Horse Stalls, The Types of Metal Finishes for Where You Live

When selecting the type of horse stalls for your barn, the metal finish that you will be using is critical to how long the stalls will last.
Many people over the past few years have selected powder coated stalls only to find out they didn't live up to the marketing hype that some manufacturers have been bragging up. In a perfect world, powder coated horse stalls would be great, but I don't know of anyone who has their barn setting in the middle of a perfect world. The truth is powder coating is good as long as the finish isn't nicked or scratched. Worse is if your horse has a habit of licking the bars in the stall. Many of us have mineral blocks or salt blocks in the stall area, and once the powder coating has salt under it, it lifts the coating like a sheet of paper.
A good way to see this for yourself is if you buy something with a powder coated finish and expose it to the weather. A good example is a trailer-hitch. I had a new powder-coated hitch installed on the back of my dually this fall. The winter has not been kind here in Ohio and the road crews have been working overtime spreading salt on the roads. My new hitch looks like it's 10 years old, powder coating is peeling off everywhere and surface rust has taken over. Needless to say, my opinion of powder coating is very poor.

Enamel coated stalls and powder coated stalls are about equal in terms of preventing rust, but they can be used in dry areas of the country. If you live in the southwest where the humidity is very low, this type of metal finish will serve you well.

If your barn is in a humid area of the country, a much better option is galvanized steel. Galvanized products have a protective coating that is actually bonded into the metal and holds up much better than paint or powder coating, but be aware of the different types of galvanizing. Some manufacturers have gone to a spray on type of galvanizing which is no better than paint. If it is not hot-dip zinc galvanizing, don't waste your money as rust will appear on the spray-on type very quickly.

For people living close to the coastal areas, aluminum horse stalls is the only metal type that will stand up to this type of environment.
Anodized aluminum is the best as it has a hardened clear coating that seals the bars and stays looking nice for years. Raw aluminum will begin to discolor and will develop a "white rust" corrosion over time, so again, it pays to shop for horse stalls wisely.

For more information on high quality USA Made horse stalls, visit www.countrymfg.com