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Discussion on Barn flooring
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Member:
Twhgait
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Posted on Sunday, May 28, 2006 - 2:14 pm:
My run-in barn used to have stalls and my horses used to be kept in these stalls while they were being adjusted to grass here at home. My mare and her foal picked their pee spot and peed right there, all the time. I didn't think it would be a problem once we tore down the stalls and made it one big run in......well, guess what? Mom, yearling and now Grandma all use the exact same spot!!! This area which has expanded to about 10 ft by 5 foot is constantly drenched in urine. Everybody pees there, everytime they have to pee. The footing is becoming slippery and new holes pop up every time I clean it. I've tried digging it all out and filling it with lime but this hasn't worked. Now the lime is shifing all over the place and holes are popping back up. It hasn't helped that we had torrential rains which caused the entire barn floor to flood with rainwater. Obviously, we need a whole new floor. This is a dirt floor which we use regular pine bedding on. I also use Sweet PDZ which does help to cut down odor but does nothing for the moisture. What are the recommendations? I'd like to do it right the first time, LOL! We are planning on needing to raise the entire floor and I don't know what would be a good height either! Any suggestions?
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Moderator:
DrO
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Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 9:19 am:
Hello Kim,
You could try constructing a french drain under the wet spot which consists of a large deep hole filled with rocks, then gravel, and finally dirt. The idea is the gravel and rocks provide a way for the wet to drain away. However with the conditions you describe, concrete with perhaps rubber mats sound like the only solution that will fix all your problems. The floor should be slopped so that the urine runs out of the shed and should drain away from the building.
DrO
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Member:
Twhgait
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Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 7:03 pm:
Awesome Dr. O, thanks so much for the ideas! I'll try the french drain first and see if we can make any progress that way. But, I think I see concrete pouring in my future! With my luck, as soon as we construct this drain, the horses will move their pee spot to another section of the dirt floor 
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Monday, May 29, 2006 - 7:28 pm:
Kim, if you don't put any shavings in the pee corner, and just pile them in a different corner, the horses may move their pee spot. I've found that they don't like to pee where it will splash on their legs, and if they have the choice of peeing in something soft and absorbent, they will do so. Maybe just shifting the shavings from one area to another every so often will make a difference? It worked for me.
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Member:
Ajudson1
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Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 7:35 am:
Kim,
Be thankful they only go in the one spot. I love a horse that picks a potty area and sticks with it. I have 2 mares, 2 geldings. 1 mare, and the 1 gelding, both older, have very clean stalls. The other 2, both 4, make a total mess in theirs...maybe they were never potty trained by their parents? ;-}
Good luck with the drain.
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Member:
Miamoo
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Posted on Tuesday, May 30, 2006 - 7:36 am:
To me this could be a great thing if you can get the correct drainage. Pee all in one spot - then drain away. What an amazing savings on bedding (which is horribly expensive now). Work for the proper drainage and find a way to make it a positive!
Mats will keep your floor from getting wet and muddy but will hold the urine and waste a lot of bedding!
Ella 
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Member:
Twhgait
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 4, 2006 - 4:18 pm:
Hi guys! Thanks for the additional suggestions and smiles! Angie, I hear ya, I was happy about the "pee spot" too at first....I just wish it could have been outside! None of them have ever been neat about their potty spots; why now, I have no idea!
We started to dig out the floor and unfortunately came across too many huge boulders -one actually went straight under the barn wall. We filled it back in with gravel and dirt and I just went ahead and bought stall mats for the area. I didn't feel comfortable leaving it the way it was-I don't think we got deep enough get enough dirt over the rocks. So far, so good though. I hate the thought of using bedding but I was literally taking out 3 wheelbarrows a day just digging in the pee spots full of soaking bedding and mud. Yesterday I only took one wheelbarrow out! Yippeee for me!!!
Holly, if this gets to be too much, I'm gonna stop bedding the mats and see what they do. My husband says we should throw some bedding out in the paddock and see if they move the pee out there! Kinda like training a puppy, LOL
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Member:
Hwood
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Posted on Sunday, Jun 4, 2006 - 4:41 pm:
No kidding, Kim. It just might work. The barn at the ranch here in Milpitas had just a roof . . . no walls, and really hard-packed flooring. I had arranged larger and smaller pipe panel stalls and paddocks under the roof. I couldn't afford to bed the entire area with shavings, and the wind would blow many of them out through the panels, so every few days, I'd dump a bag or two of shavings in one spot . . . and the horses would pee there and lay down there . . . and when it got mushy, I'd put shavings in another part of the paddocks . . . Worked like a charm.
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