Tack room floor ideas

[Trees4U]

Looking for ideas for a new tack room floor. Currently it just has plywood but i would like to put something over it to make it nicer but obviously has to be easy to clean (which means sweep!) and durable. Any ideas? Thanks

[Guin]

Slate? Tile? Any tack room I've ever been in has just had a concrete floor, though.

[FancyFree]

I'm working on my tackroom floor right now. I just bought a roll of linoleum at Home Depot yesterday. My floor is also plywood. There are a bunch of sites out there which show how to install it. The linoleum I got is suppose to be pretty durable. Hopefully it won't be too tough to cut.

[equusvilla]

If you look hard enough you can find tile for a $1 a square foot. That is what I installed in ours. I used a cream/sand colored tile so some dirt would not show. If you have never done it yourself, you would be surprized at how easy it is - espceially if your room is square (or rectangular) Our tack room doubles though as a feed room and for good tool storage. The tile is easy to sweep and even mop when necessary. I will never have to replace it - which I would LOVE to say about a lot of other things!! It is very durable - even when I have dropped things on it.

[Romany]

Depending on your climate, you may want to consider installing radiant infloor heating under ceramic; not cheap, but sooooo nice underfoot, plus it's great for chasing the damp from the door. ;)

[Brockstables]

Tile, bluestone (we quarry our own, so this is free for us), or even the wood flooring if you can find it on sale.

[2DogsFarm]

Consider laminate - like Pergo. You get a very nice hardwood look with incredible durability & easy to clean.
You may even be able to get remnants (not full boxes) from a place that does flooring.

[MunchkinsMom]

My "task/feed" room is just one of the stalls, with dirt floors. This spring I picked up enough of those large square patio pavers to cover the floor, leaving the wood pallets on one side for hay and shavings. Very easy to sweep clean, won't crack or stain if you spill or drop anything on them. They come in reddish pink or an off white. They work great.

[Creaghgal]

I put an indoor/outdoor mat down. It stays in place well with one of those nonslip pads underneath & maintenance is a breeze.

[onelanerode]

Concrete, slate or some other kind of stone, hands down. My parents have Pennsylvania bluestone (or flagstone?) in their house, and it's impervious to EVERYTHING. I heart it. I've already told my husband that will be our floor if we ever build a house. No scratches, no stains, no dents, no refinishing, no special cleaning products.

If I couldn't do stone I think I'd do Pergo.

[CanterQueen]

I've been looking at Trafficmaster tiles. Home Depot carries some interlocking Traffic Tiles for Garages:

"Trafficmaster Drain Tiles create a new and improved look to your garage, deck, or basement floor. The high impact Polypropylene construction supports up to 10,000 Pounds and are built to withstand the toughest heavy-duty environments. Installation is a SNAP! The 12 inch by 12 inch tiles snap together using male and female tabs and they are interchangeable with Trafficmaster Garage Tiles. They are resistant to oil, grease, petroleum products, antifreeze, and most household chemicals. There is no need to disassemble the tiles in order to clean them; simply hose them off. The drain pattern allows liquids to flow through easily. In addition, edges and corners are available to create a beautiful finished look."

They come in a variety of colors and are super-comfy to walk on. I'm saving my $$ and hope to get these in my tack and feed room.

[Melelio]

Ours just has some type of linoleum square tiles down in plywood, dirt floor under the plywood floor. The previous owners put that in about 9 years ago. It's holding up well, but it's a private barn; just me, DH and DS go there mostly. It's about 6x9 maybe....

[c5rose]

I used horse stall mats and absolutely love them.

[Trees4U]

Thanks for the ideas ;)

[pines4equines]

I tried posting this yesterday but got bucked off.

I am trying to lay a floor of intertwined horse shoes in my tack room. I thought I could smooth out some cement then create a mosaic of interlocking horse shoes.

But I'm wondering about the dynamics. It might be that I actually make my own "tiles" then lay them into cement. I could make a square format, pour cement, arrange the horse shoes. Let that dry. Once I have enough for the floor, lay them as if I was laying tiles? ANy suggestions? Anyone already do this and have suggestions?

My tack room is kinda small but still large enough that I'm still collecting the shoes. We're barefoot here so I have to beg from my farrier...and he's doing more barefoot horses?? Especially this time of year.

[equusvilla]

I tried posting this yesterday but got bucked off.

I am trying to lay a floor of intertwined horse shoes in my tack room. I thought I could smooth out some cement then create a mosaic of interlocking horse shoes.

But I'm wondering about the dynamics. It might be that I actually make my own "tiles" then lay them into cement. I could make a square format, pour cement, arrange the horse shoes. Let that dry. Once I have enough for the floor, lay them as if I was laying tiles? ANy suggestions? Anyone already do this and have suggestions?

My tack room is kinda small but still large enough that I'm still collecting the shoes. We're barefoot here so I have to beg from my farrier...and he's doing more barefoot horses?? Especially this time of year.

Your idea sounds very creative but it sounds like a lot more trouble than it is worth...and lot of room for errors that may be difficult to correct. If you smooth out cement - where will you stand while you are arranging the horse shoes?...and concrete is very unforgiving ..so if you don't like what you have done - you are going to have a heck of a time pulling it out to redo something else. I would suggest making a few custom tiles and put them in strategic places on the floor. A good cheap mold for tiles is a medium size pizza box.

[shakeytails]

Inexpensive laminate is cheaper and easier to install than linoleum/vinyl, and it looks a whole lot nicer, too.

Ceramic tile is nice, but it's a lot like work to install. Your floor joists also have to be sturdy enough to support the tile and the concrete backer board that must be applied over the plywood in order to install the tile.

[Foxtrot's]

MY friend went on e-bay and bought a used Persian carpet for hers!! It did look classy, I have to admit.

[Horseymama]

We have rubber (stall) mats right now and love them. Cheap, durable, I think they actually look nice, and they are really easy to clean. We put them over a concrete floor. In our previous barn, I put in Spanish tiles. They were very beautiful and made the tack room look as nice as the interior of a house. The rubber mats are more utilitarian style.

We have Pergo in our viewing room. I have seen that in tack rooms and it is very nice, durable, and easy to clean as well.

[YankeeLawyer]

I have saltillo terracotta tiles in my tack room and love them.

At Home Depot last week I saw a really nice looking laminate that looked very much like real bluestone (or slate) tile; it was large format (each "tile" was about 8 x 16) and a bluish grey color. The faux grout looked very real; I had to pick up the sample and look at the back to be able to tell it was not stone.

Pergo and similar laminates (such as BR-111, which has a thin wear surface laminated to a cheaper wood) will not hold up in heavy traffic or in wet areas, so I don't think they are a great long-term choice for a tack room. I am in the process of replacing BR-111 in a condo I just got; we had some minor water damage (dishwasher leaked) and from a brief exposure to water, the surface of a few planks curled and started to peel away at the edges.

[MaresNest]

Peel and stick tiles are cheap, easy, and surprisingly well wearing.

[sopha]

Along the same lines, what about wash stall floors? Mine is concrete, but I would like to put some sort of mat over it.

[cyndi]

I painted the plywood floor in my tack room. And did a 'faux finish' on it that looks good. Then I sealed the entire thing with several coats of polyurethane. It's easy to clean and hides dirt! And it was very cheap!

[Nancy!]

We also just painted the plywood. Looks okay and is easy to clean.

Nancy!

[kookicat]

I have rubber matting over sealed concrete in mine. Super easy to clean, comfy to work on and suprisingly warm.

When I want to do a deep clean, I just pull the bins/bags out and use the hose with some soap to wash the floor. I'm thinking about putting matting on the walls too.

[Fantastic]

Years ago I did an acid stain to my tack room. It was really fun and easy to do, but I'm not sure if I did something wrong with the seal coat. I've dropped things on it and the seal left a shattered mark in the finish. It still looks cool but someday I think I'll take a stab at installing tile in there.

I put some sort of laminate wood flooring in my new tack room. I did not realize that all or many laminates have a high wood content until it was installed, and found out first hand what can happen. I had a water pipe explode in a recent deep freeze and flooded the tack room. The flooring got soaked, expanded, and puckered up a bit near the walls. I ran a heater in there for days to get the flooring and foam pad to dry out. The floor did shrink back to it's original size eventually and it finally looks normal. Lesson learned that all laminate is not created equal and is not the best flooring for a potentially wet environment.

[Stinky]

Once I have my own tack room I am putting in TrafficMaster Allure Vinyl Plank Flooring. I currently have it in my retail store and LOVE IT!!! It looks like hardwood and feels 'real', unlike some laminate. It was sooooo easy to install, the floor does not have to level because it 'floats'. It adheres by using tabs with marine grade glue, so it is waterproof!

[aiken4horses]

I second the "peel 'n stick" tiles. Easy to install, clean, cheap and they actually don't look to bad.

[Seven-up]

Personally, I'd try to avoid something that has cracks in it, like a tile floor with indentations where the grout is. It's a sweeping nightmare. You can never get all the crap out of the cracks.


And ditto Foxtrot's suggestion. Pick up an old Oriental/Persian/whatever rug that someone else is getting rid of. Buying one is too expensive, but people throw out perfectly good ones (for tack rooms, anyway.) It automatically makes an average tackroom look ritzy. When it gets funky, you take it outside and whack it with a broom-- it gets clean and you release some stress!

[Equibrit]

I have these - they are quite cheap; http://www.softtiles.com/content/view/32/1/?gclid=CN-9mt-o2pgCFQETGgod8nm9cQ

[Platinum Equestrian]

We have laminate in ours and it's super nice.