Reptile & Amphibian Forums

It's been a long time since I've posted-Crazy life...yadah, yadah, yadah. We'll be building a new barn this year, hopefully within the next two months-if not sooner, so I'll no longer be a boarder! Yeah for me! We want to dig into a hill and have the barn basically 3 sided so it will be insulated. The only thing is that I have a friend that has a barn like this and although its nice and cool in there in hte summer and warmer in the winter. The wall that is backed into the hill "sweats" in the summer and whatever is next to those walls will get wet. In her case it's the sawdust in the stalls, and it gets to stink almost as much as the ammonia. If I put the stalls on the other side of the barn it would solve that problem, but anything else over on that side would get wet.(which is really the way I want it to be so the horses can see the outside even if they're in, or just run in for shelter) Does anyone know of a building material or something that can be used to avoid this? Sorry it turned out so long!

Hi

I haven't built a barn as you are describing, but I think if you spoke with a contractor, they would probably suggest putting good drainage system around the back of that wall along with a water barrier... type of paint or maybe a fabric? .. and a really good backfill to keep the moisture away from that wall.

Good Luck.. it's always fun to have your own new barn
Deanhil

What about a vent pipe in the back end, or even an exhaust fan. Seems like even tarpaper between the wall and the dirt should help some...

Hi, I'm new here. Nice group here, thanks for letting me join.

I'm a contractor. I think the responces you have received so far are great. You would need and waterproofing membrane for the dirt side of the wall, drainage pipe, sand or gravel backfill. The wall would need to be properly designed to carry the load and be careful with this part of the job. You would not want the wall to fail after you have built it. I have seen so many basement walls and retaining walls that have failed, it's not funny.

If the wall is cool and you have warm moist air around it, then you might have water condensating on it and you would need the fan as mentioned.

Have you thought about maybe building a retaining wall and then building your barn out 4' or 5'away from that? Those retaining wall blocks that the brick companies sell, and Lowes, Home Depot, sell are great and great do-it-yourself projects. Be careful with the backfill on those walls also. They can fail also.

Bill