Building a menage - your experiences?

[Cedars]

Evening all,

We're thinking about building a menage (well, paying someone to build it...!). The land isn't all that flat (not horrific but it would need some flattening).

Just looking for an idea of how much yours (or your friend, neighbour, dog walker's....) cost, and any obvious problems!

Also whether you employed one company (and any reccomendations in Glos?) or whether you employed lots and lots of different people to do all the different parts, and which was cheaper?

Thanks!

A very sunburnt Hannah xxx

 

[_daisy_]

were just in the process of having ours put in and its very exciting (or so I think anyway ) i also thought our land where were having ours put in was fairly flat but theyve had to dig out quite a bit more than i epected. ill upload some pics if you want?

weve paid a contractor to do ours and he has arranged everything from guys, machinery, fencing, haulage, surface etc. dont rush them to get the land dug out or rush to have the drainage done - this will only lead to problems further down the line.

Our arena was started on the 10th May and they have nearly finished laying the drainage/hardcore. i presume that they will be levelling again tomorrow and laying the membrane , followed by the fencing on tuesday then the surface last thing. All should be done for Wednesday.
Its costing us about £17.5k - sand and rubber surface

 

[Cedars]

Oooooh definitely photos please! I'm so nosy lol!!

Wow thats pretty quick going! Thanks =]

Hannah xxxx

 

[_daisy_]

just uploading them as we speak so ill pop them on shortly

he had originally hoped that it would be completed by friday just gone, but there were a few problems with machinery turning up ready for the job to start. He managed to get it sorted and all to arrive for the 12th May and hes given his guys the weekend off (which i think is uncalled for ) so he isnt doing bad at all time wise.

 

[_daisy_]

eventually they are uploaded. hopefully ive managed to put them in order or work
started off like this:

digging out

fencing going in

drains going in and being covered

then the limestone

and this is what its like at the moment

 

[Cedars]

Ooooh its so exciting!! Wow it looks awesome. But my god yours is alot flatter than ours!!

You wouldnt happen to know how much the digging out cost would you? Just so we can times the cost by about 100!!

xxxx

 

[_daisy_]

no but ill go see if hes put it as a seperate item on his quote but failing that I can ask him tomorrow if you would like? hes had to dig down about a couple of metres on the corner nearest the stables and built up slightly in the diagonal corner opposite. he wouldve had to go down a lot more had he taken it down in the other corner which wouldve cost us loads more.
he has taken roughly 6 or 7 wagons full of top and sub soil as we werent allowed to spread anymore than 50tonne on our own land - bloody ridiculous if you ask me but i dont want to to get into any trouble with the planning team or the environment team

 

[Cedars]

Thats ridiculous, if its your own land........! Lol!

Yes please if you could find out thatd be lovely, you're very helpful! =] It looks very exciting you must update us when its done! xxx

 

[_daisy_]

yes it is ridiculous. aparently the planning team shouldve considered it when agreeing the planning permission but didnt. the other side is that as we arent a farm, just a field, we couldnt loose the rest of the soil on our own land - its absurd but hey, best comply at least we managed to use our given quota allowed to fill in the dips in the field with top soil.

ill go find the quote now and see if its on
yes ill def post pics when its done - wednesday cant come round quick enough

 

[dozzie]

Evening all,

We're thinking about building a menage (well, paying someone to build it...!). The land isn't all that flat (not horrific but it would need some flattening).

Just looking for an idea of how much yours (or your friend, neighbour, dog walker's....) cost, and any obvious problems!

Also whether you employed one company (and any reccomendations in Glos?) or whether you employed lots and lots of different people to do all the different parts, and which was cheaper?

Thanks!

A very sunburnt Hannah xxx

Ours was about 18k in the end. Sand and rubber topping. It took two weeks. You can lower costs by not having fencing. We had about a metre drop so not major but we are on clay which is why we went for a contractor. Plus they did the planning permission stuff .People we knew had done it themselves but had so many problems , taken a lot longer, and saved less than 2k and still having problems.

I regret not going for boards as the rubber leaves the arena but just couldnt afford it.

 

[Cedars]

Thanks Dozzie, thats interesting. I think we'd definitely go for a contractor if it'd be fuss free!

xxxx

 

[_daisy_]

just checked the quote and although it states exactly whats to be done re digging out etc there is only a final cost no seperate bit so ill check with him otmorrow for you