has any one built there own yard/ stables etc?

C

cumbriamax

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 August 2010
Messages
761
Location
cumbria - middle of no-where
Visit site
my yard is a continous work in progress, at mo 4 stables, field shelter and sml haybarn. wouldlike advice on laying concrete please, a friend of friend built sables from telegraph poles-opinion/experence please-where do you get telegraph poles from?has anyone built own arena?

thanks.:confused:
 
I haven't ever built my own! But my Dad is a civil engineer but also a carpenter and I'm always telling him to start doing horse buildings instead!

My advice would be to get a local civil engineer to do the concreting as thats the foundations and you don't want to build nice stables on concrete that is breaking up! My dad often gets me to work for him doing concreting and he gets a lot of stick for it as you don't often see a girl doing manual labour!

Also a friend of mine got her husband to build a field shelter and I thought it looked great. Think they used plywood and other bits and bobs. I'm sure I've seen a book around online about building your own stables and shelters that might be worth a shout.:)
 
cumbriamax said:
yeah I think a book on building yard would be good! will look out for one. will have to hire concrete mixer as I don't need enough to warant geting a lorry load of the stuff.
Click to expand...


There's a problem with that method ... it doesn't work very well! If you do one bit and another and so on, it won't bond well together. That's the reason they pour whole building footprints at once - it saves the joins opening up later down the line.

I made my entire yard myself. Started with a field full of spuds and acted as plan drawer, project manager, builder, shouter-at-council-officals and everything except roofer (am scared of heights!). In fact the only thing I didn't do beside the roof was the rendering outside the stables as by then my elbows were about ruined and I couldn't manage to finish it myself.

It's not that hard. I simply looked at other yards, chose to copy the good ideas on them and learned from their mistakes. The results have stood for about 12 years and are fine.

Wouldn't build anything on wood, but we did fence with telegraph poles. We found men working on poles and asked if they'd drop some off for us in exchange for cold, hard cash. They did. However, that's technically illegal (they aren't the workmen's to sell, for starters) so I can't recommend that option.
You can legally buy poles from farming auctions. They will vary in length and aren't cheap at all, but they do last many, many years as fences, barn frames and so on. Try ringing your local livestock market to see if they hold suitable auctions. York's Auction Centre sells hundreds each year, for example.

Not built an arena, but there's at least one good book on the subject. I just can't remember it's name or author, sorry!
 
We've done stables and arenas. It's certainly do-able but you need to do your research before you start otherwise you will have to re-do things which will end up costing you a lot more.

First you need good plans so that you know right from the start what you want to build and what you will need. As HazellB says you need to pour the entire concrete slab in one go, so doing it with a concrete mixer is completely out of the question. While thinking about things, think about access and also how you will get water and electricity to the site. Both of these can be very expensive to do, and, in the case of electricity, you cannot do a DIY job, you need a qualified electician.

Before you do any of this though you probably need to get planning permission. Talk to your local planning department, they will help you out with the application but you will need plans and details of the materials you will use.

Planning also applies to the arena. For the arena you need a large digger with a very good driver to remove the soil and get everything level (if you plan ahead you can use him at the same time to take off the topsoil for the concrete and dig your water and electricity ditches - if you do things peacemeal you may end up having to get the machine in three times which will cost three times as much). Drainage is very important so you need to plan for pipes, hardcore and a sink hole. Membrane, boards and choice of surface and you are done!

Good luck!
 
We built our own run of 4 (two 12x12 and two 14 x 12) and a 10x12 tack/feed room. No planning needed (i did check with planning) as the block is in the boundry of our garden. Rules were 5 meters away from any exsisting building, not to take up more than 50% of the garden and i think no more than 4 meters high. Had a man in to do groundworks, concrete yard and base (approx 70 feet x 20 feet) and block work this included demolishing an exsisting delapadated piggery. Me and OH put the roof and guttering on with bought in ready made purlins etc they were great, and onduline sheeting. Hubby made the doors and we got chew strips made from a local steel fabrication works. Hubby is still rendering them and i'm painting cost probaby £12,000 ish as still on going. Oh and make sure you have good drainage off your yard, ours runs in to three soakaways one in front and 2 behind.
 
cumbriamax said:
yeah I think a book on building yard would be good! will look out for one. will have to hire concrete mixer as I don't need enough to warant geting a lorry load of the stuff.
Click to expand...

Think carefully on that one! We layed our own concrete floor for 2 large stables using a concrete mixer. We were on the go non-stop, 6 of us all together, it took us several VERY LONG days, we were completely knackered and the mixer broke on the last load, can't say I blamed it! We started so we had to finish it, but the backbreaking work is all in shoveling your stuff in to the mixer, it's a killer! Had we known how hard it was we would have orderd a lorry load, regardless of the price. Good luck with it anyway!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top