In short
- Plan both rooms before the slab. Drains, outlets and a dehumidifier drain are cheap in the plan and costly after the concrete is poured.
- Feed room: tight walls, smooth sealed floor, a closing door with no gap at the bottom, and metal bins with lids.
- Tack room: sealed, insulated and dry, with a dehumidifier and a humidity meter. Florida air will grow mold on leather in a closed room.
- These rooms are usually folded into the barn price without detail, so ask for them as separate lines.
On this page
A Florida horse barn tack room and feed room are small, but they hold the most expensive things you will keep in the building: saddles, bridles, and a month of feed. Our stall size and layout guide lists both rooms in a sentence each. This page covers what to specify so they work in Ocala's humidity.
Why a Florida feed room needs more than a door
Rodents follow feed. UF/IFAS Extension's rat and mouse publication says mice travel only 10 to 30 feet from their harborage while rats range 100 to 150 feet, so a barn near hay, a shed or a field edge is in range of both. The fix is mostly construction, not poison.
| Feature | What to specify | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Floor | Smooth sealed concrete, swept easily | Spilled feed has nowhere to hide and rodents cannot dig through it |
| Wall-to-floor joint | Tight, with no gaps at corners | A quarter inch is enough for a mouse |
| Door | Solid, self-closing, with a metal or rubber sweep at the bottom | The threshold is the most common entry |
| Penetrations | Pipes, conduit and vents sealed or screened | Rodents use utility gaps |
| Outlets | Moisture-resistant, in conduit | Rodents chew wiring, a point also in our fire safety guide |
Watch out: wood and plastic are chewable. If your builder frames the room with exposed wood at the floor line, ask what protects the lowest foot of wall.
How to store the feed itself
- Metal or thick containers with tight lids. UF/IFAS and barn-management guides recommend metal cans; feed companies note that plastic resists condensation, so sources differ on the best material.
- Bags on pallets. Keeping bags off the floor lets you sweep and see signs of rodents.
- Room for two weeks, not six. Smaller stock turns over before it goes stale in the heat.
- Access from outside, if you can. A feed room you load from outside the aisle keeps delivery traffic and dust away from the horses.
- Plan for a sink or hose bib nearby, not inside the feed room, so water does not wet the bags.
Hay is a separate decision with its own fire and moisture issues. See our fire safety page and the hay calculator.
Keeping leather alive in a Florida tack room
Mold on leather is hard to reverse. Equestrian guides commonly put the danger zone above roughly 60 to 65 percent relative humidity, which a closed Florida room can reach easily. Ventilation helps a stall but can bring wet air into a small room, so tack rooms are usually sealed and dried instead. Our Florida climate design page explains why the barn itself breathes and the room should not.
Dehumidifier
- Removes moisture without over-cooling
- Needs an outlet and a drain to the outside
- Choose one that will not ice up if the room is cool
Best if: leather is the main concern.
Air conditioning
- Cools people and tack
- An oversized unit cycles off before it dries the air
- Costs more to install and run
Best if: you spend time working in the room.
Saves money: sealing the room well (tight door, sealed floor and wall joints, insulated walls) shortens the dehumidifier's run time, which is the ongoing cost.
Wall and floor materials for a damp room
A building-science adviser quoted in a public forum recommends paperless drywall or a mesh-faced board in high-moisture rooms, because paper facing feeds mold. An uninsulated slab without a vapor barrier can also add moisture to a small room. Treat those as questions for your builder rather than rules: ask what the walls are made of, whether the slab has a moisture barrier, and who is responsible if mold appears in year one.
- Is there a dedicated outlet for a dehumidifier, and a drain or condensate path to outside?
- What is on the walls and floor of each room, and is it listed on the quote?
- Is the tack room insulated, and is the door weather-tight?
- Does the tack room have its own lights and a smoke or heat detector? The detector type depends on dust; see our insurance page.
- Where does the feed room door open, and can a horse reach it from the aisle?
- Is there a separate line for the rooms in the quote comparison worksheet?
Pest control after the barn is built
UF/IFAS advises identifying the rodent first, since mice need more traps than rats, and warns that poisoned rodents can harm pets that eat them. Its current guidance advises against glue traps. Sweep the feed room often, pull bins from the wall now and then, and discard any feed that droppings touch. For live problems, a licensed pest control operator is the safer call than DIY bait.
Ready to price a barn with these rooms in the plan? Use the cost calculator, then request quotes here and compare builders with our builder checklist.
Sources: UF/IFAS Extension, ENY-224 Rat and Mouse Control; UF/IFAS Extension Santa Rosa County, Controlling Rats and Mice around the Farm; The Horse, Keeping Rodents Out of Your Feed Room; Chronicle of the Horse and Southern States feed-storage guides; equestrian tack-care guides on humidity. General planning information only, not a code reference.
En español: Cuarto de arreos y de alimento en un establo de Florida
Frequently asked questions
How small a gap can a mouse or rat get through?
UF/IFAS Extension (publication ENY-224) says rats can squeeze through cracks about 1/2 inch wide and mice through cracks about 1/4 inch wide. That is why wall-to-floor joints, door bottoms and pipe or wire penetrations matter in a feed room.
What humidity should a tack room stay under?
There is no code figure. Equestrian guides commonly say mold on leather becomes likely above roughly 60 to 65 percent relative humidity and suggest holding the room somewhere around 45 to 60 percent. Put a cheap humidity meter in the room so you can see what it actually does.
Should feed be stored in metal or plastic bins?
Sources differ. UF/IFAS Extension and several barn-management guides recommend metal cans with tight lids because rodents chew through plastic. Some feed-company guides prefer plastic because it resists condensation. Thick, tight-lidded containers kept off the floor are the shared point.
Does a feed room need to be inside the barn?
Not necessarily. Some owners keep feed in a separate small building so a feed fire or a rodent problem does not sit under the stall roof. Ask about it alongside the fire-safety questions on our fire safety page.
Is a tack room air conditioned?
Often it is not, but it can be. A sealed, insulated room with a dehumidifier that drains outside is usually the lower-cost way to protect leather. An air conditioner that is too large can cool the room without removing humidity, leaving it cold and clammy.