What type of wood to line the inside of the barn?

[dmalbone]

I need to figure out what type of wood is acceptable to use to line the inside of the barn with to help protect from kick-through from the inside and outside. We are planning on using a plywood/osb/??? flat up against the 2x4's that frame the barn and then run the tongue and groove on the inside of the support posts. Basically the wood as close up to the metal as possible, a gap where the posts come out, then the tongue and groove for the stalls. Does that make any sense?? I might need a picture for this one. :) Regardless, I'm trying to learn what's best to use. There's a lot to cover and I had a bit of sticker shock buying the two sheets of plywood for the doors. Strengthwise, are OSB and plywood equal? Is it that OSB cannot get wet? Would plywood be okay if it did? At a glance, osb was 1/2 as much as plywood so I was hoping that if I had to use plywood for the bottom row that I could use OSB maybe the rest of the way up.

[sk_pacer]

Dont use OSB - if they get one bit of a flake loose, they will keep peeling and chew the large holes through it and then you don't have to worry about it getting wet and rotting. A lot of people here use corral slabs - 2X6, 8 or 10 and up to 16' long. They are rough sawn, but they are also a true 2x whatever in dimention and you CAN take a belt sander to one side and touch them up a bit.

Of your choices, plywood is tougher than OSB, and it takes horses a little longer to eat through it. Don't get anything less than 3/4" and dimentional lumber should be 2" thick by whatever.....2X6 and up are easier to work with. It ain't gonna be cheap no matter how you do it.

[dmalbone]

Oh woops, that was probably my fault. This wood won't be exposed to the horses. The stalls will be lined with tongue and groove which is all they will have access to. What I'm looking for is something to line the walls behind that to help if someone were to kick through from the outside.

[Sithly]

A strand of hotwire around the outside of the barn. :lol: By far the cheapest option.

[KnKShowmom]

We used tongue and groove on the inside of the stalls up to 4 1/2 ft then a sheet of T1-11 on top of that. On the outside its metal to the ground anywhere the horses aren't and around the dutch doors under the overhang we repeated the T&G and T1-11.

A horse isn't going to kick through T&G but I wouldn't trust a piece of board to save a foot/leg from finding metal.

[Luckydonkey]

MIne is being done with 2x6's.... I think they are fir. I chose them over tongue and groove, because if one of the tongue and groove boards break, you have to take down everything above it to get it out- with just straight 2x6's screwed to the posts you can remove only the damaged board, and replace it....:D

[Gloria]

I think we did something very similiar to what you described. We use plywood to line the inside flush with the metal siding so when horses kick at outside, they won't cut themselves on the metal sheet. We then use 2x6 yellow pine tongue and groove over the posts to create the stall walls.

You want to use 2x not any thinner.

Our original plan was to use U-channel between posts and drop the lumber in flush with the metal sheet so we didn't have to bother with the plywood lining at all. Well, the builder screwed us up big time so we had to go to plan B.

By the way, when you use tongue-and-groove, the width is slightly less than the straight edged lumber because they have to sacrifice a little bit to create the tongue-and-groove. I can't remember how much less it really is but you should be able to ask the lumber yard to give you the exact measurement.

[dmalbone]

I think we did something very similiar to what you described. We use plywood to line the inside flush with the metal siding so when horses kick at outside, they won't cut themselves on the metal sheet. We then use 2x6 yellow pine tongue and groove over the posts to create the stall walls.

You want to use 2x not any thinner.

Our original plan was to use U-channel between posts and drop the lumber in flush with the metal sheet so we didn't have to bother with the plywood lining at all. Well, the builder screwed us up big time so we had to go to plan B.

By the way, when you use tongue-and-groove, the width is slightly less than the straight edged lumber because they have to sacrifice a little bit to create the tongue-and-groove. I can't remember how much less it really is but you should be able to ask the lumber yard to give you the exact measurement.

THIS is exactly what I was trying to describe... thank you!

[Wind]

My husband built our barn, run-in shed, and shed row barn. We used rough cut 2x hemlock. Stuff is like iron.