Building barn walls out of cinder block.

My husband and I are purchasing a home with several acres to build a horse farm. The house is great but we will be building barns from the ground up. A poured cement aisle, and stall floors that are layered gravel topped with lime and then rubber mats, are a few things decided. When looking at several options for the barn stall walls I am pretty well decided on using cinder block for many reasons: strength to stand up to horses, insulation built in, and relatively cheap to buy. My husband is headed to Iraq, and most of my family is a good 3 hours away so I would be trying to do most of the work by myself, but I would like to put the walls up myself. My dad doesn't think it is something I should even attempt but I see big $$$ in paying somebody else. I guess my questions would be
1. is it really that hard, or would I be able to manage it after plenty of research and some practice?
2. if possible any advice on the best way to start and finish and everything in between
Also open to other suggestions for any of the barn if you have any!!
Laura


In doing some extra research I found a page about surface bonding cement (SBC) is this anything that you may have heard of? Does it really work as well as they say?

http://www.thenaturalhome.com/drystackblock.htm

That is the site I was reading it on.

Laura

First off, I'm a DIY'er and have laid my share of cinder block and red brick. I would bet after your first course, you would probably not be able to stand upright for days. The pain would be immense. I know I have done it. Laying cinder block walls is very strenuous and the higher you get the worse it gets.
I would recommend that you find a qualified professonal for that job.

Now as for build a barn out of cinder block, it has many benefits, as well as a couple of issues. Cinder block is pretty rough and I would be concerned with your animals injuring themselves on the rough surfaces. Next is hanging things. There are alot of options for hanging items on a cinder block wall. The downside is that extremely heavy items need to be thru bolted with steel plates for reinforcement. My wife had a horse and I remember all of the tack and other stuff hung on the walls of the barn.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

storage_man said:

Laura

First off, I'm a DIY'er and have laid my share of cinder block and red brick. I would bet after your first course, you would probably not be able to stand upright for days. The pain would be immense. I know I have done it. Laying cinder block walls is very strenuous and the higher you get the worse it gets.
I would recommend that you find a qualified professonal for that job.

Now as for build a barn out of cinder block, it has many benefits, as well as a couple of issues. Cinder block is pretty rough and I would be concerned with your animals injuring themselves on the rough surfaces. Next is hanging things. There are alot of options for hanging items on a cinder block wall. The downside is that extremely heavy items need to be thru bolted with steel plates for reinforcement. My wife had a horse and I remember all of the tack and other stuff hung on the walls of the barn.

Hope this gives you some ideas.

Click to expand...

As far as the physical work, I know it will be tough, but just getting off Active Duty Army I am up for that. As far as a tack room the plan is to build that as a seperate part with temperature control and security since this will all be part of a business. Thanks for the info!

If I was going to build a DIY barn for a relatively low cost, I would do a pole barn. They are easy to build, and with a truss system they are fast to go up.
If you start out with some concrete piers and brackets, it will be easier to build as a system. You can build a couple of "bents" like a barn has right on the ground . Then hire a crane to lift them into place. They hire out for about 4oo a day, A Friend of mine does this for a living.
Then get your braces up and your 2x12 beams up , bolted to each bent. Then hire the crane back for another day for trusses.
This is the easiest and least expensive route to go. Just check out any fairground building and you will get the picture.
Just my opinion, but I have built just about everything there is ...except maybe a skyscraper.