Cost of building a small stable yard

[gerbera]

Hi, has anyone recently constructed a small yard at home and could give me an idea on how much it would cost? I am looking to construct an L shape yard with 3 stables (12 x 12), tack room and hay barn (12 x 12). Everything would have to started from scratch as this is not replacing an old yard so drainage, concrete, water and electricity has to be installed also.

I am looking to install the medium range of stabling rather than the cheapest and we are thinking a budget of £25K? Obviously I would like it to come in for less so any advice welcome.

Also, if anyone uses solar power panels on their stables I would be really interested to know if this method of power works well or not.

Thanks!

 

[JLD]

Hi,we put in a smaller one ( 2 stables and a tack/feed room with a little fenced yard ) about 5 years ago from scratch I think the ground works and base were about 5k and the stables were about 4k. Ours were mid range, it was a bit cheaper then usual as the recession had just hit so people wanted the work. I would think you could do it in that budget. We have solar lighting which works well.

 

[gerbera]

Thank you, that's really helpful

 

[gerbera]

One last question JLD...how long did it take to build your yard?

 

[Pamfyson]

We put in 4 x 12x12 boxes. Hay store 24x12, store & feed room 24x12 in a "U" shape in 2008. the concrete base is 74'x26', this bit was £5k and the buildings were just over £10k. we had a local contractor lay the base and the stable company took a day to erect it all. Hope this helps.

 

[gerbera]

Pamfyson thanks for your help. Didn't realise they could build them so quickly, I thought it would take a few weeks to get them up!

Did you have any problems with planning or was it quite an easy process?

 

[LynH]

We had 3 stables (2x 12x14, 1x 15x15), tackroom 12x14, covered wash area 18x14 and hay barn 18x18 with a 6' overhang. Groundworks were £12k inc drainage, stables £14k. I went for good quality wooden stables with fully lined and insulated tackroom and oak posts and black stain.
Electrics were an additional £1.5k inc cabling to the house.

Photos
http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?635559-New-stables-at-home-lots-of-photos

 

[Pamfyson]

Planning wasn't hard. My husband did the drawings himself. We knew that we could erect stabling as temporary buildings and told the planners that and said that we wanted to do things properly to fit with the landscape etc. We explained our reasons for wanting the stables etc in the design and access statement. Before we put the application in we went to see them and asked them if they were happy with what we wanted to do and if they required us to make any changes. It takes about 3 months from application to results.
Good luck with yours

 

[LynH]

I also did our planning application and design and access statements myself. I filled out the application online after looking at other local applications that had been approved. My planning permission did have certain conditions about materials, colour and fencing/hedging but these were all discharged easily.
We had tried to get part of our buildings in the garden under permitted development and even though our neighbours have two stables and a tackroom in their garden the council asked us to put all of ours in the field. They were very helpful every time I spoke to them and I found the planning helpline very useful.

 

[gerbera]

LynH, you have created a lovely stable yard, you must be so pleased with it
And thanks to both you and Pamfyson for your advice re planning, that is really helpful and makes me feel a lot better about the process. The area is horsey with people keeping horses at home so hopefully planning goes through ok.

 

[Pamfyson]

Just to add OP that if you erect stables in your garden you may not need PP at all.(an old wrinkle in planning law) Worth a chat with the local planners. You probably will need it for storage buildings though. Wishing you lots of luck with it all.

 

[JLD]

OP - the ground works took the longest - should have been a week but was nearly a month as weather turned so awful all the mini diggers etc got stuck in our field. The stables went up in a day with another day to finish off line tack room etc. Just a consideration when you look for someone to do the ground work find out if their machinery is their own, some of the smaller ones rent it and we could have ended up being billed for a month's rent after it got stuck in the mud ! We are in an AONB and because our stables are in the field attached to the house which has no agricultural use clause we had to have full residential planning not agricultural planning, which cost more and was more time consuming and was worth getting the drawings professionally done as more hoops to go through, but was fine and worth doing properly for peace of mind.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Agree that the planning process was fairly painless.

A tip from the company that we used to construct our mid range (wooden) stable block is to apply for one more stable or unit than you intend to put up, as planners might ask you to downscale slightly. We went for 4 stables (12 x 14 to 18 x 12) plus 2 8 x 12 tack and feed rooms, although we only wanted three stables.

When the planning lady did her site visit, she said that she'd have been happy with up to 6 stables for private use! We put up the 3 initially, then added the 4th two years later as you can never have too much storage space!

 

[gerbera]

This is all really interesting and such great advice from you all.
The property has 5 acres, but just over 3 acres of that has an agricultural tie, the remaining 1.165 acres (which includes the house) does not. My fall back was to use the garden for the stables if planning were refused on the land with the agricultural tie.

This is a house which we are in the process of buying. It comes with planning in place already for a 2 storey extension on the house and a cart lodge. Whilst searching on Google, we came across old planning permission which was granted to the owners before that for field shelters, a cattery area and some other stuff as they wanted to set up an animal sanctuary. The only thing they were refused on was having a mobile home on site, which I get as that just opens up the flood gates...

JLD - thanks for the tips re the machinery as this could all be happening in January when the worst of the weather will hit... To begin with we are going to get stables on skids whilst the planning permission is being dealt with. Has anyone else done this, did you sell the stables afterwards?

Also someone advised that some companies will offer to put up temporary stabling/field shelters to keep you going whilst your yard is being built as an incentive to choose them. She could not remember which company offered it to her as it was a long time ago. Anyone heard of this?

Thanks everyone