Building an Arena

[Drum]

Just a bit confused...Is it normal to remove all the top soil, or just to put some drainage channels through it? We are on clay, which is useless at draining!

 

[sillygillyhorse]

Never had to build an arena but I thought it was normal to remove the top soil. Suspect if you are on clay you will need loads and loads of drainage.

 

[MillionDollar]

Yes you do, especially to get it level first! Are you doing it yourself?

Please make sure yo get the drainage right otherwise it will be useless in winter. Just to help you I'm on clay and my arena was first levelled out, then drainage chanels put in filled in with stone, then Terram laid over the whole arena, then 9 inches of stone, then Terram (fab stuff!) and then 5 inches of silica sand and on top 3 inches of Spring-Tek rubber

 

[Booboos]

Yes, totally agree with other posts. You have to remove all the top soil to get to solid ground, even more so with clay, otherwise the whole thing will sink through. Jackson's Arenas have a good on line guide to the whole thing (they will do it for you, or sell you materials DIY, but also very kind to put the info on for everyone to use):
http://www.jacksonarenas.co.uk/construct.html
Levelling is crucial, if the soil is unlevel, the hardcore will be unlevel, the surface will be unlevel, nothing can fix this.
Good luck!

 

[JS65]

We have just extended our menage, all we did was put a load of rocky hardcore down on top of the grass, wash sand on top, (tons on it) then used a catapillar HIMAC to grade it all and levelled it. On top of that we used a good membrane, Fibre sand on top and PVC granules on top of that. With all the flooding, i have not had surface water, or puddles, it's a fab surface and all we did for drainage was drains around the edge, going into the ditch at the bottom.
In all it cost us £3000, and that was to extend it from a 9 x 45 to a 20 x 45