# Best small barn or really nice shedrow co. In central WI



## Mcguirer29 (Apr 8, 2014)

Looking to bring our 4 legged babies home, need the best "bang for my buck" type shelter. They have always been stalled inside overnight, but I don't think that's a requirement for me. Only know of the "big name" builders - cleary, Morton, Lester...is there anyone else I should know about. Thanks!


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## goodhors (Sep 6, 2011)

Morton makes EXCELLENT barns, guarantees them for years, against rust, building failure, and has high quality parts if they do the inside stalls for you. Pricy, but barns by them also help sell your place if you want to move later.

I would NOT recommend a shedrow barn in your location. You get a lot of cold, wind, so having an inside area, maybe a central aisle between stall fronts, will get you inside out of the weather during winter. Make aisle wide, 12ft, so you can drive thru with truck to unload, Farrier working, tractor to clean stalls or bring in hay. Having doors on each end you can close tight, will make barn nice to work in, give horses a 
"quiet air" place with no draft on them when inside. 

The shedrow face of barn means it is exposed to all wind, when stall doors are open. Lets snow drift to pile in front of stall doors, so you "have to deal with it" in bad weather. Rain might be able to drive in under the porch roof area. The shedrow design works in other state's weather settings, but not a good choice in your area.

A closed shedrow design could work, with barn aisle on one side, with stalls on the other side. Just close the porch roof area with walls, so you are still totally enclosed for the winter weather. Me? I prefer the center aisle design, with facing stalls across the wide aisle. Have hay storage at the other end. I am not walking so far to get horses outside or in, with stalls on one end. Going up higher, lets you have a loft, for more storage area, all under the same roof. You could store other things on the ground floor footage.

I would look around you, ask LOTS of questions, read Barn Building books, to learn the "why's" of design choices in barns in your area. Everything from which way to face the barn to gain flow thru air to cool it in summer, stall sizes, door choices, all needs to be considered. We have tie stalls in our barns, love them, but rather uncommon in any new barns built. For us, they are a training tool and huge economy in saving bedding. Have you ever used tie stalls? If not, this may surprise you to learn about them. Where to have drains, water hydrants, how to shape the outside ground to prevent barn flooding, how to build draining floors of dirt in your stalls. SO much to learn, so you can make good choices.

Morton has tons of experience making folks happy, an excellent builder with MANY satisfied customers all over the nation.


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## birchtreefarm (Jul 22, 2007)

Mcguirer29 said:


> Looking to bring our 4 legged babies home, need the best "bang for my buck" type shelter. They have always been stalled inside overnight, but I don't think that's a requirement for me. Only know of the "big name" builders - cleary, Morton, Lester...is there anyone else I should know about. Thanks!


Ask around your area for recommendations for local builders. When we decided to build a garage, we were thinking Morton or the like, but ended up going with a good local builder - and not a big company either - he's one guy who has one other guy he works with, and they subcontracted out the foundation work etc.

We liked his work so much we hired him to build our run-in shed. Our run-in has a footprint over all of 22 x 24 feet. 12 x 24 is enclosed on three sides, and it opens in front to a 10 x 24 foot covered "porch." It is oriented to face south, so all the cold winds from the north are blocked. It's on a gravel pad, on 6x6 treated skids, and we have stall mats inside. Half of the porch area is also matted and I plan to mat the rest as well. 

Now, I admit a barn would be nice, but we couldn't afford that. If you can and want to have a barn, go for it. But our horses pretty much only sleep in the run-in, and otherwise they spend the vast majority of their time out in the big paddock in all kinds of weather, and I think they are healthier and happier. I could rig some fence tape up to keep them in the shelter if I thought it was necessary, but we just came through a very cold, long, and snowy winter, and it was a lot harder on me than it was on them, believe me.


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## rod44 (Jun 17, 2013)

I agree with Birchtreefarm. Find someone local. Places like Morten get pretty pricey. They are good at selling add ons. I had a local guy build mine. 30 by 50 with a tie stall for 2 horses in the back and the rest for cars and such.


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