach them to tie next to the mare in the stall. 

Good luck!


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## Nickers2002 (Nov 25, 2009)

We just did the inside of our barn yellow with cedar trim/stalls. I have grey and red brick flooring in the feed and tack rooms. We're painting the outside red this year with possible white trim. The metal roof will also be recoated in white.


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