DIY Steel Horse Arena

Customer Journey with Dean Gray in Arlington, WA

Interior of a large, covered equestrian arena with a sandy floor. The structure has a red back wall, a high ceiling with windows for natural light, and is surrounded by wooden barriers. Trees are visible through the open sides.

Dean put his entire building up by himself. It’s 75x125x16 and people say they can’t do it. He found a way…

A large red and white barn with a metal roof set against a backdrop of tall trees. There is a dirt path leading to the barn and a covered pile of materials in front. The trees have autumn foliage in shades of yellow and orange.

Connecting the Framework

Construction site with a partially built metal structure. A worker stands on scaffolding, assembling beams. Trees are in the background, and the ground is muddy with scattered materials. A blue tent is visible to the right.

“This shows how I found it most efficient to put up the purlins by myself. You can see I created 4x6ish plywood platforms to walk on for the previous section. There were screwed to 2×4 on the bottom to rest against the purlins to not slide off the roof, but allow me to slide them easily. I tied ropes to each platform so I could pull it over to the next truss after the purlins were installed. I also screwed blocks to the top of the bottom platform to hold the purlins for the next section. These were loaded up there with the telehandler. You can see the purlins sitting up there in this photo.” ~Dean

Roof Purlins

A large structure with a metal roof frame is under construction in a wooded area. In the background, there is a red house with white trim surrounded by trees with autumn foliage.

All the columns, trusses, purlins, and wind rods are now installed.

A partially constructed metal frame building in a clearing surrounded by trees. Nearby, there's a covered pile of materials, a small trailer, and a white storage box on gravel and grass. The sky is overcast.

Sheet Metal Roofing

View from a metal rooftop with adjacent rust-colored truss structure on the left. Lush green trees and vegetation fill the surrounding area under a clear sky.

“This shows the butyl tape installed and ready for overlapping the top sheet of metal. I cut the 40 foot lengths into lengths that allowed me to have about 4 inches of overlap directly over a purlin. To make it work, I had to cut each sheet at just the right length and put one sheet on the front of the building and the other on the back of the building. This allowed me to have factory edges on all exposed edges. The lengths were about 22 ft and 18 ft. Julia said I needed to span two purlins to prevent wicking, but that just wasn’t an option with the 40 foot sheets. This is plenty strong, and I am happy to say there aren’t any leaks past the butyl tape even with only 5 inches of overlap.” ~Dean

Raising the Roof Metal

A shiny metal roof with a ribbed design is shown, reflecting light. The roof is partially transparent, allowing some light through. It's surrounded by trees and greenery in the background.

“This photo shows the ladders I used to get the roofing up there by myself. On the ground, I would wrap two straps around the sheet to create a taco shape. I could then carry that to the bottom of the extension ladder that has the blue ends on it. You will see it also has a reversed roof spreader bar attached to it to create a u-shaped place to hold the sheet in place. I then set one end of the metal taco on the ground and lifted it vertically against the ladder, into the u-shaped support. On the roof, I then lifted the metal up little by little by letting it rest on the rungs of the extension ladder until I had half above my shoulder length. Then I could tilt it onto my shoulder and carry it across the roof. This process was made a tiny bit easier since the grade on that side of the building was about 4ft higher than the building level.” ~Dean

Interior View

Floor plan of a house with labeled rooms: three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living/dining/kitchen area, closets, laundry room, and a garage with two vehicles. Total measurements for each room and garage are included.

Floor plan of a house featuring labeled rooms: Living Kitchen/Dining (154.8 ft²), Bedroom (424.6 ft²), Bath (108.3 ft²), and two closets (28.6 ft² and 30.2 ft²). There's also a garage area (135.1 ft²).

⇧ Clear polycarbonate panels were used to provide natural lighting in the open arena space.

⇦ Dean then installed custom windows in the enclosed tack room space above the overhead doors.

Drainage Alternative

A red metal building with a white roll-up garage door and a connected brown structure. There are trees in the background, and a concrete wall is visible on the left side.

“Notice the way I had to support the u-channel for the drainage pipes. I bolded threaded rod through the column to support the channel. For anybody else that wants/needs to do something like this drainage option, having something else already attached to the trusses at the same height all the way across the building, would have saved a fair amount of time I spent buying threaded rod, cutting it, and bolting it on. Just food for thought. I know I am likely a very unique situation.” ~Dean

A covered equestrian arena with a metal roof and wooden walls, surrounded by lush green trees. The ground inside the arena is made of dirt, and there are metal support beams visible.

Side Walls and Trim

A large red metal building with two white garage doors and two narrow windows above. It is surrounded by greenery, with trees and bushes nearby. The building has a sloped roof and appears to be in a rural setting.

The final building installation components for Dean’s horse riding arena included hanging the sidewall panels, deluxe trim package around his overheads and the windows.

A large red metal building with two windows sits next to a pathway lined with concrete blocks. The structure is surrounded by greenery.

Finished Product

Dean’s new horse arena dimensions are 75’ wide x 140’ long with 16’ high sidewalls. He installed it all by himself using a telehandler and some basic equipment with some very innovative techniques!

Top image: Interior of a large, open red barn with skylights and a dirt floor. Bottom image: Exterior aerial view of the same red barn with a metal roof, surrounded by trees and natural landscape.

Our building design experts are available to answer any questions you may have about your steel frame barn project.

Call us at # 800-825-0316

or visit us online at WorldwideSteelBuildings.com

for more information.