Opinion on shelter

We're in the process of obtaining a horse from a neighbor and are looking at various housing solutions for him. One neighbor (who is a builder by trade) gave us a quote on building us a basic lean to type shelter that is about 10X12, but could be larger if we wanted. Today, we went out into Amish country looking at the various pre-made shelters, lean to's, barns, etc. We found a bunch that we liked, but they were all about twice the cost of what my neighbor can make us (or more - but they were really nice, don't get me wrong). One thing we found was a place that also sold carports. They said they can come out and put us up an 18X21 carport, fully enclosed on the sides and the back, for about a 1/4th of what my neighbor offered to build us a basic 10X12 shelter for. Now, it would be made of aluminum with metal sides, no kickboards, etc. My question becomes this - in the opinion of the people on here, would that be a feasible, practical, and economical way to go? My only concern would be if it would be too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter (since it would basically be metal construction). We can always partition it off, put up livestock paneling on the front to keep it enclosed, put up wooden walls/kick boards on the inside, maybe do some insulation, etc. We may be coming into some money in the very near future, so we may just end up getting a nice professionally built barn put up anyway. However, if that falls through, we're looking at more economical housing for now as a backup plan.

What do you guys think? See the attached pick to give you an idea, only the sides would be fully enclosed (top to bottom) and the back would be enclosed as well (top to bottom).

IMO, it would be fine. The barn I used to work at was all metal. The owner did have it lined with wooden walls (boards). He put wooden stall fronts in and also had an outside window for each horse to give better air circulation.

Yeah, we were thinking about putting up a wall somewhere in the middle so that the bedding area would be enclosed, but still allow access in/out of the bedding area. We thought about putting up a livestock panel at the front (entrance) so that we can close it off when needed. We also thought about putting up wood paneling for the walls and maybe some insulation. Sort of like the one pictured below, but it would be significantly larger/wider.

You might want to run the numbers including all the modifications you are going to do to the carport building. After you add wood kick boards inside and out (you do not want them kicking thru the metal on the outside either) I am guessing you will find that it will not be cheaper.

Other than the modifications needed I think it will make a just fine shelter. It will be a little loud if it rains, but the horses will get used to that.

Well, I'll give you some numbers and these prices are what we're seeing from all of the local builders/supply places and most online places:

Neighbor is willing to build us a 10X10 - 10X12 lean to type shelter for around $2400 (includes parts and labor).

I can buy a ready made 10X10 shelter from one of the local Amish places out here for around $2300. 10X12's aren't that much more.

I can buy a ready made, really nice, 12X18 barn (separate stall, windows, tack room, etc.) from the same Amish place (looked at them today) for $4500 delivered and placed on our property. This is what we really want and will get if the money I'm supposed to be coming into materializes in the next few months.

I can get the 18X21 carport delivered and installed (including the sides all enclosed) for $1005.00. Spending a few hundred bucks more for some wood to line the inside of it and maybe build a small wall would still keep the cost of the carport "barn" significantly lower than any of the other pre-made structures we've been looking at. It would also be considerably larger and give the horse more room to move around. I can buy livestock panels out here for under $75 to make a front gate with.

The biggest concern I have with the carport design is simply the temperature issue. If the overall consensus is that this type of structure really won't cause any temperature issues, we'll probably go with that to get us started and we can always get something nicer down the road. Some of the ready made barns we looked at today have aluminum or low gauge metal siding on them too (along with the roofs in some cases), so maybe it's not so much of an issue. I just don't want him freezing to death in winter or boiling during the summer. Many of the things I've read about shelters say that it's preferable NOT to have the horses kept in metal buildings, but I think the carport style would offer plenty of ventilation and with some minor interior work, I think we could get if insulated fairly inexpensively. There are many companies that sell products similar to this and they seem to be in wide use in many countries outside the U.S.

I know folks that did exactly what you are thinking of. They all seemed to have very good ventilation and never felt any hotter than any other barn I've been in, even when it's been in the high 90s.

Have you priced 3/4" pressure treated plywood to make the kick walls? It is probably not as cheap as you think it is. And you need to line the inside and the outside. It will be cheaper than the vet bill to fix a horse that kicks at a bug and puts his hoof thru the metal sides and cuts lots of things in his leg and will never be sound again.

With an open structure I do not think there will be much difference between the temperature inside vs outside.

With the metal roof with no insulation it will be loud.

Darn, too late to edit.

Looked up what 3/4" pressure treated plywood is in my neck of the woods (lumbar prices vary greatly from area to area).

Rough guestimate of $35 per sheet of plywood.

Providing you have the ability to attach pieces where ever you want (so you can attach partial sheets) doing just the inside of a 18'x21' building will be 9 sheets of plywood. That works out to $315. If you do both the inside and outside that is $630. Add attachment boards (because you are going to have to add something to attach the kick boards too, there is not enough support pieces there to attach to) and your cheaper building with kick boards added will probably cost you an additional $900 above and beyond what the building itself costs.


Not trying to discourage you from the car port idea. I have seen many people use them and they do work fine. I just do not want you having to spend lots of money you were not expecting to spend once the thing is dropped on site.

Nah, I factored in the wood. Even at around $900 or so, it would still bring the carport in at under $2000. Once I hit the $2K mark though, I can get that ready made 10X10 or 10X12 for a few hundred more and that already has the kick boards, etc. - I just want him to have more room than that if we can help it. My neighbor can usually get stuff cheaper since he's a contractor/builder. There are also Amish sawmills out here that have stuff a bit cheaper and he gets some of his stuff there as well. The horse we are looking at doesn't have a history of kicking or anything, he's really mellow. My 3 year old can walk him around on his lead, ride him, feed him, etc. That's not saying that he may not at some point, so don't get me wrong. Ideally, we want the barn that we found, it's just a matter of the up front cost to put everything up. That's why we're thinking about this just to get this off the ground and then improve on it down the road.

I had a bunch of insurance money that we were going to use, but then both of our cars broke down at the same time and there went the insurance money :( We had enough for the barn, fence, etc. Oh well.... :)

The barn that I was in didn't have plywood on the walls other than in the tack and feed rooms. He used regular pressure treated boards screwed horizontally with about an eighth of an inch between them to 2x4's (like regular wall framing). The initial cost will be more than doing the plywood, but easier and cheaper to replace if anything happens. As far as the windows, he used small storm windows at about head heighth.

When we get a place where I can actually keep my two, instead of keeping them on another farm, I'll probably go the same route. I personally prefer the metal over the wood because of the maintenance level.

GOOD LUCK IN YOUR DECISION!!!!