Brick in the barn aisle? Bad idea??

[RockyToggRanch]

I have a new barn that was built last fall. It's 30x30 with a 10' center aisle and stalls on either side. I had originally planned to pave the aisle with bricks. I saw this at SUNY Morrisville and loved it. My boss gave me the brick for free. I couldn't do it over the winter and now that it's spring it seems that everyone is trying to talk me out of it. They say it won't stay even with horses walking on it.

It'll be a ton of work to get this done myself. I don't want to end up hating it. Has anyone used brick pavers for their aisle? How did you do it and how has it held up??

It's already built up on a foot or two of gravel. I thought a layer of crushed stone or stone dust and then paver sand and the bricks.
I'd frame it all in with pressure treated lumber.

Any tips would be helpful.

 

[miss_thenorth]

Although I don't know from 'personal 'experience, when we were looking at houses, one house had an active horse barn, with brick pavers in the centre isle. this barn had been used for several (if not more) years, and the pavers seemed fine. Driveways are made with pavers, and they seem fine--they will settle a bit with the wieght of the cars, but drievways like that are quite popular. I say go for it. My barn has a dirt walkway. I'd love to have one that has pavers.

 

[preppy*hippie*chick]

Personally, I like the pavers made of hard rubber that are made to look like brick. Safe & durable.

Here's a link to a property for sale. The barn has brick look rubber pavers, but you could get an idea of what it might look like. If you scroll through the pics you can stop it when you hit the right one.

http://carolinacountryestate2.com/

 

[aaronzclark]

go for it its fine

 

[patandchickens]

If this is just your private coupla-horses barn, absolutely go right ahead. Just make sure to lay them on an extremely hard-tamped level bed of damp screenings (with a little sand on top after tamping).

Regular bricks or brick-shaped pavers are a bit slipperier for shod horses than the rubber brick-looking things, IME, but not to the point of being a problem unless you have very scatty horses.

Real brick is not necessarily the best choice for large barns because it is relatively soft and you get worn areas developing fairly soon.

You will, however, discover that it is a pain in the butt to sweep a brick aisle. No matter whether you bed with shavings or with straw. All the stuff wants to stick in the teeny crevices. Large barns with bricks or bricklike pavers (rubber or otherwise) sometimes use leaf blowers (dusty!) or lawn vacs

Half my barn has brick pavers (not the rubber kind, the plain cheap concrete kind) and aside from some heave-y areas where they were installed over the remains of old posts <rolling eyes -- I didn't put this all in!> they are in fine shape after 10 yrs of horses and show dogs, 4-5 yrs of being a boarding barn, and now just me and my 3 horses.

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[RockyToggRanch]

I'm excited again

I thought about the sweeping part. I use pellet bedding, but the hay that accumulates in the aisle each day will, I'm sure be a pain to sweep off bricks. I can just drop hay down outside the barn instead of in the aisle. My horses aren't shod and would seldom need to walk the aisle anyway. They have their dutch doors to the paddock. The aisle should be mainly for tacking, vetting and grooming.

I guess I know how I'm spending my first weeks vacation

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
I'll tell you my solution for the brick-floored part of my barn. I just slightly unfocus my eyes when I walk through there. Works great

Pat

 

[RockyToggRanch]

Quote:
I'll tell you my solution for the brick-floored part of my barn. I just slightly unfocus my eyes when I walk through there. Works great

Pat

LOL, I can do that! It works in my daughters bedroom as well!