# costs of building stable yard



## rowy (11 June 2010)

we're going to build a stable yard at our new house. at the moment it has makeshift shed like stables on patio slabs and we want to remove these and put down some concrete and have a corner stable 15x15, 3 12x12 stables and a 6x12 feed room and a 14x 12 haybarn. 
How much do you think it would cost to concrete and have the stables. I have looked up the stables cost to see it will be about £5000 to £8000 but have no idea how much it would be to concrete a area 51 metres by 25 metres? 
Any help and suggestions would be excellent.


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## miller (11 June 2010)

Our concrete was the most expensive part! Make sure you buy concrete with the agricultural additive else the urine will 'rot' it - best bet would be to call round suppliers at it will all depend on haulage to you and whether a pump is required rather than a straight tip job 

I'll ask OH how much ours was - 5 years ago now though


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## Maesfen (11 June 2010)

If you don't know what you're doing, it's well worthwhile getting a builder in to get your ground right before you concrete, it will help too if you know how and where you want your water and electric connected so think very carefully how it all interacts.  The base is the most important part and if it's not right you'll regret it for ever and a day.  I'd ring your local builders merchants for quotes for your concrete and they can probably help you find someone who knows what they're doing.


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## rowy (11 June 2010)

thanks, there is already water and electricity connect which saves a job, though still need it connected to all the stables. 
Will have to ring round, just wanted an estimate so we know how much generally its going to cost.


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## kit279 (11 June 2010)

Add 30% onto the cost of the stables and that's approximately the cost of the concrete.  Get someone who knows what they're doing though and make sure they tamp the concrete in the right direction so you can sweep waste water away in the right direction!!


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## Honey08 (11 June 2010)

We built a block of 3 12x12 stables with a 12x18 corner box.  We concreted a "square" so the yard is square to the ends of the buildings (if you know what I mean).  We had to hardcore a drive about a 100yds long and the area the yard sits on.  The hardcore extends around the concrete base for the yard and stables - we park the box there.  
In 2007 we spent -
Planning dept and architect- £1000
Labour for digging/spreading hardcore £300
Hardcore £1200
Concretre £2000 incl labour (I think - only cost I didn't record!)
Hire of large digger £350
Stables (as above) and 12x12 field shelter £7402.50 incl. vat
Rubber mats £1124.20 (included two other small pony stables)
Fencing and gates £300

Total £13676.70

The stables were great, and I'm really pleased with them.  As you can see, the stables are only about half of the expense!  You may not need an architect/ planning permission - we are in greenbelt with a terrible council!

Good luck.  Its lovely having your horses at home! If you pay £20/wk for a stable you spend nearly £1000/yr - so having four horses now, we've paid for them already!  The downside is all the maintenance and fencing and land management comes down to you!


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## Toby_Zaphod (11 June 2010)

When designing your yard don't forget that there are rules & regulatiuons regarding muck heaps & keeping the drain off from contaminating the water course It will need to be on a concrete slab, check with your local planning officer who will tell you all you need to know.


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## rowy (14 June 2010)

thanks thats really handy to know, will take it all into account when doing the stables.
They just have small muckheap in the field atm but we may start putting it in a trailer so the farmer can take it easily. Not sure if we need planning but we probably will as they said they didn;t need planning for stables there at the moment but they aren't actually in the ground (i.e. movable)


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## Honey08 (14 June 2010)

Just a thought - if VAT is likely to increase in the new budget, might be an idea to order them now - if you're confident of getting planning... The VAT adds quite a lot on to the price.


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## HazellB (15 June 2010)

Honey08 said:



			..... if VAT is likely to increase in the new budget, might be an idea to order them now ...
		
Click to expand...

That's a very good point, but most places will charge the rate of the day of delivery, not the order, sadly.

We built our own yard, with me working as everything from planner to bricky. The only thing I refused to do was the rooves and my partner managed those alone (I'm chicken with heights!) and I also worked as accountant.

Cement and sand was listed in my accounts as about half the cost overall (inc. cement used in the walls) so it is quite high. However, we did build block stables which worked out far, far cheaper than wooden ones. You may find out block buildings are cheaper for you, too, if you source the right blocks.

We bought seconds, 17 pallet loads in all. Because Building Regs don't matter for stables, you can use 'second' blocks at less than half the price of house quality blocks. Their only fault is that the pallet full weighs either too much or too little and they are perfectly safe like normal blocks. Perhaps some of the corner ones are cracked on the pallets, or they are sitting crooked on the pallet - anything can count as a 'second'. 

It's 12 years since we started to build (this month, I think) and overall our yard is about the size of yours. It cost only £4,500 (but remember, we had zero labour, planning and so on costs) and took only three months to get to a usable stage. We rendered and painted later and did little jobs to finish as and when we had chance. It's still standing ......


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