Putting in an indoor wash stall at barn where I keep my horse. Demoed an existing 8 ft wide stall, dug and prepped for the drains: putting in a 9" catch basin in center, 2- 4 ft spee-d drains running front to back down middle, concrete floor will slope from sides to the drains. Going to use recycled rubber mats on top for traction. Tankless hot water heater, infra-red heater (maybe). Should be a pretty nice setup. Owner now wants it 2 ft wider (10 ft). This means moving a stall wall, cutting into a concrete aisleway on other side of old wall for the extension of the new floor. Not a major deal, but just thought I'd ask others on whether the 2 extra feet would be that much of a benefit. Only advantage I see is that you might stay a little drier if you're not right on top of the horse.
I can't see a payback. I had a boarding barn where I went with a 16' wide wash bay. I built a stub wall divider resulting in a "U" shaped configuration. That way, you could walk a skittish horse around to face to the front rather than try to back them in. The stub wall was an open affair with a shelf and saddle rack. Mainly it isolated one bay from the other to negate an errant kick, etc.
My original reasoning was that two boarders could tack up then clean down at the same time.
Mostly, one could lead the horses in and spin them around within the eight foot bay. No need to lead them around the "U".
Though, a young gelding I had at the time got a kick out of running around the loop when I was attempting to stall him for the night.
Just thought I'd post an update. See attached pic. Ended up making the wash stall 10' wide. Was a little more work, but will probably be worth it. Drains are installed, floor is poured with a curb at the front to keep water out of the aisle, walls are 90% complete. Used 2x8's with pressure treated for the bottom 3. Short wall to the right was necessary when we made it 10' as the columns were at 8' spacing. This worked out ok as the tankless heater will be on the outside (right above the hydrant supply) and the spigots will be on the inside of this short wall for hose attachment. Still to be done is run the gas line, install the tankless heater and finish plumbing/electrical. I was going to use a purchased hot/cold outdoor spigot but the only ones I could find were "frost free", meaning the supply pipes were too long and would stick out into the aisle.So I'm planning to just use a couple of gate valves and fab my own out of copper 1/2" pipe. Hopefully it won't be too ugly. [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img] I'll post another pic when it's 100%.
Thought I'd post an update. I finished the wash stall this past weekend. Ended up making it 10' wide. Looks pretty good. (See attached.) Put in a Natural Gas Rheem Tankless Water Heater, model RTG42 (118,000 BTU). It provides 4.2 GPM of 120 deg. water. (I think spec is 45 deg temp rise at that flow, but I can't remember for sure.) Here in Michigan the water comes out of the tap pretty cold in winter and set at 120 deg. the water is darn hot straight out of the heater, unmixed.
I was going to use a commercial outdoor mixing valve spigot but all I could find were "frost-free" models that had about 10" of pipe sticking out the back, so I ended up soldering a couple of gate valves and spigot into my own version. About $15 of parts vs the $80 for the commercial unit.
When you turn on the hot water tap, the heater senses the flow and fires up the burner instantly. In a few seconds, you've got hot water. The heater is mounted right at the spigot in the wash stall.
Had to buy the heater online ($540) as Home Depot doesn't carry the smaller Rheem model anymore. (Not even sure if Rheem makes them anymore) They still carry the larger 199,000 BTU model which is closer to $ 900 in cost. The new models require stainless steel vent kits and these are NOT cheap. I paid about $200 online for a 3" vent kit. I used a vertical kit for the wash stall. Poked a hole through the steel roof and the kit included the flashing. Had to buy flashing caulk and luckily I did this on Saturday when the temps were in the 40s and the snow had started to melt off the roof. (Pretty slippery up there but I was able to avoid any unplanned trips down the roof into the manure filled pony paddock) [img]/forums/images/icons/tongue.gif[/img]
Also, the SS vent kits don't have flexible offsets (at least that I could find) so if you install one, plan your venting carefully. I was able to go straight up.
Used treated lumber on the bottom 3 boards and we're going to put a couple of coats of exterior polyurethane on the walls to keep the inevitable overspray from soaking the untreated lumber.
It was a fun project and the horses are glad that all the pounding, sawing, air compressor, ladders, walking on the roof are done (for now). It got so that when I just walked by their stalls, their ears would go back and they'd start snorting. I'm sure that they all want a piece of me. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
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