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Concrete wall help Please ! (:

449 Views 5 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Fix'n it, 
R
So I am looking onto building a barn for my horses. I was going to get a metal shell and do the Dividing walls to make stalls myself. With covid its not too much more to go ahead and do the walls out of concrete block than wood and they will last much longer. I'm pretty handy and was going to build the walls myself as its just simple 12x12 squares essentially (wish me luck lol). I keep finding conflicting things about whether or not to fill the walls with concrete or concrete/rebar. These walls will be aprox 8' tall and be non-loadbearing. I live in Florida and I had heard filling them may cause more of a problem with the humidity than just leaving them empty and finishing the tops. The will also not really be under direct wind or weather as they will be completely encased in the metal barn "shell" I am having professionally done. Also side note will the dirt foundation put down for the building be enough or should i do some sort of anchor as well? Because its an agriculture building it doesn't have a certain code requirement last i checked.

Thanks so much in advance!! i appreciate it!
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chandler48

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#2 ·
The metal building will be super hot for the horses. For a concrete wall, you will need to pour a footer for each. You will also need to consider how the walls will hold themselves up when a horse gets moody and either leans heavily on them or kicks one of them. Tying back walls with the side walls and front walls will help stabilize them, but concrete walls are expensive and unless you have a bunch of time, they are time consuming for a DIYer.

Pass the information you were told about moisture from filling the blocks on to us. It would be interesting.
 
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Discussion Starter · #3 ·
Hey thanks for the advice! The metal prefab barns are quite common down here because they hold up well through storms and with all the water we get. There are a few things in design/planning to help encourage airflow. High speed fans are also common in stalls down here to facilitate air flow as it does get hot. Would you do a footer even though its not a load bearing wall? What kind of footer would you suggest for this application? I will see if i can find the article/information about the humidity and the filler again :)
Thanks!
 
chandler48

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#4 ·
Consider the "load" of the wall itself. It isn't lightweight by any means. You will probably need a 16" wide by at least 12" deep footer poured prior to building your wall. Stability is paramount or the walls could fall.
 
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#5 ·
An unfilled block wall has massive capacity for carrying vertical load, so 'load bearing' or not is not the issue. The need for grout and rebar in the blocks is dependent on how much lateral load the wall must resist. So, if the block walls are strictly partitions, and don't support gates, etc., then you may be able to get away with reinforcing. Then again, if one of the horses leans against the wall, that could be a significant lateral load, so it would be safer to grout and reinforce at least some of the cells.
 
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