[AT] OT Barn floor question

[Larry D. Goss]

Weren't the "uppity-up" horse barns paved with wood blocks?  I can't
remember the correct name for it, but it's wooden blocks placed on end
so the end grain of the wood is the floor surface.  It's similar to
parquet, but that's not what it's called -- built like a butcher block.
If I remember correctly the carriage house of the Reitz home here in
Evansville still has some of the original stall floor left that is like
that, and so is the stables/restaurant at the Biltmore in Ashville.
Wood 4X4's about a foot long -- set on end in sand.

Larry 

-----Original Message-----
From: at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com
[mailto:at-bounces at lists.antique-tractor.com] On Behalf Of Robinson
Sent: Monday, October 18, 2004 7:33 PM
To: Antique tractor email discussion group
Subject: Re: [AT] OT Barn floor question



         The following is my personal direction on this farm based on a
lot 
of serious research over a period of several years. Others may have
other 
opinions...
         The last working horses left the farm when I was quite young.
They 
were on dirt floors. The horses in the west barn here now are on dirt
with 
heavy rubber stall mats (about $38 each) covering the entire 12' x 12' 
stalls. It takes about a half dozen per stall IIRC. It works very well.
We 
removed some old concrete (a ratty old ear corn crib floor) from part of

the stall floors and filled back in with dirt making sure that the stall

floor was well above the outside grade level. We filled it with good
loam 
topsoil. I do not like clay for barn floors of any kind.
         I should inject here that "clay" means different things to 
different people. My BIL at Pensacola speaks of "clay roads". I would
call 
them sand. What we call generally clay in Central Indiana is mostly
yellow 
(or gray) and very waxy. When it is wet it is slimy and extremely slick.

You can almost ski on it. My father was big on "clay floors" but they
are 
lousy. They hold water on top of them and become goo which dries very 
slowly. Good loam topsoil can get rained in on and drains through
quickly 
and dries on top right away. Urine disappears quickly. The loam also 
supports the "good" organisms that digest the waste products much like 
composting does.
         The 5 stalls I am currently building in the east barn will also

have dirt floors. We are going to place plastic field tile drain lines 
under the floors of each stall about 2 feet deep. Concrete can become 
pretty slick for shod horses. I truly hate standing on concrete floors
and 
if it is bad for my legs why would it not also be bad for the horses.
Wood 
can also become very slick, dangerously so. Heavy traffic from shod
horses 
can eat a wood floor fairly quickly, especially large drafts with high 
calks. My current plans call for concrete floor only in the wash bay. I
am 
considering using home cast concrete pavers in the aisles. They are not
as 
slick and will not hold puddles of urine or water.
         There are a lot of different types of floors now. Both wood and

concrete are near the bottom of the kinds favored. Some like about 6" of

dirt over the top of coarse crushed stone or rock. There are now several

types of "matrix" floors on the market. Most are a plastic grid work
that 
lays down over dirt, wood or concrete and just serves to hold a layer of

sand in place. The horse can paw it but presumably can't make a hole in
it. 
I recently read of a floor made of old RR cross-ties laid side by side.
I 
just can not imagine that making a good floor. At least not unless it
was 
under some sort of sand holding matrix.

         Here are some links:
http://ianrpubs.unl.edu/horse/g1291.htm
http://www.equustall.com/
http://www.groupsummit.com/horses.html
http://www.horsetackreview.com/article-display/758.html
More general:
http://www.ehow.com/ehow/ehowDetails.jsp?id=7455
http://www.equisearch.com/

I hope this is of some help.

"farmer"   All hat, no cowboy...   ;-)

Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
robinson at svs.net  

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