storage floor

[Eric_Phillips]

We are in the process of getting bids to build our barn. The front half will have horses and the back half my toys. Have people found it worth the money to have a concrete floor verusus 0&1 crushed stone? I would like to build some dollies for the implements mostly to be able to nudge them around when hooking up.

Eric

 

[EddieWalker]

My first shop had gravel. It was compacted and very hard. It was still gravel and rocks work themselves loose all the time. It was also impossible to consider it perfectly smooth, and I hated it.

My current shop is concrete and its wonderful. If it means building smaller or not doing something else, concrete is one of the most important parts of a functional shop.

Eddie

 

[hwp]

The only return you will get from having a concrete floor is from the satisfaction of being able to move things around on a smooth surface. I keep all my implements on dollies in the back of the garage. Whenver I want to use one I roll it out, attach it to my tractor and away I go. When I'm done, i put it back on its dolly and put it away. This only works because I have a smooth concrete floor. Is it worth it? In my opinion - yes.

 

[Podunkadunk]

I'd have to agree with Eddie. Build it right the first time, you'll never have to worry about it or look back and ask yourself "why didn't I concrete it". If $ is a factor, just wait a little longer, but do it right the first time. You can't go wrong with concrete...it'll always be there for you.

Sometime in the next year (hopefully), I'm putting up a pole barn. I'm going to pour the floor in concrete.

 

[schmism]

ive got a hard packed gravel/dirt floor in my pole barn and i im trying to use it as "shop" space and it down right sucks.

You might as well be laying on the grass outside to work on stuff, not to mention I cant "clean" it, roll stuff on it, (Floor jack is virutally impossible to use)

so while my use isnt exactly horse barn type, yours might likely pull double duty with stuff like the above, in which case your gonna want concreet.

 

[roxynoodle]

Be careful about keeping your toys in the same barn as your horses. A friend claims the ammonia in the horses' urine ruined the wiring in her lawn tractor. I try to muck my stalls daily but still don't keep my tractors in the horse barn, just in case.

 

[Nightrain1]

Can't argue with the crowd saying do it all right the first time, but if funds are a prob, I have seen people do half the concrete work at a time. It may or may not be an option.

 

[JCB]

Eric,

Nighttrain has a good point. My dad's barn was always 1/2 dirt and still is. It's fairly workable if you've got big equipment, more of a problem if you like to keep things neat. Machine storage and stalls are dirt, work areas are concrete.

It's probably critical to have a good concrete work area. A lot of the older "gravel" floors I've seen end up mostly being tracked in sand. Getting sand all over a greasy wrench is never fun, and loosing a nut or washer in the sand is sure to slow you down.

If I had to go 1/2 and 1/2, I'd probably put some thought into making sure I was set up for an easy pour to finish the job. Additionally, I'm gonna just throw this out there. You could also consider interlocking pavers to finish it off in the future as well. We don't use them a whole lot in the US, but if you put them over a strong gravel base they've got some pretty good properties. We seen them on airports and shipping ports, so a barn shouldn't be too much of a stretch either. If you don't mind doing the work, you can actually do it fairly cheaply too. I'm not suggesting they're the solution in every case, but they do have applications. Worth considering, even if only long enough to totally dismiss.

Joe

 

[Eric_Phillips]

I think I will try the concrete. The guy we talked with last night said it would be about $2K. He also mentiond it would be better since we are having roll up doors put in along the storage side. The expensive high end builder stopped by today and he was quoting right at the top of our budget. I think if we go with good and not best we can afford the concrete.

That is a good thought about the ammonia. I am hoping my wife is still considering using the barn mostly as a run-in instead of stalling the horses all day.

 

[dtd24]

Concrete for sure, on the equipment side anyway!! I would probably do the aisle way for the horse area, but put gravel in the stalls with rubber matts. The matts are expensive, but good investment as they help to keep gravel flat.