Advice on Tack room facilities

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Amazona

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Hi all
I was wondering if you all could advice my family on what facilities would be acceptable fitted into a tackroom. I am wanting to convert a hay store ...(new build-with breeze block and concrete floor) in to a lovley tack room .. the yard is our own private.
I have stud horses broodmares and foaling boxes but we do not live on site so am wanting to make a nice tackroom ... insulate the ceiling, put in a log burner for heating, shower cubicle. ( I work full time where I have to wear a suit for board meetings) and make it nice enough for when a foal is due I can stay there on site ..with kitchen units .. kettle and microwave... we have electricity and cameras onsite already.
My family are worried what the neighbours will say and that the council will not like it.
I just want a tack room to be proud of instead of a cold damp one ...any ideas
 
If possible hot running water and a sink of course :) hanging hooks for tack cleaning and lots of lovely storage. Also how about a washing machine something that often gets overlooked but is so handy!
 
Hot and cold running water. Tea making facilities.

Absolutely no log burning first (disaster waiting to happen)

Somewhere to sit.

Somewhere to keep your stuff.
 
What does it have to do with the neighbours?
If the building is above board and legit then what goes in your tackroom is none of their business.

It makes sense to have a heating source (I would nix the wood burner too, nice as it might sound, too risky and your insurers would have kittens) some way of heating a drink/snack, wash facilities (sink at least) and somewhere to sit (comfy couch that you can doze on ;)) is completely acceptable, it is standard practice to have that sort of stuff in a lot of tackrooms.

I think if you were using it as a changing room too, then a locker for clothing would be handy.
 
CatStew said:
Agree with what has already been said.

Could you perhaps have a static caravan for living facilities?
Click to expand...

The Stables has proper planning and done to nice spec but the Neighbours complained the whole time we were building ...(even though nearest neighbour is across 10 acre field)
The council insisted a touring caravan we were storing was removed to keep neighbours happy so recon will have no chance of a static caravan ??

The log burner is going to be proffesionally installed to make use of the tons of logs we have stored ...
I also want a solarium and shower for the horses .. but that will be added after we have finished tack room ... looking for pictures on internet to show family some examples of nice tack rooms as they think i am being unreasonable
 
Last edited:
Sounds like you have very fussy neighbours then!

I do have to say, I like your ideas and I'm a tad jealous :D

We don't have a sink in our tack room and therefore no running water, hot or cold (DIY livery yard), which is a pain and means we have to use the yard hose with cold water or boiling kettle water and a swill of bleach or dettol to wash any mugs for much needed cups of tea on these cold days, which probably isn't very hygenic but we haven't died yet :o
 
It won't have anything to do with the council or neighbour UNLESS you are changing the actual building and plan, ie, putting windows or new doorways in etc. Putting a chimney would fall into this catagory probably. Planners are very negative to anything that makes a farm building more habitable, so adding a hot and cold water source and heating WILL set the planners alarm bells off. I would say just do it, but if you already have a neighbour that reports you, you can be assured that he will report you again when smoke is coming out of a chimney... It would be less conspicuous to just have a gas fire or plug in radiator really. Your family are probably right to be wary, if they've already stopped you having a touring caravan there, they are already being difficult...

Sounds like you need to landscape with some hedges and trees around these stables, so things aren't so obvious.
 
Second above post basically; this local council sounds very much like ours :(

The very least thing you need is a power point so you can plug in a light/heater/kettle etc. My tack room used to be an old milking parlour and the fitments were very old, so needed replacing. We made sure there were LOADS of power points in the walls and plenty of light. To be honest, you can survive if you've got power points in. Yes, its nice to have all the luxuries/fitments etc BUT if you've got a difficuilt neighbour who reports you to the council every time he/she/they f@rt, then, for now, you might just have to compromise with just power points and running everything else off that.

Perhaps you could get some kind of electric space-heater? It just needs to be a low wattage affair, OR someone told me that keeping an electric light bulb going will be sufficient heat to keep out the damp in a small space like a tack room.

So sorry to hear of the problems you're having: know the feeling as where we used to live we had a neighbour like this. He was always complaining about US, but HE could, and did, get away with every contravention of planning laws known to man - even the Ombudsman ruled against us (to the surprise of our MP even). Probably because he was in the Magic Hand-Shake Club, need I say more. Probably this is the problem with your neighbour. Stroppy gits, why don't people like this go and boil their heads.
 
Kettle
Fridge
Heater (think oil radiator or similar)
Hot running water (You can get the electric hot water boilers fitted easily)
Rug hangers
Sufficient saddle/bridle/headcollar hooks and racks
Somewhere to sit
Drawers for brushes, boots etc

In ours, we have shelves high up approx 1ft off the ceiling to store rugs/clippers/first aid box. Utilise the space as best as possible.
 
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