New Milk room Building- Advice Welcome

[Southern by choice]

What do you mean you can't do concrete? Sure you can.
8x10 slab 6" thick is only about a 1 1/2 yards of concrete.
That would be a much easier job than framing that floor. And probably cheaper I would think.

@OneFineAcre The only way I can think to do that would be to build it on a trailer. This will be moved eventually. I would think trying to put a 6" slab would be very costly for the support underneath. It will be 2 ft off the ground. I have not done something like that before... how would I do that?

I was thinking just a sub floor with linoleum sheeting with drain in the middle. Not sure if that would work or not. That is the tricky part.

I would love concrete.

Maybe @babs I could do a trailer! You should send me pics of the trailer you are looking at.

 

[OneFineAcre]

If you did the concrete slab, you wouldn't do it 2 ft off of the ground, why would you do that? You would bury your drain line, and pour the concrete around the drain.

Just like a commercial building, the sewer lines are beneath the concrete. A lot of times they actually run the water lines under the concrete too, and then bring them up into the walls.

They actually do some houses on concrete slabs too because it's cheaper than framing the floor. You don't see that as much in NC as you do other ares.

If you frame the floor, you have to have it off of the ground to be able to have the drain line.

Unless I'm missing some other reason why you need it up 2 ft?

Google "pouring a concrete slab for a shed"

 

[babsbag]

OneFine, we don't pour much concrete here because EVERYTHING is on a slope. I have 5 acres and I bet 1/4 acre of it is level and my house is on it. We do raised floors so we don't have to excavate, or bring in dirt, or build retaining walls. We can frame a floor faster than doing forms and laying concrete, but everyone has their skill set. To be honest, I have never priced it out in comparison. I just know what we are happier with. I have concrete where I need it, garage floor, dog run, shop. But the milking barn is wood.

As far as the roof, my barn and coop just have the colored steel roofing and no ceiling. From the inside you see the rafters and the underside of the roof, which happens to be white.

I think Southern wants to take this with her when she moves; maybe that is why no concrete.

Southern, I will look for the plans for the milking barn on a trailer. I think I am building my new one that way too. The milk processing room for sure and maybe the milking parlor too. No county permits to deal with and if I get rich and buy the 16 acres near me I can move it all and if I want to at that point I can set the trailer frame on a slab and be done. Or I can retire and sell the dairy but not my home. Lots of options

 

[OneFineAcre]

OneFine, we don't pour much concrete here because EVERYTHING is on a slope. I have 5 acres and I bet 1/4 acre of it is level and my house is on it. We do raised floors so we don't have to excavate, or bring in dirt, or build retaining walls. We can frame a floor faster than doing forms and laying concrete, but everyone has their skill set. To be honest, I have never priced it out in comparison. I just know what we are happier with. I have concrete where I need it, garage floor, dog run, shop. But the milking barn is wood.

As far as the roof, my barn and coop just have the colored steel roofing and no ceiling. From the inside you see the rafters and the underside of the roof, which happens to be white.

I think Southern wants to take this with her when she moves; maybe that is why no concrete.

Southern, I will look for the plans for the milking barn on a trailer. I think I am building my new one that way too. The milk processing room for sure and maybe the milking parlor too. No county permits to deal with and if I get rich and buy the 16 acres near me I can move it all and if I want to at that point I can set the trailer frame on a slab and be done. Or I can retire and sell the dairy but not my home. Lots of options

I see, take it with her when she moves. Didn't get that part.
Nevermind

Now, babs, you are going to have a dairy with 5 acres and how many goats?
I am intrigued. SBC mentioned one of the dairy's you visited had less than 20 goats?
Couldn't imagine with the investment you could do that.
We actually know another farm in NC that's in the process of starting a dairy, in fact I'm not sure if they have it opened yet. The man told us that since he is a contractor it is "only" costing about $75k. If he weren't a contractor, it would cost him twice as much.

 

[Southern by choice]

A friend of mine has a grade A dairy in another state. 11 goats. She is small scale but does quite well. Family farm.

The one in VA use to have all nigies. They have moved on and they are doing lamanchas and minis. They closed their dairy as it was booming and not enough time. They were round the clock- it starts to get complex when you need to start hiring employees and run the store and milk 2x day. I think they originally had around 20 Nigies.

 

[babsbag]

OneFine, Yes I am starting a dairy with 15-20 does. Three of the dairies I visited milked about 20 goats and were successful, actually couldn't keep up with demand.

I was going to do just fresh cheese, but I have come across a licensed Grade A trailer that was used for bottling milk. The trailer is 30' long and will have to have the front 15' remolded to do the cheese, it is an office and a porch right now. Doing fluid milk sales will allow me to start selling before I have the cheese stuff ready to go. The pasteurizer and chiller in the trailer are the same ones I was planning on buying from Micro Dairy Designs.

The milking parlor and milk room will be 10x17, probably also on a trailer, our county is crazy with building permit rules and such and a trailer keeps them out of my hair.

We have all the skills to build this and my budget for the processing trailer, the completed remodel , and the setup to bucket milk 6 does at a time and a clean in place bucket washer is $35,000. The milk parlor and new barn (moving chickens is required by code so they get a new coop too) will come out of our household budget. The milk parlor has to be 50' from the coop so the new barn has to go where the old coop was so the milk parlor can go where the barn is. I feel like it is that fox, chicken, corn crossing the river puzzle.

I don't need to pay the home bills with this. I am retired (yeah) and my DH is still employed. I would just like the goats to earn their keep and really prove that this can be done. Have thought about the agri-tourism, farm days, cheese classes, etc. I have done the budget for the USDA micro-loan and milking 20 does should be more than just breaking even. I am already keeping the goats now so I know what those costs are so the only added expenses are loan payments, insurance, fees, and the costs of producing the product.

Would like to be ready for this come next spring but we'll see. Still waiting on the major funding right now and we are moving forward with the things we are paying for out right.

 

[babsbag]

@Southern by choice
Another idea for "waterproof" walls is to simply cover them in vinyl flooring. Back in 1980 we had a mobile home that had a tub surround made of vinyl and we had one in our camper too. For what you are doing it should work fine and be a lot less money. Cove the floor coating up about 6-8" and then put vinyl walls above that.

 

[Southern by choice]

@Southern by choice
Another idea for "waterproof" walls is to simply cover them in vinyl flooring. Back in 1980 we had a mobile home that had a tub surround made of vinyl and we had one in our camper too. For what you are doing it should work fine and be a lot less money. Cove the floor coating up about 6-8" and then put vinyl walls above that.

Don't think I could handle that.

 

[babsbag]

Find some white flooring that looks like tile and glue it to plywood walls, you would be amazed how clean and nice it would look. They make those plastic panels for tubs that look like white tile, same idea.

Or Lowes has the FRP and then they have plastic, the plastic is about 20.00 compared to 32.00 for the FRP.

 

[OneFineAcre]

@Southern by choice
Another idea for "waterproof" walls is to simply cover them in vinyl flooring. Back in 1980 we had a mobile home that had a tub surround made of vinyl and we had one in our camper too. For what you are doing it should work fine and be a lot less money. Cove the floor coating up about 6-8" and then put vinyl walls above that.

That would be easy
That would be easier than the FRP and the FRP isn't really hard
And you might be able to snag some "seconds" or something