Center Aisle Horse Barn Building Process
Purchasing a Center Aisle Horse Barn, whether it's a modular construction or built completely on-site, is no doubt more complicated than buying a regular shed. In addition to deciding on the best site location for your barn, acquiring building permits and finding the right builder, you also need to consider your barn size, must-have features & options, type of construction, and (unless you have the money tree growing in your yard) your total project cost.
On this page we'll try to explain the following:
Budgeting
Finding The Right Builder
Comparing Barn Prices
Other Questions To Ask When Calling The Barn Company
Budgeting
Your total project cost for the barn must include the following:
1. Application and permit fees
2. Sealed engineered drawings (if required by local municipality)
3. Cost of site excavation
4. Cost of foundation
5. Cost of barn construction
6. Floor finishing (including crushed stone, installation of rubber mats, concrete floors, etc)
7. Staining or painting
8. Landscaping
9. Electric & plumbing
10. Installation of gutters & downspouts
11. Hay racks, feed troughs, etc.
Note: In addition to this basic list of expenses, depending on your location and your situation, you might also be faced with other expenses such as: providing a driveway to your barn, acquiring a site survey, doing a ground perk, and if building a boarding facility you may be required to install a septic tank and, or to provide a water drain well (see local municipality for requirements in your area).
Finding The Right Builder
Finding the right builder for your horse barn is a very important step. The builder must not only know how to properly build your horse barn, but must also be able to advise you on the best location for your stalls, wash stalls, tack rooms, etc. In addition, the barn builder must be experienced in construction of equine facilities, which means that choosing the home builder to build your dream barn might not be such a good idea (even if you had a good experience with your home builder in the past).
Also, when choosing the builder or the barn company, make sure that this company/builder will be able to provide the foundation for your barn. We do not recommend the use of sub-contractors or local contractors for your barn's foundation work in order to eliminate any possible problems or disputes with the sub-contractor if foundation is not done properly. We believe that any reputable horse barn builder should be able to provide foundation and any concrete work for the customer.
It's also recommended to choose the company that has at least 5 years of barn building experience and that builds barns using their own crews, not sub-contractors.
And finally, our recommendation to you (when you are shopping around for the horse barn) is to purchase from and deal with the actual builder or the manufacturer and to stay away from any retailers or dealers that often disguise themselves as builders, but in reality, all they do is resell barns and hire different sub-contractors to do assembly and concrete work.
The advantage to dealing direct with the builder is, better pricing, less work on your end trying to find someone to do foundation, etc. and often, less frustration and headaches.
Comparing Barn Prices
When comparing barn prices from different builders and dealers, here are few tips to keep in mind:
1. For an accurate "apple-to-apple" comparison always request a detailed quote showing what's included and what's not included in the barn price. You'll be surprised to find out how many companies will lure you with a "good" price (the price they show in advertisements and on their websites) and later will keep adding things like cost of foundation, delivery, sales tax, out-of-state assembly fees, equipment rental, and the features that you thought would've been included in any properly built center aisle horse barn.
2. When comparing prices, make sure to keep closer look at construction specifications for the barn you are getting. Often, the companies will give you a "good" price for their basic construction and then will add extra charges for different upgrades in order to accommodate local codes. By all means, when you call and talk to the salesperson, ask as many questions as possible about their construction and what's included and not included in the price.
3. After you are done comparing construction specifications, ask the sales person about barn's dimensions. Wall height, total barn height, headroom inside of loft, clearance under lean-to headers (if you are ordering the lean-to), roof pitch, size of loft, etc.
Knowing all the details will help you with the barn comparison, and also will help you to see what for barn you are getting.
Other Questions to Ask When Calling The Barn Company
- Are you an actual builder or a dealer?
- Do you use sub-contractors to do barn assembly, foundation, or any other work?
- How many years have you been selling and building these type of barns?
- Does your company or sub-contractors have all the insurances required, including liability & worker's compensation insurance?
- Do you have any references or barns built in my area?
- What is the best location for my stalls, tack room and wash stall?
We hope this information will help you in choosing the right builder, and wish you all the best with your barn project!