Building our own stables!!!

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Marv99

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Hi, We have recently just purchased 5 acres of land on which to keep our two horses. I'm looking at building a small yard of three stables plus hay/feed store plus tack room and just starting on putting the planning application in. My other half is keen to do as much as possible to minimise costs.

So has anyone else in the northwest done the same? Where did you get your stables from and how much did you think the base would cost?

I'm fairly new to all this so hoping for some helpful recomendations!
 
the stables i put up at my last place came from Clydesdale stables, iirc they were from up your way. v v good quality, highly recommended.
or, you could build a barn and then put everything in it, very nice working environment imho (that's what i have here, 3 stables + tackroom + feed area etc all in 1 barn.
the base - depends how big you have the yard, basically. make sure you have the concrete with the additive that protects against urine (can't remember what it's called) and have it sloped for drainage and also slightly roughened, not smoothed, when it is finished.
 
I laid my own concrete yard, you need to lay a good base and buy readymix concrete from someone like LaFarge and tell them it is for horses, they will provide a mix with fibres which resists urine. I laid the brick course for the wooden stables to go on, it's not rocket science. We had the first two stables put up by the stable company and afterwards added units that we collected outselves, it was physically hard, heavy work, but it is just flat pack, so easy to bolt together. It saved about 20% plus the VAT, so it did save us money.
 
If your site is flat, then the concrete etc is fairly straightforward and inexpensive (maybe 1/2k. If sloping, whole diff ballgame. Our mini barn cost £12k (4 stables, wide central passage, sliding barn door and tackroom with lots of optional extras eg portal framed for flexibility and windows in the top opening doors on the outside walls, its amazingly fab esp as we live in NE Scotland!) and because the ground was sloping and we wanted a yard out the front and needed proper drains etc and electric the groundworks in total were about 5k.

If you arent somewhere too exposed and are quite hardy the cheapest option would be a row of stables trad style and on a flat piece of ground.

But it is lovely to be out of the weather!! and ours are very airy and not at all dusty or dark
We used Saltire in Fife. They are painted lovely dark green with white doors now, v smart!
WesterBraeheadAutumn2008181.jpg
 
We are fairly local to you, and built our own four years ago.

We have fairly flat land, howver in the pennines that often means boggy! So we had to put a lot of hardcore down (was about £80 for a big lorry load) and we used about 25 lorries to do the stable yard area and a drive to it. Concrete was a lot after that. I think that the base cost almost as much as the actual stables in the end, but it was worth it to have a good yard and hardcore hardstanding around it to park trailers on etc.

Obviously it will depend on your plans,and what sort of things they pass, but we had three normal stables and a foaling box, in an L shape with the back to the wind, and they are wonderfully sheltered. We often tie up outside under the corner overhang, and the horses don't get rained on at all. Later we added two portable boxes on the hardcore for storage for extra hay and straw.
 
Can i also suggest you keep an eye on Ebay for stables - i've seen some really nice stable blocks 2nd hand over the years. May help keep the costs down if you can find the layout you're looking for.
 
Thanks for the advice everyone. We are lucky in that the land is fairly flat and not too boggy. We are planning on building the stables fairly close to the hedge that borders the field and seperates us from the lane as the advice from the planning officer was that the closer it was to the lane the more favourably an application would be looked upon.

We will be about 10m or so from the gate so intend to put hardcore down on this to form a track to the stables for cars for farrier etc. But I would like to make sure I have a concrete area in front of the stables for tying up so I will factor this in.

Have been looking at the stables on ebay and they do seem to be decent prices. Just wondering though - if I brought a two stable block and then wanted to add an additional stable and hay store on the end how easy would it be. I was intendning to go for planning permission for 3 stables plus hay store in a row but do you think I would need to alter the planning permission if it was two buildings next door as I haven't seen many bigger blocks for sale on ebay?
 
i would message the eBay sellers of any new stables you like, as often they could do them different sizes, they just put one size on eBay? Much easier to get them all up in one go, and less likely to have leaks etc if all one construction. And cheaper too per stable!

Make sure any hard landscaping is included in the scale drawings for planning as that will need PP too.

Also watch out if buying from eBay rather than from a stable company direct, the former might not include the scale drawings you will need for planning and detailed base plans for your groundwork, whereas normally you get them included if buying from the likes of Redmire/Stable Co/National/Saltire etc. They might do but need to check that.
 
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