# What does everyone use on the floor for thier goats?



## jenlynn4 (Sep 29, 2012)

I have a wood floor and was wonderring if I would put down srtaw, woodchips, horse pellets, or WHAT????   What have you found to work best?  Any suggestions much appreciated.


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## SheepGirl (Sep 29, 2012)

Don't have goats, but we've always had a dirt floor for the sheep. Sometimes we will put straw down, but 95% of the time it's just dirt.


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## ksalvagno (Sep 29, 2012)

Dirt floor with straw.


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## jenlynn4 (Sep 29, 2012)

well my floor is up off the ground so cant do dirt...so I may go with a layer of horse stall pelletts with straw on top.   IDK  anyone else have a building with a floor that is not dirt?


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## SheepGirl (Sep 29, 2012)

Is it possible for you to get rid of your wood floor? It will rot out real quick especially with critters peeing on it.

If you can't, to help slow down the rotting, can you paint it with exterior/waterproof paint or put a sealer on it? Or maybe put rubber stall mats down and then use your bedding of choice (usually whatever's most absorbent/economical)?


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## Pearce Pastures (Sep 29, 2012)

Ours is dirt.  During the summer months, I keep the floor bare, cleaning up berries and waste hay about once a week.  During the winter, I let the hay be pretty much and just sweep the sleeping shelves off.  I used to have hay down but found that if I keep the floor cleaned up, they urinate outside instead of inside because they like something soft to squat in.


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## jenlynn4 (Sep 29, 2012)

the floor is pressure treated lumber planks (an old deck) with painted wooden sideing pannels (like t 1-11) on top of the treated decking boards.Its raised off the ground about 1 foot.  This building was used for other uses before we decided to use it for the goats...I hope it will work.


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## Pearce Pastures (Sep 29, 2012)

It will work for awhile.  Once those boards go, it might be nice to just take them out and maybe add in some fill dirt.  I would leave it bare though if it is possible so as to not encourage peeing on the boards so they last longer


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## Catahoula (Sep 29, 2012)

jenlynn4 said:
			
		

> the floor is pressure treated lumber planks (an old deck) with painted wooden sideing pannels (like t 1-11) on top of the treated decking boards.Its raised off the ground about 1 foot.  This building was used for other uses before we decided to use it for the goats...I hope it will work.


My neighbor has rubber stall mats on top of the wood floor. She uses pine shavings for bedding and in the winter time, she add straws. I have dirt floor and rubber stall mats. my goats only pee in the dirt area.


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## DonnaBelle (Sep 30, 2012)

The floor of the barn is dirt.  We spread straw on top.

Occasionally I sprinkle Stall Dry granulated on top to soak up urine and reduce smells.

We clean it out at least once a year, haul in some fresh dirt, an inch or so, and put down barn lime.

We don't have any problems using this method.

DH shovels up the nannieberrie piles each morning and puts the straw/berrie mixture on the compost pile.

DonnaBelle


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## Queen Mum (Sep 30, 2012)

Lime on wood, then pine shavings with straw on top.  Keep it clean.  The wood will be fine.  You would do well to seal the wood though if you want it to last.


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## jenlynn4 (Oct 1, 2012)

oh good this is what I was planning on doing.  Thank you!  JEN


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## that's*satyrical (Oct 1, 2012)

SheepGirl said:
			
		

> Is it possible for you to get rid of your wood floor? It will rot out real quick especially with critters peeing on it.
> 
> If you can't, to help slow down the rotting, can you paint it with exterior/waterproof paint or put a sealer on it? Or maybe put rubber stall mats down and then use your bedding of choice (usually whatever's most absorbent/economical)?


Another idea you could staple down a couple layers of old feed bags underneath the bedding if you get the plastic type. Easy way to re-use them & basically free.


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## mangus580 (Oct 10, 2012)

that's*satyrical said:
			
		

> SheepGirl said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


These are goats we are talking about here....   They will tear those bags up faster than you can say $#%@#$^%

How do I know???  I put linoleum down on the wood floor for our goats...  stapled it all around the edges, and even put trim boards over the edges to prevent them from getting to it.  Within 3 days, it was all gone... they tore it right up!


As far as wood floor... we have a plywood floor installed in a previous life of the building.  It appears to have some sort of coating on it, although what it is, I do not know.  They have been using it for 3 years now, and I really dont see any damage to the floor itself.  My cheap uncoated pine trim around the edges, sure!

We just use pine chips from TSC, and of course the hay they dont like gets mixed in...


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## Mamaboid (Oct 16, 2012)

All our goat pens have wood floors.  We use hay (because it is cheaper here than straw) for bedding.  Basically, we clean the pens, put a very small amount just to cover the wood, and then just let the hay build up from the goats eating and pulling it out of the racks.  When it gets built up too high, or for some reason gets nasty, we clean to wood  and start over.  Our goats are only in the pens over night, so it isn't much work to keep them clean.  We have more trouble keeping the wasted hay cleaned up in the fields than we do in the pens.


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## jenlynn4 (Oct 17, 2012)

oh good...and our floor is made from 2x6 pressure treated deck boards under neath and treated and painted t 1-11 on top of that...I think it will last a while I was just worried about the pee.  I think I will put some wood chips or pellets down first then straw.  I hope it works...it will be trial and error for a while.  JEN


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