# Best floor for a goat shed?



## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

Now that I think I'm going to keep a few goats around, I am designing in my head a proper goat shed. I'm wondering what is the best type of floor to have (earthen, mesh, concrete...?) 

We are in the soggy PacNW -- it has been raining almost steadily for a week now, with only 2 afternoons' let up -- so an arrangement which can keep drier than not is a good thing.


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## CindyLou62 (Aug 22, 2008)

I have concrete and love it.

It keeps the hooves trimmed down some and doesn't stay moist in their stalls.

I do keep hay on the floor where they sleep cause the concrete is cold.

The outside pen stays pretty soggy in the rain.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

I like concrete...easy to clean. I put a couple of stall mats on top so it's not too cold or hard on their joints. I also have plenty of wooden "things" to jump on to and they stand and sleep on them a lot.  
If you do concrete...be sure to have it "rough" surfaced not smooth. It's harder to sweep but so much less slippery and will help with the hooves


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## BackfourtyMI. (Sep 3, 2007)

All of our goats out buildings have wood floors. They've been like that for about 5 years now & work well for us. We wouldn't be able to have cement poured every where.
I do clean the houses everyday in rainy or winter months & in the summer the wood stays nice & dry without any bedding & they seem to like it like that, easy to clean too.


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

Wouldn't a wood floor absorb urine?


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## lostspring (Jun 29, 2007)

ag lime


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

What about cinder blocks? Cinder blocks would drain nicely. Would they provide a small amount of insulation from the cold ground?


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## Nancy_in_GA (Oct 20, 2004)

We have cinder blocks on part of our barn. We used the 4"x8"x16" blocks called caps and laid them down on the ground. I like them. You can sweep them and they are more porous than poured concrete so they absorb better, although not perfect. They are still cold in winter, but the goats like to lay on them in the summer. 

If you do this, try very hard to get them level. Pack the ground below them well first, and I'd put a layer of sand just underneath, and fill the cracks with dry sand, like they do with the cobblestone walkways. Make the cracks between them as small as possible or they will collect goat berries. BTW, they are slightly less than 8" wide so you have to lay them in rows instead of zig-zag them or the cracks will be too wide (ask me how I know).

I would have preferred concrete but only decided that after the building was built. By that time it was too difficult to get it poured in and too big a job to do by myself.


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## catdance62 (Dec 7, 2008)

My goat barns' floors are dirt. I rake them every morning


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## ozark_jewels (Oct 7, 2005)

Ag lime, gravel, sand, dirt. Anything but concrete.


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## Minelson (Oct 16, 2007)

ozark_jewels said:


> Ag lime, gravel, sand, dirt. Anything but concrete.


Emily...why anything but concrete? Just curious


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## Vicki McGaugh TX Nubians (May 6, 2002)

Sand. If your building from scratch think about the grade and pour a footing, keep the grade in the barn of sand higher than the outside and have everything slope away from the barn. You can still use shavings or straw, I actually love shavings under straw, but with our mild winters I only bed a few weeks before kidding season starts. Only kids stay on shaving most of the year.

Sand keeps mastitis at bay.

For myself and the number of goats I have cement is a maintainence nitemare, and the cost of cleaning and adding bedding I don't want to do. With our humidity even the cement in the milkroom stays damp without running a heater, which I rarely do.

Now having just a few goats, you could bed with about anything. Having their goat yard raised, or having raised platforms for them to be up on will give them outside time without having their feet in the mud.

I agree with Emily anything but concrete, except on your side of the barn! Vicki


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## snoozy (May 10, 2002)

My, my, my. So many differing opinions. We, too, are very humid here, but in a cold, clammy Pacific NW way. :rainprf: 

Vicky, you've got me thinking now maybe to build a perimeter footing wall of concrete blocks, and then a dump load of sand tamped down inside. I could build the walls out of concrete blocks all the way up, or I could use pallet wood. Hmmmnnnn...


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