# Budget D.I.Y Menage!!!!!!!!!!! please help!!!



## LittleMouse (12 August 2011)

ok so basically we are moving yards this october and we plan to build are own outdoor arena. we are aiming for about 20x40m but that isnt fixed, it may have to be changed if to expensive.  
i need help though!!!! i have absolutely no idea about surfaces!!! theres all this talk about drainage and membranes and stuf...v v v confused!! :/ 
please help. everybody seems to have different ideas about how to build a school. we want nothing fancy, just something for two ponies to be ridden on a few times a week, all year round + a few jumps.
i just need some sugestions on where to start, and what you guys think is the best, and cheapest, way of going about this!! also, need some idea of pricing. dont worry about fencing or anything, that, at least, is sorted!!
thanks xxx




p.s the ground is pretty flat, maybe a slight slope. dont know if this makes a difference


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## The Fuzzy Furry (12 August 2011)

1st place to start is the planning office....... if your county is right (under your name) you are highly likely to need planning............


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## be positive (12 August 2011)

The Fuzzy Furry said:



			1st place to start is the planning office....... if your county is right (under your name) you are highly likely to need planning............
		
Click to expand...

It is fairly detailed so you need to get some professional advice ,your plans will need to show things like drainage,where the run off goes,surface will also be taken into account,some areas wont allow certain types.
You could get help with planning and then use DIY.


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## meesha (13 August 2011)

Hi - isnt it a minefield !!!! I had mine done 2 years ago and really scrimped and did it on the cheap.  Total cost was around £7k including posts and thick electric tape round edge.  In very simplistic terms this is how we did it.

Mark out 20m x 40m area, get it levelled
get drains dug in leading to rean - put layer of terram in - put drainge pipes in and backfill with clean stone
put stone on whole area (we used rubbishy stone from towens but if you can use good stone do, as ours is not totally level and bits have tendancy to stick up through terram if not careful) level stone then another layer of terram
topping ontop - I used the cheapest I could find which is cushionride - really pleased with it - needs to bed in for a couple of months and topped up every 4 ish years but is never slippy, drains even in flooding weather and is only unusable in snow ! an even cheaper option would have been to have seasand (sometimes towens get this in) but they didnt have any.

Worth saying that drainage is key, we had to pay for labour (used local drainage contractor not arena builders) but if you do the work yourself you will save money.  I was also suprised at how much all the wood costs - 2 rows kickboards, posts etc.

The key is to grade the arena round as often as you can.

It also keeps the horses lovely and clean through winter - mine are turned out on it daily through winter when fields are wet and it certainly saves your land !

I will post a link to a picture of it for you ! everyone will tell you that it coss 25k to put one in ! it doesnt !

Good luck x


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## meesha (13 August 2011)




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## Enfys (13 August 2011)

Good Luck, I'm sure you'll get lots of advice here, I am no help as my schooling rings are about as cut price and basic as you get. No planning permits required as they are basically just ploughed fields. 

I have two, because one is in the middle of a forest and can't be used in high summer because of the mosquitos  Neither are much good under more than about 6" of snow as the horses tend to find the going a bit tough.

The sand one is a 2 acre paddock that we simply cultivate, till and harrow.

The other one is about an acre in the middle of a paddock that we do the same with but is a mixture of sand and soil.


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## Fosterdown (13 August 2011)

we used a company called Mcveigh Parker, they provide a kit which has everything except hardcore and sand, which we sourced locally, planning permission was not a problem and a complete 20 x 40 with floodlights came in at £10,000. It has been in 2 years now and other than general maintenance we have had no problems or flooding, it did freeze in the snow last winter but we still used it to turn out in.


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## LittleMouse (13 August 2011)

meesha said:








Click to expand...

ow wow is this homemade, its fantastic!!!! how did you do it?? xxx


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## LittleMouse (13 August 2011)

thanks guys  xxx
gosh is it really going to cost that much...YIKES!!!! i did hear once that someone made one for a couple of hudred but i cant remember where i read that, and she didnt say how she did it!!! typical!!!!
sooo...keep the ideas coming...remember, nothing fancy,try to keep it as cheap as possible!!
also need some ideas on surfaces.i know bout sand and rubber, vv common, but i hear some people have woodchip. what do you peeps recommend???
finallyy....does any body know any basic diy draining ideas. say for example ditches dug across the school filled with hardcore. dont know if this wil work?? 

thankyou...keeep replying!! xx


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## LittleMouse (13 August 2011)

LittleMouse said:



			ow wow is this homemade, its fantastic!!!! how did you do it?? xxx 

Click to expand...

never mind i just re-read you preivous post and you said at the end that you would put up a picture!!! duh!!! silllllyyyy mee lol xx


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## Miss L Toe (14 August 2011)

Yes thousands of pounds, remember that almost every tonne of stuff [a metre cubed bag] costs about £100 once it is laid.
Wood-chip as used in gardens is no use, it rots and is slippery
First
You need to  level the surface,with machinery., but you  can mange with a smaller arena and I have used a sand arena where it is not level, but is still needs a solid base or it will end up as a series of ditches.
Second
You need drainage underneath all the toppings, and possibly round the edges, or it will go boggy, or if there is heavy rain it will all wash away.
You may need a membrane to stop the soil coming up through the base.
Third
You need a solid base,  and unless you happen to be on pure chalk, that means stone, which has to be the correct grade, and needs rolling, other wise it will end up like rocky beach.
You may or may not need another membrane, and we are talking a top quality as used in the building industry.
Membrane is needed to stop the lower surfaces mixing and coming to the top, but some construction  needs only one membrane.
And there are quite a few surfaces, sand drains well in winter, but can get blown away in summer if it is not mixed with rubber.
The more expensive rubber mixes are the best, but are the most expensive.
Wood mix has to be specially prepared for the purpose.
you still need to maintain the surface, and it is not unknown for the substrate to start appearing in the surface, if you see what I mean.
It might work out cheaper to hire an arena.


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## luckilotti (15 August 2011)

OK, heres my bit  

We did a woodchip paddock in 2003 or 2004?  anyway, we chose the driest flattest area we could to begin with, thankfully, this was by a block of stable and polytunnels etc and it 'fitted' in so planning wasnt a major issue.  (planners will also be concerned over your surface choice etc).  As this area was in a rather windswept place to begin with, we never really considered sand as we would have had a sand dune by the poly tunnels within weeks in winter! So we looked at heavier options - also, cost did come into it as we only rent the place!  
To cut a long story down, we went for equestrian woodchip, after many samples we settled on one from an equestrian company in manchester (MASSIVE mistake!).... the farmer scrapped the land back, levelled it all off etc.  We then layed the menbrane (shopped around online and got it at a reasonable price - as we were not having extra stone drainage layers added etc we could go for a thinner and therefore cheaper membrane).   Then the surface arrived - it was NOT what the samples were like but utter waste!!!  there was metal, glass etc etc!  the company was disgusting and didnt want to know but if we could return it.... we could have a partial refund... well.... when you have god knows how many tonnes that have been tipped, the everyday person cannot return it just like that!   SO... we sifted through it all and got bag after bag, barrow after barrow of rubbish from it.  There also wasnt the quantity we have bought as it no-where near covered the area! (25x40 - 25 as it made a neater fence line with existing fences)   So, we then had to buy more woodchip from another company - que a few more thousand pounds!
We spread it all and levelled it ourselves with the help of a guy we know, to hire the little digger it was £35 a day and we had it a couple of days?
It was good    for a few years.... 

we had the surface topped up again, but then we let it go to grass and just mow it down - the reason the grass grew was because we are lucky enough to have an indoor so if its slightly bad, we go inside.  The seeds blew, grew etc, the 1st couple of winters it happened, we pulled the grass up (thankfully as we have the membrane it just pulls up easily like a sheet of carpet!) 

This year, we have bought a new synthetic surface for it.  Que a couple more thousands!  Its not fully completed yet as we still need to break down more of the bales of the surface. 


So... based on my experience my advice would be 

Plan VERY carefully where it is going - make it so planning dont have lots of issues to start with.  For the initial application - i wouldnt add floodlights.  If you can start with a dry area - you may be able to get away with fewer/no drains.
Get the advice of a few companies - i found a few had rather different opinions - but they know a lot more than you or i about them
Try and do as much of the work youself - fencing, maybe levelling the surface once delivered etc.
Go for the best surface you can afford from the start.
Definatley get a membrane!

Also - what about something like Flexiride which can be layed with their special draining membrane stuff?  from memory you dont need to do underground drains for that?

What about buying a used surface?  if maybe a local riding centre, horse owner etc is removing their old surface for a new one very often then let someone else buy it - sometimes they are advertised on ebay.  

Fencing - we managed to get some free very large pallets that we broke down for rails - they were 14ft long   yes they were a pain to collect and as it was a job lot we had to take some smaller pallets but it was free (from a place that does steel works).  its amazing what you can find if you look    i was going to a back street garage to get a dint taken out my car and saw a sign saying free wood... i asked.... and was shown the massive pallets!

Good luck!


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## laurenn1010 (19 August 2011)

luckilotti - did you put any drainage in at all? or just lay a membrane and surface on top of level soil surface?


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