Post and beam barn build

[dieselcrawler]

Our farm has a nice big barn, likely about 100 years old or more, like the house. But it is right by the highway, at an intersection with the county road that goes between the house and barn, and traffic noise often spooks the horses. The horse stalls are at the end closest to the road, shown in this picture from last winter.



So with another horse joining the herd recently, a horse-only barn, in a better location is in order. One with enough individual stalls, center Isle, tack room, overhead hay storage loft... 24x30 or 40 long is the plan at this point, with 8x10 stalls. It will be constructed of locust posts and beams, cut from our farm.

So, I started cutting trees. Downed or standing dead, or live and straight/long... saw cuts them all!



A couple free maple logs from a lot that was cleared next to where I work was a nice find, sawed out to about 500 board feet of 1x6 lumber.





Some post were found in the field below the barn...



Some were found on the other side, below the house....



And we started skidding them up to any place we could.



Which turned into a mess, fast. Which included an unhappy wife, displeased with how we had logs piled everywhere. So last weekend the boys (15 & 8 y.o.) and I moved all of them to the field below the house where the new barn will go.



The new barn will go in the background above the trucks, in front of the tractor. I will need to leval out a spot to build.



With any luck, I hope to have it under roof by the end of summer. I still have alot more poles to cut, and some poplars to fell, for sheeting boards. Updates to follow!

 

[ultrarunner]

Looking forward to the build!

 

[murphy1244]

Looking forward to the build!

Me too! Dirt floor? Power?Water?

 

[EddieWalker]

This is going to be fun!!!! Please post more pics of your saw mill, I've never seen anything like it.

Why 8x10 stalls? I'm fairly new to horses, so when I built my very small horse barn, I read all I could on how big to make the stalls and it seems like 12x12 was the size recommended the most. Not too big so they wont hurt them selves, and not so small that they can get up easily if they lay down.

 

[Luke'sScreenName]

That looks like a LOT of site work to be done! I have a similar problem for my future barn site. I'll be very interested in how you go about it. Now get to work and take your camera. :thumbsup:

 

[dieselcrawler]

8x10 stalls due to material size, and overall size... 3x8=24, 3x10=30. Coming up with enough poles for floor joist and beams in the size needed, and longer than 8' or 10' long is hard. I think I have enough poles 16' (wall post) and 20' (inside poles), so now it's just a matter of getting 10' beams, and 8' joist. Rafters are another issue...

I will run water and electric down from the house, about 150' away.

Dirt floors for now, with mine conveyor belt down, and sawdust. Concrete as money alows, in time.

I might stretch the length to 40', to allow 2 extra stalls, and tack room.

The Peterson ASM swing blade saw mill belongs to a friend of mine, about 3 miles away. Mine to use any time I get the chance.

Still want to cut a few more trees, but need to get the long poles to the mill. Hope to square them to 8", take out the humps, and leave round if below 8" at the top. Once I know I have them accounted for, the rest can be cut down for 8's and 10's.

 

[ultrarunner]

My ideal barn size is 12-18-12 across and however long in multiples of 12 deep.

The 18 wide center isle opens up a lot of possibilities and makes for a nice loft above.

No one had ever regretted going bigger... at least that's the story and I'm sticking to it.

 

[EddieWalker]

Why 18 foot center? 16 makes.it easy to use standard lengths of lumber

 

[ultrarunner]

Just for proportion the 18 being 1.5 times the 12' lean-to.

It also makes for a nice loft... had a chance to speak to the builder of the last one I saw and he said going 20 would have added a lot to the cost...

Plenty of older attached garages in Concord and Pleasant Hill 18 feet wide... 16 makes is a little tight for side by side.

The plywood decking was 9' long... don't know if was special order or not.

 

[dieselcrawler]

The hay loft above will be 10' above the ground floor, so at the eves there will be about 6' clearance to the roof, with 6/12 pitch, 10' at center post, 12' at the peak. The loft will be full width, not just over the center Isle.

3 of our 5 equines are ponies, and the 2 horses are not huge, nor are we likely to have Clydesdales. I hope 8x10 will work, I mentioned the size concerns to my wife earlier today... I may need to recalculate. I fully intend to keep the center Isle 8', so I can't get myself in trouble. If I can fit a truck in there... I'll end up sleeping on the couch. 8' will let me get in with the tractor to clean stalls, but nothing more.

 

[JimRB]

We have a 11' barn aisle or maybe 12. i would have to run a tape measure out and 12x12 stalls. 11 foot can be narrow when bringing in round bales from the one end of the barn. Plenty wide at the other end. No big horses. Biggest might be 16 hands. Most are 14-15 hand. Anyhow I was using store bought lumber, I have been in a post and beam barn that had big stalls housing big horses. I know it can be done.

 

[Cjm005]

Looking forward to this one

 

[dieselcrawler]

We feed square bales, and my biggest factor is available material. I intend to build with 100% of the wood coming from what I can harvest myself. I will only purchase fasteners, roof metal, and hardware.

I am also limited by the location, I can't go much bigger in width without running into the hillside and/or blocking the path/road below to the fields below. I may try to stretch the stalls to 10x10, based on materials I can harvest.

I do welcome the feedback and suggestions...

 

[jk96]

Looking forward to watching your progress. Thanks for posting.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Cool project.

My dad built his 60 x 80' barn with locust poles and his own milled lumber. He used round posts, squared off makes it much easier.

 

[dieselcrawler]

Over the weekend, I started sorting thru the poles I've gathered. I also skidded the last few to the field as well. I think I'm going to have enough of the 16's and 20's, but am seriously thinking of making it 40' long, not 30', and maybe 10' x 10' stalls, still leaving the center isle at 8'. Dang that's gonna be alot of 10's...

I need to get some borrowed forks rigged up on my loader bucket, so I can move them around more easily, and load the larger ones to haul to the mill. I'm at the point I need to get the long poles milled, and take stock at that point, and see what more I might need.

Lots of work, not enough time.

 

[Dadnatron]

I know there are limitations, but I would be VERY concerned about those stall sizes. It will really limit the utility of your barn in the future. This is a common issue with people who own 'ponies'. Up front, it seems reasonable. But down the road, the self kicking begins. I know of at least 2 people in the Lexington are who thought the same thing. Also, a small stall is more likely to cause stress on the horse, increasing gastric ulcer occurrence as well as Vet bills for other related issues.

As a horseman, I would recommend nothing smaller than 12x12 in any new build if AT ALL possible. Perhaps 12x10 in a pinch.

I know... reality is reality and dimensions are often pushed by material availability. But again, I would really recommend bigger stalls.

I'm looking forward to your build.

 

[deanocraft]

I can't wait to see this barn materialize. Please keep us posted!

 

[threedogs]

We built our pole building horse barn about 5 years ago, 30' x 40'. We have four 10' stalls on one side a 10' center aisle and the other side is for hay storage / tack. When we built I too read 12' by 12' was recommended and was worried that 10' by 10' was too small, but it has worked out well, and the horses seem fine. I wouldn't want to go smaller but wouldn't have a problem doing 10 x 10 again. Our horses are in the stalls about 12 hours of the day, I know some horses are in the stall a lot longer and that might warrant the 12 by 12 minimum.

 

[weedsportpete]

If you put in rubber stall mats, at 4x6, you will have to cut many of them. Not impossible but a pain. 12x12 won't require any cuts.