Earth Stable Floors?

kibob

kibob

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Hello all

Just wondering if anyone has experience of earth floors in stables?

I'm thinking of earth floors (well rolled and compacted) with rubber mats on top (for ease of mucking out and to stop the floor being disturbed). I've heard mixed views, I would imagine this would drain better than a concrete floor and not hold the stinky-ness so much.

I will have plenty of concrete areas for grooming/washing down etc.

Good points... bad points, all much appreciated please peeps.

Thanks
 
Mmm, I wouldn't' put the rubber matting on top TBH. Coz if you do that it will "sweat" I would have thought? Plus you'll have the problem of having to get your earth floor 100% level (which will be a real hassle) or else your rubber matting will start to bunch up and you'll get gaps in it. I saw a stable where this had happened at someone else's yard, and it was a disaster area; awful! So IMO better not to go that route.

I've got an earth floor on one of my stables. What I did was to put down some small stones and rubble right at the bottom of it and then cover up with plenty of sand and then some straw; THEN as that bedded down I changed over to wood chippings (not sawdust)...... and its been fine.

I've got two stables - one is concrete floor with rubber matting; and this earth-floor one. Of the two, the earth floor is MUCH easier to do every day. If you're having an earth floor though the secret is to get the drainage right; my earth-floor stable is higher up in the yard and has fantastic drainage, therefore easy peasy to manage:)
 
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I had an earth floor in a 24 x 16 barn that I used as a shelter, with bedding down one half-used for a horse and 2 ponies. No mats and semi deep-littered (shavings). worked well, would do it again.
 
I had earth stables before I concreted them used a deep bed system which worked well for the winter I would presume that the matting would be hard to lift after a while if ground is wet underneath though suction
 
Unless the rubber fits really well and is in one piece it is a disaster, if there is a seam in the middle the urine makes the mud muddy and it comes up through the seam, a right pita
 
I have used rubber mats over an earth floor in a mobile stable for 10 years very well. This was for a welsh cob that had to be stabled at night all year round to prevent laminitis. It is far from a perfect solution as the bedding gets underneath and you end up with humps and mounds, but if you keep on top of it then it is fine. I had rabbits burrow under mine and that was a right pain.
 
We have earth floors, rubber mats in the front but earth under the bedding. I came from a yard where it was concrete or concrete and rubber so found it a little odd to start with but i like them now. I slightly deep litter mine, the earth floors are not totally level so i wouldn't put rubber mats on the whole floor and i find that slightly deep littering rather than being too pedantic about completely mucking out every day helps as well. I find i am using a lot less bedding as the wet tends to drain away through the floor quite well, and they don't tend to smell. Every so often i will leave the beds up to let the floor dry out, and this has worked well so far. I haven't done a full winter with them yet, but we have had some pretty vile, prolonged wet spells so i don't anticipate any problems.
 
The last yard I had were almost all concrete floors or cobbles however I did have one block of 5 stables which were dirt based. After a few years of use they all ended up with a big hole type thing in the middle where all the wee sunk in. I graded the stables inside, then put down scalpings and then limestone screenings above and then rubber matted them. Once this was all done they worked great.
 
Spring Feather said:
The last yard I had were almost all concrete floors or cobbles however I did have one block of 5 stables which were dirt based. After a few years of use they all ended up with a big hole type thing in the middle where all the wee sunk in. I graded the stables inside, then put down scalpings and then limestone screenings above and then rubber matted them. Once this was all done they worked great.
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Had this with my earth floors and did the same thing, problem solved :)
 
i had earth floors for more than 20 years , we made them a little higher than the surrounding field by putting hardcore in and ramming it as flat as poss. then used a deep shavings bed, i used to take out the droppings and any visible wet daily as i was working full time and we didnt have elec lights, and then muck out properly at the weekend. as long as the bed is kept quite thickm it worked really well....i also would not used rubber matting
 
One of my boxes is like this .
It's got rubber mats I 'level 'the floor with sand it works ok .
I get a dip forming by the hay so I lift that mat and fling in some more sand now and again .
You get a bit of oozing by the window after heavy rain where mud and sand comes up between the joins in the mats but it's not a huge issue.
We used to deep litter it that worked well too but it was a huge task to muck it out so now we have mats and bed on shavings which I muck out.
 
My stable floors are earth.....I put down slabs after levelling, with rubber mats on top. We are on clay and the first winter ended up with a great crater in the middle and liquid clay oozing up in between from where my gelding pee'd in the same spot...... we've remedied by concreting big sections now, and also using a more absorbant bedding.

I'd much rather have concrete any day!
 
Have rubber matting in an unlevel floor shelter and it works a treat. Not so sure it would be successful in a stable though as you would get wet patches as others have said.
 
Brilliant. Thanks for all your replies.

Think I'll forget the rubber mats but certainly gonna consider the earth floors... And make sure we get lots of drainage in.
 
Had earth floors when I lived in the USA (well, clay or rammed chalk, actually) and would much prefer concrete with rubber over and a proper drainage grade. (In the US everyone was wondering how all the poor horses in the UK weren't lame because of being on concrete, BTW). The stables ended up with big holes in the middle where the pee accumulated, were stinky and uneven.
 
From experience they are a disaster, they get holes, smell terribly and become very uneven over time. If you really want to go that sort of way then buy in chalk to compact over the top of the dirt, it allows better drainage, neutralises the smell and is easy to fill in any holes.

I certainly wouldn't be putting rubber matting on top - it will be hell to get up again as the dirt will stick to the matting.
 
Many years ago I had a stable with an earth floor. It was ok when the horse was out most of the time, but in winter it was a smelly, boggy mess where he wee'd. Concrete is luxury.
 
Tnavas said:
From experience they are a disaster, they get holes, smell terribly and become very uneven over time. If you really want to go that sort of way then buy in chalk to compact over the top of the dirt, it allows better drainage, neutralises the smell and is easy to fill in any holes.

I certainly wouldn't be putting rubber matting on top - it will be hell to get up again as the dirt will stick to the matting.
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We have dirt floors,....I HATE THEM!!! always , always end up with a crater as they always seem to pee in the same place , and they smell...although i did remedy that by shaking down dustbin deodorant.
we are now going to put a chalk base down and ram it flat with a machine! I would concrete the lot if i could afford it!
Do you think rubber mats would be aright on top of chalk??
 
Fii said:
We have dirt floors,....I HATE THEM!!! always , always end up with a crater as they always seem to pee in the same place , and they smell...although i did remedy that by shaking down dustbin deodorant.
we are now going to put a chalk base down and ram it flat with a machine! I would concrete the lot if i could afford it!
Do you think rubber mats would be aright on top of chalk??
Click to expand...

I'm not a fan of Rubber matting in any form. Unless it is the prayed onto concrete and completely sealed, they stink are unhygenic and difficult to maintain.

I'd opt for a good deep bed of straw/wood chips or shavings - in that order.
 
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