Constructing an arena without drainage

[F for Fidget]

Ok so it seems everyone says it is important to get the drainage right when building your own arena but has anyone ever put down a sand surface without drainage or hardcore just sand straight on clay soil? Or only with a hardcore layer and then membrane and sand?

Might sound crazy but we are debating trying with a sand surface only as we would like to put in an arena at home to use once in a while. We have access to to excellent 20x60 indoor and outdoor arenas only 5 minutes walk from ours so this would purely be a bonus to use if the other arenas are to busy or kids are asleep and we want to ride together.

The land is extremely well drained already and on top of a hill but of of course this may get disrupted when we level it, it's fairly flat but drops a little bit. We would use our local farmer for the groundworks and he is very reasonable priced. We were thinking that if it doesn't work we can put the sand to one side and put in drainage / hardcore etc at a later stage. Sure a cost to have it moved again but shouldn't be crazy however maybe I'm wrong.

As we would not be putting in drainage at this stage and only a hedge as fence we have also heard different theories to wether we would need to get planning permission or not. Tempted to get retrospective if we get any complaints!

Any advice welcome, sure someone must have tried this before or

Any advice on a fibre to mix in with the silica sand also much appreciated, heard that combi-ride should be good.

 

[Spottyappy]

Absolutely don’t do it.
Im on clay, and had my arena constructed with drains, drains and more drains. It has never flooded,until this winter when it got partially submerged at one end.
You would, imho, not actually save much by avoiding drainage,when you are having ground works, anyway. It would cost probably as much again to put them in retrospectively.
Ask to go and see local surfaces. I personally did not like combi ride,as it needed to be kept quite wet to ride well on. Impossible when I didn’t have means to run something like the leaky pipes system. So, instead went with flexiride. This has been good for me, without the constant need to water it.

 

[Muddywellies]

I've done it. We were short of space so we specifically built it on the boggiest part of the field that was otherwise pretty useless. We scraped off the top soil to create 4 long banks to create each side of the arena. Filled it all in with hardcore, then stone, then surface. No membrane no drains. Never flooded as it was built up above the ground. We sold the house but the arena is still in use today and I've never heard of any probs with it. We chanced it without planning and got rumbled so had to add apply for it retrospectively. We got planning permission no problem but it was a bit of a worry and I wouldn't recommend that.

 

[F for Fidget]

Absolutely don’t do it.
Im on clay, and had my arena constructed with drains, drains and more drains. It has never flooded,until this winter when it got partially submerged at one end.
You would, imho, not actually save much by avoiding drainage,when you are having ground works, anyway. It would cost probably as much again to put them in retrospectively.
Ask to go and see local surfaces. I personally did not like combi ride,as it needed to be kept quite wet to ride well on. Impossible when I didn’t have means to run something like the leaky pipes system. So, instead went with flexiride. This has been good for me, without the constant need to water it.

Thanks I'll look into Flexi ride as well.

 

[F for Fidget]

I've done it. We were short of space so we specifically built it on the boggiest part of the field that was otherwise pretty useless. We scraped off the top soil to create 4 long banks to create each side of the arena. Filled it all in with hardcore, then stone, then surface. No membrane no drains. Never flooded as it was built up above the ground. We sold the house but the arena is still in use today and I've never heard of any probs with it. We chanced it without planning and got rumbled so had to add apply for it retrospectively. We got Thanks so no membrane in between the stone and surface, did the stones not move their way up? My only worry with applying for planning is that they will come and then restrict the usage of it, times, lighting etc. Of course a risk they find out but hoping retrospective should be accepted.

 

[ycbm]

Any advice on a fibre to mix in with the silica sand also much appreciated, heard that combi-ride should be good.

Combi ride disappears in four years or less. I had it, a neighbour had it on my initial recommendation, and other posters on here have said the same. I would not recommend it.

 

[F for Fidget]

Thanks ycbm, question is what Surface to go for, i think many schools in Germany are Sand only bearing in mind the environment. I think Most surfaces contain old carpet and it might just be a matter of time until these also are classified same waste as rubber!

 

[F for Fidget]

Thanks I'll look into Flexi ride as well.

We would save a lot if we could avoid putting down any hardcore. By ground works I also mean just scraping off top soil. I know of a sand school in Germany that was made just by putting down sand on grass and this rode fine and is still there. Was on a bit of slope though and actively used avoiding weed coming up. We would probably need to level our land a bit, ideally completely level it as I would be worried sand ending up mainly on the lower end if not level.