BUILDING A FARM: PART 8
The Barn Aisle
The 50 stall barn we inherited was nearly complete after replacing the old, rusted metal, adding the tackrooms and crossties, and giving the whole barn a fresh coat of paint. The only thing left was to get rid of the dirt floors in the barn aisles. Even though this project had us switching horses from one side of the barn to the other, we felt like it would be well worth the hassle. The dirt floors made the barn so dusty and gross. Any horses walking through the aisle would kick up dirt and coat the stall fronts. No matter how we tried to maintain it, there was no winning. I’d cringe every time thinking about the inevitable rust that would follow when we sprayed down the aisle in an attempt to keep the dust down. Our employees would rake the aisles every morning, but little bits of hay and shavings would always linger and it never looked truly clean.
Before construction
Indoor washrack waiting for concrete
The Design
I’d worked and reworked the design so many times since we bought the property in 2022. Then we had to consider the materials. There are so many options… Concrete, asphalt, DG, gravel, brick, rubber mats, pavers, spray on rubber.
Ultimately we decided on concrete bibs with a gravel/DG base and black rubber pavers on top. We also added drains into the center of both aisles, 3 catch basins on each side with clean-outs and mesh grates. We spaced the drains evenly down the aisle and placed the concrete bibs in between stalls so that horses leaving their stalls wouldn’t step directly onto concrete. To avoid horses slipping on the concrete sections, we did a medium rough broom finish. The bibs hold the pavers in place without shifting and also visually break up the wide, 20’ aisles.
The drains allow us to hose down the barn and dump water buckets easily. We added additional mesh screens to prevent hay, shavings, and manure from clogging up the drains. The drain pipe underneath the floors is 6” wide to also prevent any clogging.
The pavers we chose were a thick, black dogbone shape. Thicker is more expensive, but the thin pavers can only be used and adhered to concrete. We worried about the concrete starting to smell when horses inevitably poop and pee in the aisle. Also the cost of thicker pavers/DG vs thinner pavers/concrete was significant. That much concrete was not going to be cheap. We sourced the pavers from a company in China after receiving many samples from various companies. The pavers arrived by boat in a shipping container. Unloading them was unexpectedly the most exciting part when we maxed out the tractor’s forks and almost chopped Graham’s toes off in the chaos.
Bootless Graham
Gerardo manning the tractor
The first step (after unloading the pavers) was excavating the barn aisle. Mountains of dirt came out of the barn with a skidsteer and were piled up by the arena. Then they prepped for the concrete. The headache of jack hammers chipping up old pieces of concrete echoed in that big metal barn for days and days. They put up strings and boards to plan exactly where to put the concrete. The drains were installed and they went ahead with pouring the concrete. Once the concrete cured, they started layering roadbase, gravel and DG in between the bibs. It was all heavily compacted before the next crew came in to prep and lay the pavers. The final layer of sand was carefully added to ensure a flat but slightly sloped finish towards the drains. Then, piece by piece, the pavers were installed. That part would have gone quickly except the edges of the sections needed to be cut to exact specs. The thickness of the pavers made it hard to cut and a few tries with different table saws and various blades ultimately got the job done. The final step was gently tamping the pavers into place and sprinkling sand in between them to keep the entire area snug and secure.
The Final Product
Ultimately, we are so thrilled with the final look and feel of the aisles. It completely elevated the feel of the barn. It is also so much cleaner and quieter, you can barely hear horses walking through the barn. It was a long process and there were plenty of zig-zags, but we saw our vision come to life and are loving what we have now!