Has anyone built their own stables before?

[cobbychic]

Hi

Im thinking of trying to build our own stables out of cheap materials and wondered if anyone had ever done this?

We also would like to build my hubby a garage along the same lines and wondered if anyone could offer any advice or tips?

thanks

[rainbowsntoffee]

Someone I knew built a field shelter/stable out of breeze block, and they set it down into the ground so it became less than the planning permission limits height wise.. horse happily stepped down into it. Worth a thought perhaps depending on age/joints of yours. :)
Depending on your skills, I'm a big fan of straw bales for walls - really quick and easy to put together (go google for examples). downsides being you need a good metre overhang of roof over edges of walls, and a good coat of plaster. straw + water = bad! :p Upsides being you can get one of several companies to come help with "volunteers", meaning you get expertise and free help with the hard work, awesome insulation, and can look lovely.
Good luck!

[cobbychic]

bump:D

[HJ]

Speak to BIrish, i think shes did, or knows someone that did :)

[Wally]

Cheap in the long run will be expensive.

We used 8 inch concrete blocks laid flat on their wide edge to give a thick wall, then trusses for a pitched roof and planwell box profile sheets. Divided it up inside with wooden partitions.

[No_Angel]

My dad made my old stables for me out of planks of wood, they lasted really well, but the roof was a pain and leaked, although it was made of wood and the roofing felt kept blowing off.

[Wally]

Torch on roofing felt is the way forwards if you are going to use it.

[lisa+pilgrim]

hi three years ago i was looking for a field to rent so i could start breaking in horses, luckily my partner knew a friend who had four acres for us to use, when i went up to look i was amazed, we had a huge barn, two paddocks and a large field. we started out by putting stables in the barn, we now have five stables, 1one of which is for our chickens, all of which were just made of pallets, which we had for free from whole sailers and we bought chip board to stop them catching their feet incase they should kick. i dont know if you are after something out in the field or are lucky enought to have a shell to work from. After the stables were done we made our round pen, again all made from pallets, we just bought the up rights, then fenced off the top of the field for our school, which we are going to have filled in with wood chip this year, once we have a week or two of tidy weather, we have numarouse muck heaps which again we seperate with pallets and then use for our green house. we treated all the pallets before we used them and three years later there is no deteriation.

[cobbychic]

hi three years ago i was looking for a field to rent so i could start breaking in horses, luckily my partner knew a friend who had four acres for us to use, when i went up to look i was amazed, we had a huge barn, two paddocks and a large field. we started out by putting stables in the barn, we now have five stables, 1one of which is for our chickens, all of which were just made of pallets, which we had for free from whole sailers and we bought chip board to stop them catching their feet incase they should kick. i dont know if you are after something out in the field or are lucky enought to have a shell to work from. After the stables were done we made our round pen, again all made from pallets, we just bought the up rights, then fenced off the top of the field for our school, which we are going to have filled in with wood chip this year, once we have a week or two of tidy weather, we have numarouse muck heaps which again we seperate with pallets and then use for our green house. we treated all the pallets before we used them and three years later there is no deteriation.

Hi
How did you make your round pen? did you put a base down? is the surface bark chippings?
thanks

[leah&lydia]

My auntie + uncle built 4 very decent sized stables out of breeze blocks, 1 of the 4 stables had tack in + other horsey stuff + the other 1 had a washing machine, dryer + a couple of wall cabinets :P. But then they had an unplanned 3rd arrival so had 2 mish mash everything together to fit into 1 stable + they bought another shed kinda thing :P.

[lisa+pilgrim]

hi we marked out our circle, placed all the pallets along the line to find out what size gap was left for the gate and then altered the circle slightly to fit the size of the gate we had. we lifted the pallets up and screwed them together and every three or four we placed an upright post in the middle of the pallet for extra strength. we then finnished it off by screwing some five by one lengths around the top and bottom to tie them all together. so in the end we realy only paid for the five by one, as all the pallets were free, i think we used about forty in total, thats with out all the ones we used for stables. we were lucky that we already had uprights, and then we used wood chip, which again was free, from a recycling plant localy to us, we just paid fifty pounds for delivery for about ten ton of chip, that was about four inches deep. hope this is of some help havnt got any pics but could get some if it any help to you. :D

[cobbychic]

hi we marked out our circle, placed all the pallets along the line to find out what size gap was left for the gate and then altered the circle slightly to fit the size of the gate we had. we lifted the pallets up and screwed them together and every three or four we placed an upright post in the middle of the pallet for extra strength. we then finnished it off by screwing some five by one lengths around the top and bottom to tie them all together. so in the end we realy only paid for the five by one, as all the pallets were free, i think we used about forty in total, thats with out all the ones we used for stables. we were lucky that we already had uprights, and then we used wood chip, which again was free, from a recycling plant localy to us, we just paid fifty pounds for delivery for about ten ton of chip, that was about four inches deep. hope this is of some help havnt got any pics but could get some if it any help to you. :D

ooh yes please. Pics would be fab. Do you have good draining soil as we are on clay and am worried that the wood chips would mix in with the soil.
we can get free pallets too from work.
thanks