Bit boring.....best arena surface?

K

keeperscottage

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 June 2007
Messages
1,357
Location
Hertfordshire
Visit site
As title.....taken over my own livery yard of twelve indoor boxes today and landlord/farmer is building arena........ideas as to best surface please! We've already been advised as to drainage and someone has said best surface is sand and lint?????? No idea what this is - Googling has produced nothing! Advice please!
 
I've been recommended to use a sand/lint surface but I've found nothing on Google. OH wants large rubber "bits" which he thinks will need less harrowing. Help, please!
 
I have no idea what lint is, tbh.
Surfaces with rubber on top need a leveller, the easiest to maintain I would say is sand/fibre mix, it might need watering in very dry weather, but for levelling a harrow or a gate dragged around will do.
Maybe also worth looking at something like flexiride? Apparently, so they say, you can put it down directly onto the membrane as an all in one surface and the manufacturers claim it is virtually maintenance free.
If you have a lottery win behind you (I suppose Thunderball would do ;)) you could go for something like turf-float or basically any waxed, premixed surface, which will decrease the need for maintenance, no watering etc, but again, will need a specialised leveller.
 
you don't harrow arenas unless there deep sand of the right type, many kinds of sand, the bhs (i think do a hand book, home made arenas are pretty hard to achieve, i payed over 50k for mine and its starting to ride deep its sand and rubber, well deep in places,
 
keeperscottage said:
Martlin - even a semi-detached ex-local authority property around here will set you back almost £500,000 so I hope an arena is less!N:D
Click to expand...
well.... when I spoke to a well known arena builder, they quoted me £135K plus VAT for the surface alone... then there would be delivery and laying it... they were more than happy to take care of the drainage itself, of course :D At that sort of money, I think I would be prepared to do it personally, with my bucket and spade kit ;) :D
 
martlin said:
well.... when I spoke to a well known arena builder, they quoted me £135K plus VAT for the surface alone... then there would be delivery and laying it... they were more than happy to take care of the drainage itself, of course :D At that sort of money, I think I would be prepared to do it personally, with my bucket and spade kit ;) :D
Click to expand...
HEhe,...... mine didnt cost anything like that... 8000.!!!!!!!!! But we did all the digger work!!
 
Interestingly, mine was done by local company doing sports pitches, driveways, field drainage etc, I didn't spend much money and the surface at the moment is just sand (I will add fibre at some point)... turns out, the company are actually sub-contractors to the Well Known Arena Builder I mentioned :) WKAB has about 2000% mark up :D
 
Its funny I rang for a quote this week for a wood surface, I said I would think about it and then he rings me back with another supplier which is suddenly magically £800 cheaper.
So my question is who is the cheapest for a 20X40 wood chip arena?
 
Lint is a cotton fibre, it's a bit fluffy, rather like the fluff that gets trapped in the tumble drier (just thought of a great way to recycle!)

I have sand and rubber, small rubber chips with fibre backing so they lock into the sand rather than move around.

priority is to get the drainage right then use the right sort of sand.
 
Silica sand and then rubber seals. Th e rubber seals are slightly larger and do not move hardly at all even when lungeing.
Very ;little maintenance to it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top