Adventure Bike Rider Forum

My wife has just purchased a double horse horse box (hopefully to be bike garage ) unfortunately it needs a new floor. Can anyone advise on thickness of wood required and type of wood needed as it would have to cope horse pee, any thoughts ?

What thiickness is the original floor? I would suggest 50 to60mm.

Why don't you drill a decent size hole in the floor and measure the existing ?

At present it has been double boarded with blockboard , unable to to measure until tomorrow, looks like it's not been down to long but the horse pee has rotted it !

Probably 38mm, but blockboard is not suitable for this sort of thing. I’d use 60mm tanalised timber with some drainage.

it depends on what is supporting the floor .. metal cross pieces? wooden cross braces? ply?
If it has metal cross pieces, then a fitted sheet of say 1" marine ply should be ok, well fixed at suitable intervals.
(thicker ply if bracings are wider spaced)
If the floor is under-braced with timber, then you will have to look at the state of the timber, and then make sure the ply is well fixed at the edges, to hold the bottom together.
If it is just ply, then you may have to look at the bottom of the walls as well, for strength of support., and go for a thicker ply?

(this would need protection from hooves, tyres, oil, etc with another robust layer, of say timber planks, or non-slip metal sheeting?)

Thanks for your input much appreciated

Even marine ply will rot in those conditions, plus have you seen the price of 25mm marine ply

What about deck boards? They are pressure treated and you can leave gaps so the piss can escape.

Was thinking more 32mm tbh

There is a construction grade ply that is supposed to be as good as marine ply but can't think of its name.

Ply needs protecting from rot somehow

How old is it? The older Rice ones will rot up the sides too and eat at the ali sides. I repaired our first one by laminating new ali strips and then fixing the sides to the floor with hardwood. the chassis is hopefully steel and sound? WBP ply is ok to use as a floor but it will need treating with a waterproof covering like we use on flat roofing but drain holes/grills will be needed. Phenolic ply will do the job too. Stockboard is ok for sides. Stainless screws/ bolts too. If you consider you can have 500kg plus of horse each side point loaded on four feet, stamping impatiently, crapping and pissing by the tailgate then whatever you do needs to be massively over engineered. Our Ifor 511 is sturdy and has wall to wall rubber matting but I still inspect it and jet wash it on a regular basis.