Tuesday, February 18, 2014

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

Monday, February 10, 2014

Horse Stalls, Selecting the Right Type for Your Needs

Many people get confused when trying to decide what type of horse stalls are the best for their individual needs, so I'll break to down to the 2 major types to help your stall planning:
The most economical type is the Horse Stall Kit. "Kit" styles of horse stalls give you flexibility in building your stalls as you can order the specific type of grill, stall door and other features that make the stall work better for you and your horse. The down side to building from a kit is they do require support posts to be set into the ground for the wood of the stall to attach to. This makes the stall difficult to move or change in the future as your needs change. This stall building guide will help show you how the posts have to be set.

The second type of stall is the "modular" or "prefab" horse stalls. This type of stall can be moved easily and does not require the use of support posts. The fronts and walls lock together with brackets. This style of stall is popular with horse breeders for making foaling stalls as the walls can be added and removed easily.
This prefab stall building guide will help.

Our next blog will explain the metal types for different horse stalls and explain how the humidity levels of where you live can have a huge effect on the type of horse stalls you should consider buying.