DIY pros I need some ideas

I need to move my minis back to my property. They have been staying on my grandfathers property about a mile down the road but he has passed away. The minis have lived up here at my place before (plenty of room and we are zoned for it) but we always stored our hay in Grandpa's barn. We chose to keep the minis down there eventually too since they could go in the barn to get out of the weather. It seemed a shame to have a 6 stall barn with runs and no one using it. Anyway... So I need to solve two problems.

#1. I need hay storage here at my place. We get a pretty heavy snow load in the winter sometimes so it needs to be able to withstand the snow load or slide the snow off. I need storage for hay for 2 minis year round. So about a ton and a half of hay or so.

#2. I need a basic shelter for them. Before we had a small shelter that housed the minis in one end and the dogs in the other. Since moving the minis to grandpas we tore down the decrepit shelter (eyesore and no longer structurally sound).

I need to be able to do both of these things for a reasonable amount of money since I am having to build a large barn on my 4.6 acres to house the riding horses and their food. Moving the minis out to the acreage isn't really an option right now due to fencing and other logistics.

Thanks in advance!

I honestly can't remember the cost for certain, but I built this shelter 3 years ago, it was around $500, I think (we did get some of the plywood at an auction, that that was about half price), so all new materials it'll probably be more expensive. [My MIL and I went in together on a stack of around 30 sheets of plywood at an auction, it had been used to line a building for grain storage, we got the plywood for around $10-12/sheet, might have been a little more (so new costs for exterior plywood will likely be at least double for what we got, which was a mix of 1/2" and 3/4" exterior plywood).

It's 12'x16':



Here's the skeleton, just post and rail basically, if I remember right the back is about 6' tall and the front pushing 9'.



Here it is with rafters/purlins added:



Start of adding walls:



My husband set and leveled the posts; then when I got that far, he lopped off the top of the posts to about level with my first rafters. After that, it was all me with a bit of help from my MIL to put up the walls and put on the roof. The roof is corrugated tin (if you don't care the color, sometimes you can get odd n ends at building supply places for less money; I just put up galvanized).

I still need to paint my barn, but need funds to do that.

No pictures, but I just paneled off the back 4' (so 4'x16') and store hay back there (I use some homemade mesh and 2x panels to keep the horses off the hay, which they still manage to pull a few sprigs here and there through the mesh); it holds 28 bales, the bales I get are about 75#, so easily holds about 1 ton, if you configured a bit differently, you could probably store more hay.

Ok, this is a bad picture, but you can kind of see into the shelter; the mesh panels in the back, the metal panel dividing the halves. This shelter was built 4' outside of an existing paddock; one side connects to the paddock with windbreak, the other side is a gate, one section of paddock rails were taken down for access, the other set left so I can divide the shelter when needed.



A bit of rain and snow sometimes blows into the front of the shelter, but it usually doesn't blow to the back where the hay is stored.

Folks who have followed me for a while, now that I'm really into the cattle panel hoop coops. I now use them for the chicken coops and runs; for the hay storage and eventually will be doing it for the equipment as well.

What I use? 2 cattle panels (50" high x 16' long) will make a shelter about 8'x8' & 6'+ tall. That's on a 2x6 frame or a 2x4 frame. You can use tarps or heavy duty plastic to cover them. OR you can do the corrugated metal roofing sheets or tin or green house panels.

I also have "pony wall" sheds - sort of a play on the Coverall buildings - made from 48"x48" pallets, that I then attach the cattle panels to. That makes the sheds bigger. Right now, ours are all temporary - attached/strapped together using that "famous" haystring I so love!! Eventually our buildings will be permanently attached together - with bolts and screws and u-nails. I got the pallets for $2 each, the panels for $20 ea. Hay string - free. Tarps - eh - inexpensive - the really heavy duty canvas ones can get pretty pricey.

Mine were made out of expediency - but we did it with an eye towards making each of these sheds permanent...eventually.

Here's some pics of different setups I have now.



The cats climb on this one - the tarp was used when it was picked up for free from a CL list. It did last approximately 1 year - even w/ the abuse it suffered. Now there is a different tarp on it, not quite as large and with the cats claws - doesn't keep hay dry right now...





This one stays dry! Currently 8'x12', it's getting ready to be expanded to 12'x16' - and would store a LOT of hay.



These could be adapted/made larger than the hoop coops shown.

Here is a picture of a hoop coop with metal on it ...



One with the green house type panels...

These are some of the photos I collected to give me guidance as well as to support the idea I had to use the panels this way... I did a lot of research for a while.

I did talk to folks in other states. These hooped coops - with different type roofs including plastic or tarps - hold up well to snow loads.





This one looks like it may be a Coverall building (maybe?)



A bit larger, fancier (higher $$) one. No cattle panels.

I use a lot of those garage in a box shelters and I like them. I have even picked a few frames up for free off of CL. I just reinforce the ground anchors to prevent them blowing away and I reinforce the roof by fastening fence wire across the frames and tightening with turnbuckles. I always keep a roof rake near the shed so I can pull the snow right off. You can build stalls inside them to extend the life of the tarp and keep ponies secure. You can use pallets like Paula has, build stalls out of lumber and plywood or even put corral panels inside.

We were thinking about building a Norseman Structures hoop building/barn at one point. They're a Canadian company, so they know how to engineer a hoop structure for snow load. The only reason we didn't go with them was because the property we were looking at didn't work out. If I had to build another barn, I'd go with them.

You could house everyone (riding horses, minis and hay) in the same building. Have a pen for the minis, and a feed room on one side, stalls for the riding horses on the other, and hay storage above.

We get extreme winter here too, and I keep my minis in. One is very cold sensitive...and I kinda don't want them getting lost in deep snow. Yeah they're black, and its kinda fun watching them go through belly high snow....3-4ft of snow, not so much.

I'm really liking the idea of the hoop structures. We actually have ten 16' calf panels right now that aren't being used. I'm going to have to invest in some pretty heavy duty tarps in order to keep things dry all winter long. We don't get excessive wind very often so I think as long as we make sure to secure them down so they can't fly away they should be okay. Where I used to live the wind would just beat a tarp covered hoop structure to death in a matter of months.

For a shelter I'm wondering if pallet sides and a tarp top would be best. Tarp all around I think would get hot in the summer and rather than provide shady relief from the heat it may be more like an oven....

I'm gunna have hubs take a look at these and see what he comes up with. I'm thinking most of it I can do on my own but bending and securing the calf panels might require an extra set of hands.

I'm really liking the idea of the hoop structures. We actually have ten 16' calf panels right now that aren't being used. I'm going to have to invest in some pretty heavy duty tarps in order to keep things dry all winter long. We don't get excessive wind very often so I think as long as we make sure to secure them down so they can't fly away they should be okay. Where I used to live the wind would just beat a tarp covered hoop structure to death in a matter of months.

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You mentioned in your original post needing something suitable for heavier snow loads. I know of someone in this area that made those shelters with the 16' panels and tarp and a heavy snowfall collapsed it. This was for a longer one, not just the one 16' bent, making a 4' wide (deep) shelter. I would sure try to reinforce it in some way if possible, if you choose to go that route.

For a shelter I'm wondering if pallet sides and a tarp top would be best. Tarp all around I think would get hot in the summer and rather than provide shady relief from the heat it may be more like an oven...

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.A friend's daughter and son-in-law made this shelter for large horses, out of pallets. You could cover in metal siding or wood or ???

The set posts and roof I built with those pallets for walls would work pretty nice for a shelter, and you might not need to sheet with plywood all around, perhaps just the area where the hay would be.

We're taking a cue from Mulligan's Run and purchasing a metal carport. http://www.mulligansrun.com/ourbarn.php

(Ours will just be a run-in -- no stalls, one side open.)

It's not as cheap as Chanda's, but they deliver and install the framework and roof, including heavy duty anchors, 12'x21' for $895. (We're actually making it a little smaller -- by keeping it under 200 sq. ft. we avoid a $500 building permit fee.) We'll then add plywood side walls. We have a choice of colors for the roof, so it should blend in reasonably well.

We could save by doing it all ourselves, but considering the time we would take to put it up, it's well worth a few extra $$. We may eventually put up a second one for hay and equipment storage.

Okay after reading the last few posts I went out to my "treasures" pile behind the garage. Guess what I found? A slightly bent carport frame. It was one of these

A couple years ago it blew over our fence during a really bad wind storm. We had been storing firewood in it over the winter and once it was mostly empty the wind caught it. Anyway... we used it bent for the next winter as well. Then we used it's tarps for our actual carport.

So I have this frame. I'm wondering if I can attach roofing metal to the top and use pallets or similar for the sides.....

That sounds like it will work. If you buy self-tapping metal screws, you could screw metal roofing right to the frame. You could sink fence posts into the ground at the corners and build your walls out of pallets, then screw the frame right to the pallet wall to make the structure more rigid. In the winter I put homemade deadmen stands under the center poles of my car port barns to help support the weight of the snow load and prevent collapse.

So I have this frame. I'm wondering if I can attach roofing metal to the top and use pallets or similar for the sides.....

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Yes, you most definitely can! Hubby had one that the tarp got all ruined on, and he screwed metal sheeting to the sides and roof. The only tarp now, is the one end. He stores "stuff" for his job in it.

I'd be very careful with hoop structures, if they aren't engineered for snow load. There were problems with many of them when we had that blizzard on the East coast a couple years back. There's a local farmer here who had a carport style hoop structure for his poultry, and it was squashed. Fortunately, there were no animals inside, but I remember hearing about other instances where animals were in hoop structures that collapsed. I'm extremely conservative where it comes to the safety of my animals, so I plan for the worst case scenario.

I also looked at pre-fab steel or wood buildings at one point.

Also worth mentioning in regard to the portable shelters, whether you are using tarp or metal, be sure to anchor your system down! We use the long corkscrew type anchors attached to the frame of the shelter. It doesn't take much for the winds to catch it, so that is important, and the tarps really don't last long if in an area of strong winds.

Here are several pics of the "tent city" we have here. All are used for storing "junk" and work related stuff of hubby's, except for the green one. That one was a good quality one bought specifically for my minis back when I owned/raised them.

As you can see, this one is GARBAGE! These yellow ones have proven to be junk. As have grey ones. The tarp material is no good, wears and tears fast and easy. Will not buy any more like this. You can see the roof has a section ruined, and that was from holding rain and snow there. We may attach metal to it to get it back into better shape. It is attached to "pony walls" that are just sitting on the ground, but the shelter is all anchored down with the corkscrew type anchors. This is the newest of the 3 side by side shelters and is in the worst condition. They are several years old...less than 10 though, for sure. Maybe even in the 6-8 year range??



These "clear plastic" shelters are a far superior quality in terms of the strength and durability of the covering. Would definitely buy these again! The one on the left is pretty banged up sue to a bad wind storm throwing things into/on it. These two are far better quality than the yellow.





CONTINUED in next post. (too many pics for one post)

This is a frame of a grey one but with the front end piece of a yellow one. He had a bunch of leftover metal from his contractor boss, and it was good enough to use on this project. The metal adds strength and weight to the shed, but again, is still fastened with in-ground anchors.





This is a heavy duty one. It is 12'w x 20'l x 8'h. We bought this one specifically for the minis when we had them. It has a much more sturdy frame as well as a much heavier, UV resistant cover. Again, it is anchored into the ground. This one we still have, and it's been up since 2002. We had put up a white one the same as this one, in 2001 and had some straight line winds that blew the wooden shelter next to it, into it, totally blowing apart the wood one, but the portable shelter stood, even though it was too damaged to use! The frame was bet and the cover was as well. LOL! We replaced it with the green one the next year!



The original white one shown when new with minis in it, as well as the damage of the storm that wrecked it. Note the uprooted tree in the background of the one pic. So it upheld quite well in comparison to the things around it!

sayyadina said:

I'd be very careful with hoop structures, if they aren't engineered for snow load. There were problems with many of them when we had that blizzard on the East coast a couple years back. There's a local farmer here who had a carport style hoop structure for his poultry, and it was squashed. Fortunately, there were no animals inside, but I remember hearing about other instances where animals were in hoop structures that collapsed. I'm extremely conservative where it comes to the safety of my animals, so I plan for the worst case scenario.

I also looked at pre-fab steel or wood buildings at one point.

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Sayyadina - if you are talking about the storm or even storms I think you are - regular roofed structures of all types were put to the test. Many structures besides hooped ones collapsed and/or sustained major damage - due to wind as well as ice and objects striking/going through the roofs, too.

The ice storm in January that we had that was so heavy created havoc with our almost new shop, which is not a hoop, (a little over a year old when we purchased, we've been here 1.5 yrs) - built to code. Roof too tall for me or hubby to easily climb a ladder to clear ice that was frozen & stuck to it (during the weather). We are now having leaks from the damage that was created . Our hoop coops DID structurally "tighten down", but essentially became stronger. I was able to easily knock ice off of the tarps to get it off - several times nightly & daily while doing chores (and once between midnight and 6 am each nite - when checking power and chicks) for the 3 day run of freezing rain...

I do agree with anchoring - we haven't done it with these yet - the chicken hoops are actually made to be movable (tractors) and the "sheds" were built temporarily with the idea of making them permanent. We haven't anchored anything down yet.

Here is a super nice build from pallets...

wood pallet shed project