Feed Room Sinks...yay or nay? Thoughts and feedback please?

[fergusnc]

For 2-3 horses, is the convenience worth the cost? Will I use it more than I think I will? Wall mount or on legs? Other thoughts/suggestions from experiences along the way?

We will have a hot water heater in an insulated tack room. Wash bay will be in front of tack/feed room. For best use of space, due to how big the wash bay will be, I am considering putting up the sink in the wash bay on other side of wall from hot water heater, with the hook up for the hose right next to it.

[Abby Kogler]

I don't have one and am fine without it but can imagine that it would be a very handy thing to have. I have tankless hot water and two wash bays, will be putting a washing machine in to a utility room in the barn, and was considering a utility sink. At this point I just use the hose in the wash racks, but a sink would be handy.I would use one on legs, since the construction needs will be less and it would be easier to move around if needs change.

[Rockabilly]

A sink in the feed room is a very handy thing to have. I have double sinks with hot and cold water and butcher block counter tops. I am always cutting, slicing or washing something off. I don't think you'd regret putting it in while you can and once you start using it probably think how you ever did without it.

[Maple]

Yes to the sink.

YES
YES
YES

I have one adjacent to my wash stall; it is used for washing dirty boots, brushes, bits, heavy and/or filthy things that don't (or shouldn't) go in the washing machine provides hot water for vet, farrier, tooth floater; sometimes used for making hot mashes and other food fixin's, and great for all around cleanup. I also have a tack hook hanging over it to wipe down tack after I ride, it's very handy.

Mine is a laundry utility sink, quite deep (maybe 18"?) made of a white composite material. That's the only thing I don't like about it, the white looks very cruddy very quickly. But it's a barn - oh well. I don't know what I'd do without it now.

I have a regular 'people' sink inside the tackroom bathroom but that one's not a utility sink although I do use it to make up hot mashes as well.

[Rhianon]

What Maples says.

[Rockabilly]

Mine is a laundry utility sink, quite deep (maybe 18"?) made of a white composite material. That's the only thing I don't like about it, the white looks very cruddy very quickly. But it's a barn - oh well. I don't know what I'd do without it now.

I have one of those in my laundry room. I thought my husband ruined it by cleaning paint brushes and other stuff in it. I took a container of the liquid Barkeeper's Friend and a scrubby pad to it not expecting much, but it looks brand new now.

[hoopoe]

yes

get a deep square upright utility sink on legs. Something you would have in your home basement
you can put buckets into for making mash. It can be a large volume tub for soaking soiled items and is handy if you ever need to do disinfection process like Clorox soaks of tools buckets etc

[TeresaA]

I am with Maple on this. I have an old laundry sink. I love the depth to put stuff in to clean. It can get looking cruddy but every now and then I scrub it and it looks better. I use it all the time.

[viscountessleftfield]

I am with Maple on this. I have an old laundry sink. I love the depth to put stuff in to clean. It can get looking cruddy but every now and then I scrub it and it looks better. I use it all the time.

What everyone else said! I had one in my garage up north and loved it for everything!

[Kelo]

Dang, I am surprised at the vehemence. I say no.....but I have water (from the hose) and a bucket to scrub in. If I need hot water and sink, I just walk to the house. I have a big laundry sink in the wash room.

I only have the 2 horses, though. And had a very modest barn building budget.

[texsuze]

Yes,definitely. I have one of those deep laundry sinks on 4 legs from Home Depot, right next to the HWH. The most I've had has been 2 horses, but for soaking hay cubes in warm water, washing hands (endlessly), filling a bucket of warm water at night to add to horses water buckets, you name it. Plus, my chickens live at the barn, so plenty of reason for a sink from making warm chicken feed mash to cleaning off Henrietta hen's poop-y chicken bottom!

[Josette]

I've never had access to a barn sink when I boarded or at home - so I guess I don't miss what I never had. However, hot water is a must and I would never want to give it up! Real like the idea of a tankless water heater and will certainly consider it to replace my current one.

[Sunshine2Me]

My only caveat would be to keep in mind the winter. In central Illinois we deal with frozen water pipes and pumps in the winter. Not sure if it gets cold enough for you to have to worry about that?

[Josette]

Sunshine - Exactly! We have a water heater with a tank . When we lost power during Sandy with following freezing temperatures the tank had to be drained. The mention of the tankless water heater is very good.

[angela9823]

What Maple said. And having that big a utility sink is also helpful for washing up dogs that are just too nasty to come into the house (unfortunately, been there done that). I would not put the sink in the area where horses will be washed for worry that they could break cross ties, run into the sink, hurt themselves, the sink or break pipes etc. Just too big a risk.

[M&M]

I used to keep my horse in a 4 horse barn that had a tack room that was slightly heated, just enough to keep the water pipes from freezing. And it had a toilet! It was awesome. I had access to the house, but it was really nice to not have to worry about taking off your dirty shoes just to use the bathroom. There was no need to go back into the house until you were actually ready to go back into the house.

The amount of heat in the tack room also was low enough that it wasn't torture to go back into the barn.

[kande50]

I didn't want any more electricity in the barn than absolutely necessary because of the danger of fire, so what little wiring we have is either in conduit or visible.

If I had a need for hot water I'd put it in a separate barn, far enough away from the barn where the horses are so that I didn't have to worry about the horse barn catching fire.

We did, however, put a outside door right next to the bathroom/laundry room in the house so that we don't have to walk through the house to get to it.

[digihorse]

Yes! You can buy one of the stand alones at Lowes/Home Depot for cheap, and then can be connected to water source via a flexible hose like one uses for the washing machine. So much better than having to bend over a bucket/bigobject to wash things at the barn.

[Hoof'n it]

I have one in my new barn and I am surprised at how much it gets used.
It's got a tankless water heater that runs to supply the water to the sink taps and the mixer to the hot/cold wash bay on the otherside of the wall.

The only consideration I would make before putting one In, is to figure out how far away the house is and if there is adequate facilities in the house to wash your gear in.
My house is about 100m away from the barn. So having a sink in the barn is very handy, wash your hands, get a bucket of hot water, wash things out, etc.

[fergusnc]

Thanks all. The house is 300' from the barn. I know that random number, LOL, because the plumber that did our farm house reno work is doing the barn and we actually bought the tubing/piping/hose/whatever you call it for the barn already, per his specs. So we have it in The Little Gray Barn for when he's ready.

We have the original hot water heater from the crawl space of the house that we had to replace due to adding the addition. My plan was to reuse that in the barn, but need to talk to the plumber about it again...it's been sitting under the house longer than we thought it would, and I can't imagine a new small one would cost very much if the old one has sat too long. No tankless water heaters for my barn...cost prohibitive and would be over kill for its job. We didn't even put one in the house due to cost.

There really isn't a good option for the hot water heater to be in the other barn, I don't think, but will ponder that a little. The Little Gray Barn is about 15-20' away from The Little Red Barn, and is for storage. I am having it fixed up, but it will still be more 'rough' than where the horses will have stalls. TLGB will have all the hay and shavings and tractors, etc. I do like that we have the opportunity to keep that away from the horses, even if only 15-20' due to the "f" risk. Will not say it/type it "out loud"...

I wondered about that concern re the sink in the wash bay area as far as scrambling horses, but wasn't sure if it was a real worry. Both the tack/feed room and wash bay areas work out to be about 11'x18' so the wash bay is pretty substantial and I don't want to waste space. (No it doesn't work to make the tack room bigger and wash bay smaller due to where posts are set...would make the wash bay a little too small for my big boy and his love of elbow room). If I put the sink in the tack/feed room, I wonder what I could store up along the back wall of the wash bay to use space effectively? I was thinking I could keep the wheelbarrow turned up on the wall, etc, but any ideas for thinks that would matter if they got sprayed down now and then?

Other random question I need to ask plumber...can you drain a utility sink from a barn into a "gray water ditch" anymore? We are on sa septic tank up by the house and if the rules make us plumb it all the way back up there I won't put a sink in. I know you can't have gray water ditched form houses anymore (this house has an old one that was closed up, and I am enjoying the cost of getting that graded down so we can now and fence and it runs right though pasture space). My logic is that the same stuff coming out of the wash bay drain would come out of the sink, but no clue what the county's logic is of course.

And to someone's question/thought...when we did the farm reno, the plumber made me a second W/D hookup in the garage for the horse/dog laundry machines when he did the plumbing for the new hot water heater out there. The old owners asked if we'd like the old W/D as a courtesy, and DH was on board with the idea of taking them and giving them a home in the garage to keep horse hair out of the main W/D.

[Janet]

I wondered about that concern re the sink in the wash bay area as far as scrambling horses, but wasn't sure if it was a real worry. Both the tack/feed room and wash bay areas work out to be about 11'x18' so the wash bay is pretty substantial and I don't want to waste space. (No it doesn't work to make the tack room bigger and wash bay smaller due to where posts are set...would make the wash bay a little too small for my big boy and his love of elbow room). If I put the sink in the tack/feed room, I wonder what I could store up along the back wall of the wash bay to use space effectively? I was thinking I could keep the wheelbarrow turned up on the wall, etc, but any ideas for thinks that would matter if they got sprayed down now and then?

Other random question I need to ask plumber...can you drain a utility sink from a barn into a "gray water ditch" anymore? We are on sa septic tank up by the house and if the rules make us plumb it all the way back up there I won't put a sink in. I know you can't have gray water ditched form houses anymore (this house has an old one that was closed up, and I am enjoying the cost of getting that graded down so we can now and fence and it runs right though pasture space). My logic is that the same stuff coming out of the wash bay drain would come out of the sink, but no clue what the county's logic is of course.

My sink is in my wash rack - which is a reworked 10X10 stall. It is one of the 4 legged, deep utility sinks mentioned by others. I've had it in the wash rack for about 10 years now and have never had a problem. It is plastic, and if a horse really pushed into it, I am sure it would break long before the horse did, but it was cheap ($79 as I remember, but it was a long time ago), so I wouldn't feel bad if I had to replace it. I love having it in the wash rack. It is great to just throw dirty leg wraps, bell boots, etc. directly into the sink. I also soak feed in it, wash my hands, clean wounds (mine and horse) and even wash dogs in it. It is just so convenient!! I can't imagine not having a deep sink like this in my barn!

With regards to the drain - I did the "gray water" drain and it works fine. I only have three horses - and only one is in work, so a simple underground gravel pit works fine. I didn't ask the county but again, I don't run a lot of water through it, so I don't see it as a huge issue.

One other thing mentioned was the risk of freezing. I have my hot water heater inside a relatively small corner insulated cabinet. The cabinet backs up to the wall of the back side of my wash rack. The water pipes come directly out of the backside of the cabinet into my wash rack and into my sink. I heat the cabinet with a small heater (safe) and pipe tape hooked up to a plug that only comes on when the temp drops below 35. The only problem I have is since the faucet is outside of the cabinet, it freezes. I live in Virginia, so we have maybe 6-8 weeks of freezing weather (nights 25 degrees or less. This year it would appear to be much less - YEA!!). When temps drop below 25 at night, I grab some hand warmer packages before I go down to do late night check - once the horses are tucked in, I put the hand warmers on the faucet and then put an insulated faucet cover over the whole thing. No more frozen faucet! This wouldn't work where winters are longer and colder - but it has been a good solution for me. The other bonus is I have warm hands while I do night check!

I can't imagine my barn without hot water and my utility sink!

[M&M]

Second washer and dryer is brilliant!

[Sharonbc]

http://m.homehardware.ca/h5/m/en/r/hh/en/rec/index.htm/Plumbing-Electrical/Plumbing/Waterworks/Water-Heaters/Electric/10-Litre-120-Volt-1500-Watt-Electric-Water-Heater/_/N-ntjb3/Ne-lrsc/R-I3284293

I have used one of these plug in jobs, and they work really well. Easy to move, even to bring in for the winter. I am planning on putting one in my barn

And yes to the sink, just to save traipsing back and forth to the house.

[Fatcat]

Couldn't live without my barn sink. It's free standing, and has heat tracing to keep it from freezing up. I'll also put a foam hosebib cover over the faucet when it gets really cold.

[viscountessleftfield]

On little hot water heaters - we had a 20ish gallon that sat under a utility sink for years at my parents business, it worked great.

I currently have a 30 gallon in our house while we renovate and we got it on clearance for $110 from Lowe's a while back. It was a custom order not picked up, so we got it half off.

[Fatcat]

Yes to the spare washer. When we ended up with a spare FL washer when we bought a house, we installed it in our shop, and I've wondered many times how I got by before. All horse clothes, saddle pads, dog beds go in it and hang dry.

[fergusnc]

Spare washer/dryer has been in place in garage for months now and has been getting some good use.

[Racetrackreject]

I vote yes, but I keep reading the title as "Feed Room Stinks...yay or nay? ". lol

[M&M]

Me too, RTR!

[Rosie B]

Me three! I've been giggling inside every time I see this thread because I keep reading "feed room STINKS".

[Suzon]

I vote yes, but I keep reading the title as "Feed Room Stinks...yay or nay? ". lol

I wasn't gonna say it.

[PaulaO]

Me four!

[fergusnc]

Well I sure hope I don't end up with a stinky feed room after all this hard work!

[Canyon]

fergusnc - I hope not, also. I am part of the group reading "stinky"!

[Racetrackreject]

Me four!

Oh thank goodness it wasn't just me. I was beginning to think it was subliminal and I started "stink checking" my shoes, jacket, etc...lol.

[hoopoe]

yes I too keep reading about your stinky tackroom

glad I am not alone