Build your own school

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BigRed

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I would very much like to have my own school. I cannot afford a professional job, but my husband and I are very capable and can get hold of heavy plant.

Has anyone built their own school, on clay soil, and how happy are you with it - what do you think it cost you ?
 
My neighbour built one herself earlier this year, if you can get hold of a digger cheaply (we have a guy round here that charges £20 an hour and he does all the work for you - from memory it took him about a day to dig it out) once the area is scraped back you just need to fence round it and surface it and that will be by far your biggest outlay depending on what type of surface you want - if you go for sand then if you've a quarry nearby you then it shouldn't be too expensive (you can always add rubber to the top of it once you've saved up
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).
 
Can't offer any advise sorry but I was thinking about the same thing today so will be interested to see what people have to say.
 
We built our own school. Bought a old digger, sold it later. Best advice is put in loads and loads of drains and if there is any building sites near you offer to take the hardcore for them as they have to pay to dump it so you can normally get it for free.
 
How do you put in drains? That is the thing I am confused about. I know you have to dig drainage channels but surely that won't be enough to take away all the water? We can easily fit the membrane, hardcore base and top surface ourselves, and my husband will hire a post driver and put the fence up himself.

Interested to know as well, so good post tracey.
 
If you are on clay soil your menage will need to be very much higher than ground level so the level of the membrane is sufficiently high above the surrounding ground level so that water can drain away downhill along the drain pipes that you install. The drain pipes will need to drain to either a large soak away or another source of drainage if you want to avoid the area around it from becoming flooded

Do not forget that you will require planning permission and that if you want flood-lighting then this may prove more difficult to get planning permission for.

The type of surfacing is critical so ask locals if you can see their menages and have a ride in them to establish which surface is best suited for you.

There are a number of books available on the subject so try the BHS bookshop and buy one which will give you a lot of further useful information.

I do not wish to dampen your enthusiasm but like all things experience is useful if you want to build a good menage. I have seen a number of self-build menages which have turned out to be a long term total disaster and people have been unable to use them so although on paper you can appear to save a lot of money in practice you really do need to know what you are doing to avoid the many pitfalls.
 
Drainage stone , holey pipe, more drainage stone and a membrane on top, run these every few metres right across the area to preferably another larger pipe at the end going across the other way, which will catch the water and run it all away.
Hope that makes sense
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Where wwe built our school, there used to be another school, but the last people never put in any drains so the surface was all washed away. When we inherited it all the hardcore was there, but we started from scratch and put all the drains in - ours flow out to a waterfall into a pond - it looks very pretty when it has been raining and it is quite impressive the amount of water after some rain.

There seems to be a split opinion as to whether to have a membrane - we were told not to bother and have never had a problem.

We were lucky and got our surface for free and also all the fencing.
 
We're going to have one done, its on quite rough ground with lots of hardcore already there, getting a digger cheap to do the work, I was talking to a chap yesterday that has just finished doing a sand school at a riding school. He said that the rubber is the best and cheapest option,
Does anyone else have it?
We already have loads of fencing taken out from where all the pig pens were.
 
you should have gone to the arena event at Addington last Sunday. They had a great presentation from Martin Collins - 1 bloke and 3 women - who talked about construction and surfaces. Just digging out my notes and info pack..... Right. My "shorthand" is quite bad, so you should call them to discuss really. But, from my scribbles: Thin membrane on top of soil. Then drains. Definitely need drains - if clay soil need more drains - take them to a soakaway or ditch. Then a hard limestone. Then a thick membrane - this apparently stops the surface clogging up the stone laying and will stop stones coming up through the surface - kind of important i think! The membrane is melted together and fixed at the boards. Then you put your surface on top. I'm going for a Martin Collins sand and Clopf fibre - the stuff is amazing! I had looked at some sites before going to the event, and talking to the girls there re-affirmed my thoughts. It actually worked out cheaper than sand and rubber and is a far nicer surface!!! I would give them a call - they had cameras at Addington, so they might have filmed it? You could ask for a copy - or just call for some advice? They were all really friendly, and surprisingly, quite impartial - they talked about all surface types inc. turf and woodchip!!
 
we built ours...

not full size by any means but usable for basic schooling, lunging, backing etc

we had a JCB in...took things down 9 inches, bought recycled hardcore for the base, membrane bought from Ebay, then 8 tons of beach sand, reclaimed railway sleepers to keepin woodchip supplie by any local tree surgeon who needs to off load his weks work without paying the council to dispose, we also get in sharp sand to mix.....


cost....set up less than 2k
 
We built a DIY arena and got it right (well at least after 4 years of horrific rain it has never flooded and rides very well), but it took a lot of reading up on how to do it and talking to people who had done it. My top tips:

1. Think about access. Will large lorries be able to drive right up to the arena and tip? If not, it will cost you a lot more to use small lorries or even more to move everything by dumper truck. What will you do with the top soil? If you can spread it on your own land you save a lot on having to pay someone to take it away (if it is superb quality someone might be tempted to take it away for free but it will depend on the cost of fuel).

2. Get a really, really good digger driver. Anything you pay him you will save but not having to do things twice.

3. Get the largest digger you can afford/get on site, as it is easier to level everything properly with a large digger.

4. If you start with a bumpy sub-surface you will end up with a bumpy arena which can be a disaster. The digger driver MUST get the sub-surface completely level with the appropriate fall towards your soakaway.

5. Work with natural water levels, if water drains to the south naturally, then place your soakaway to the south.

6. Call up all the local quarries to get the best deal on stone, but make sure you are comparing like for like, i.e. you need nice, clean hardcore, not rubble!

7. Spend as much money as you can on the sand. A deep surface can cause a lot of problems later on.

Good luck!
 
QR Great post! I am just looking into this too. If anyone has any links to some good pictures or diagrams that would be really helpful. There is lots of good info here, it's good to hear about real life experience on things like this.
 
What a fab post, I have a couple of questions! I’ve had a look on the bhs website for a book and can’t seem to find one can any kind sole point me in the right direction?!!. Do I need planning permission if we use a wood surface?, I’m guessing we will if we use sand……

Thanks
 
The previous owners of my house had some 'wrangles' with planning over their arena (I use that term loosley). The planning department deemed they didnt need pp because no ground works, drainage or fencing had been put in, ie 1/2 inch of builders hardcore with sand and fibre on top dumped onto a small paddock area! Suffice to say it is now rapidly turning back into a paddock!
 
We built our own this summer 25x40m . on clay. We built up so it was on higher ground. hired in the diggers etc for ground work. and did pretty much all of the labour our selves. We put in loads of drains, with pipes and then covered in shingle. We have two membranes, - loads of places will send you samples, the costs were pretty much the same for the membranes. With regard to the sand , there are only about 3 places in the country that do proper silica sand - its about 3 times more expensive than most of the cheap silica s you see advertised. we left it to be rained on for about three weeks before we put rubber (the flat strips on) and we havent had a hoof print go through it once, plus with all the recent rain its been great. That said, with the fencing etc.. the total cost wasnt alot different to having someone in to do the whole job, like anything i think you do get what you pay for, we cut back by doing some of the ground work and then put on the most expensive surface we could afford.
 
We found enormous differences in prices from DIY to professional companies. We did a 20x60 ourselves (including all labour apart from digger driver) and it came in at under £10,000 despite a difficult site that required dumper trucks, but we then had a 20x40 put in by a professional for £23,000.

In terms of sand you want angular sand not round (see another recent post about unsuitable surfaces) so that it binds together oherwise it will get very deep. If your arena is very deep there are some products out there that you can add to make it less deep, but they don't all work all the time.

You would need PP because of the ground works, drainage, hardcore, surface etc. In some sensitive areas the planning department may take issue with the final 'look' of the surface, but nowadays you can get coloured rubber (at a cost!!), which they might prefer.
 
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