# How to build an arena (menage, school) for £3500!



## a1icem (27 August 2010)

Hi

I have recently built a 20x35m arena at home for around three and a half grand! I used the H&H forum quite a lot to help, so i would like to put this post on here in case anyone else is in my situation and needs some help!

I understand that I have been very lucky with some things, and others will not be appropriate for everyone, but hopefully it might give you some ideas and show how thinking out of the box sometimes can help!


Groundworks:

What promted building this school was taking the oppertunity of having some road works going on 100m down the road from us. So we approached the foreman to see if he would do the work for us for some extra cash.

The plan was to scrape off the topsoil, lay a membrane, put in a layer of road plannings (taken from the road they dug up during the roadworks) add a drain away and pipe at the bottom of the school leading to the stream which runs along the edge of out property. The area we are using slopes down slightly to the stream so we hoped this would help the drainage!

For the membrane we used plastic wallpaper we got from a local wallpaper factory who were going to throw it away as it was no use to them anymore. This worked great! and the grounds works men said that it was as good as what they use!

They came and did this in 7 evenings and cost £750 for the labour and £80 per load for the plannings (8 loads)


Surface:

We were lucky enough to know a man down the road from us who had an arena built at his house 15 years ago and has not used it for 10 years. He wanted to get rid of it as the grass would not grow properly on it (not surprising as it was 10inch deep sand!). He said that if we took it away for him we could have it for free. He informed us it was Igtham white sand and cost £3000 when he put it in!

We got a local company to come in and scrape all the sand up into a big pile (£300) ready for the grab truck to collect.

At this point we bought 4 bales of fiber from softrack arenas to mix in with the sand. These cost us £200 each and we collected them in our lorry as they were fairly local.

Back at home we layed the membrane on top of the plannings, we used terram to save money and I spent 3 days sewing the bits together with twine. This was hard work (I was paranoid that the membrane would come up!) but it worked really well and was worth the line of sunburn across my back!

It took 1 morning and 9 loads for the grab truck to deliver the sand to our house (£300)

It took a further evening and £80 for the roadworks men to come and flatten, tramp and level the sand.

As we had only killed the grass and not removed it the surface of the school was all clumpy where the grass had not yet broken up. So my dad spent the best part of a day riding round and round on the rideon lawmower (which we also use to pull the harrow) chopping up the grass! This again worked really well and added some natural fiber to mix in with the synthetic stuff!

Fencing Etc:

For the kickboards we went to out local salvage yard where we managed to get the right kind of wood for £1.12p/m saving us £1.40p/m off the cost of going to our local timber merchant.

One end of the school has been left open so that I have a bit more turning room when I jump in the summer and so for that end we sourced some local grade 3/C railway sleepers (the cheapest grade) and banked the topsoil we removed up on the other side to create a sort of ramp.

One long side was the boundary of our land so we had a fence there already, the other long side was part building, and the other part we used a telegraph pole pulled up during the road works.

The top fencing was moved from an area we didn't need it anymore and we put it in ourselves.


After a couple of harrows, plenty of watering and a week to settle the surface is perfect! It is not too soft or hard and my horses ride over it rather than through it! So far it seems it will not need a lot of harrowing either!

As for drainage wise, we have had the perfect week to test it! Torrential rain! and it has not looked like it will flood any time soon, even though my fields have quite a few puddles in them! 

As I said earlier I know that I have pretty unusual circumstances and they will not apply to everyone but I hope I can help in some way!

Here's a photo of it almost finished: http://www.flickr.com/photos/44826900@N05/4928505655/in/set-72157624686354911/

It wont let me attach photo's, sorry!


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## appylass (27 August 2010)

Wow, that looks great, you must be very pleased!


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## Aces_High (27 August 2010)

You should be thrilled.  Well done you and the team it looks brilliant.


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## SpockkyBoy (27 August 2010)

Looks great! Well done!


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## HappyHorses:) (27 August 2010)

Good on ya!

I might be messaging you in two months as going to put one in at my yard soon. 

Looks fab!


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## millimoo (29 August 2010)

Looks fantastic - well done, and although hard work looks worth every bit of effort, and more. 
Just one question, do you have planning permission? just being nosy and you don't have to reply


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## Spit That Out (29 August 2010)

Wow, looks fab. You've been very lucky to have everything come together like that.

Also very impressed of the height of those jumps!!!!


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## TarrSteps (29 August 2010)

Very impressed!  You must be pleased.  And, yes, you've had some things come together well but it sounds like you've also worked incredibly hard and done masses of investigating and running around.  It's that old "time - money - effort" thing - if you don't have much of one, you have to put in more of the other two.


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## a1icem (30 August 2010)

Hi!

Thanks for all your nice messages! yes it was a LOT of hard work but has been worth it! and saving me the £9 per hour I was paying every other day to hire a school in the winter!

As for planning, we didn't get permission, simply because we knew there was a high chance we wouldn't get it (its near a listed building etc, etc), no one else can see the school so hopefully no one will complain!

But we don't think we would need planning any way as we didn't excavate below the top soil layer. We were told this by andrews bowen arenas who were trying to sell us a new menage system which you didn't have to get planning for. Its basicly sophisctacted plastic crates which sit on top of the ground which act as a drainage layer instead of hardcore. Effectivly this means should you move house you could take your school with you! I would have loved to have put this in but for a 20x40 it would have cost 17K! not including the surface!


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## millimoo (30 August 2010)

I am soooooo nosy, and once it's been there for 4 years I think you can apply to have it permanently anyway
I also think you've done a brilliant job  Just in time for the start of mucky weather too...... enjoy !!!


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## TallyHo123 (30 August 2010)

That's great! Good on ya!


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## Dieago (20 October 2017)

I just wondered how your ménage was doing seven years on?


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## Dieago (25 October 2017)

Has anyone done anything similar to this?


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