Costs of Building a school - and any guides/books?

[emilyw]

Hi

We are planning on building a 20 x 60 outdoor school, would like silicon sand and rubber chips for the surface. Subject to PP that is yet to be applied for. The area we have chosen to put the school is on fairly well drained land.

We would like to do the work ourselves (hire a digger etc - family all used to this sort of work!). Where are the best places to buy good quaility but reasonably priced materials?

Are there any books or perhaps online guides to installing/building your own school?

What has this cost people that have done it already?

Many Thanks!

 

[Worried1]

This year we put in a new school which is 22m x 55m with silica and rubber chips.

We did it ourselves and saved ourselves around £25,000 compared to the cost of well-known companies building and supplying equipment and materials.

However it still cost us around £40,000.

The area needed to be levelled and in one corner built up to provide a flat surface with a 12 inch fall (this is normal in most schools and aids drainage.) We used reclaimed railway sleepers for this rather than brand new - they are just as good andwill last forever.

My dad sourced most of the matrials himself as he had lots of contacts in the building trade and so was able to approach it from a building aspect rather that an equestrian angle (people tend to bump the price up if you mention the word horse or riding arena!)

We hired machinery from local suppliers or dad's customers as the current building slump meant we could drive a hard bargain. They often do deals over weekend hire as well which was great for us!

We shopped around for fencing suppliers and found local was not always cheapest!

When choosing sand please get an analysis done as what you buy and what you end up wih can be two different things.

We used two membranes which we overlapped by 0.5metres and glued down. We then stapled the edges to gravel boards.

The biggest outlay is the sand we ordered 240 tonnes at @around £28/tonne exc VAT while we ordered 28 tonnes of rubber at £50/tonne exc VAT. Access will depend on the number of lorry loads which in turn can affect the cost. We could not get articulated lorries in but we did get 8 wheel tippers in which delivered around 14 tonne/load.

 

[Ashgrove]

Hopefully building a 20m X 40m arena this year, so I'll be reading this with interest

 

[Ingramah]

Hi, we've just finished ours which is 30 x 50m. I found it hard to find guides but in the end used Jackson Arenas DIY guide a big help (check on internet) . Most of it was common sense but we ended up with big problems when the topsoil was removed to create the correct levels. Underneath was layers of clay and peat which created a very unstable surface and meant we had to use twice as much hardcore than we thought to stabilise the ground.

We did a lot of the drainage work ourselves but had a prof digger driver in to help with getting the correct levels and banking. This increased the costs but cut the time down.

We agonised for a long time about whether to use a membranes. In the end we opted for using a granite quarry dust instead of membrane between the hardcore and sand layers. This is porous but can be tracked in to create a firm surface to stop the sand migrating downwards and prevent any hardcore migrating upwards into the sand layer. After laying this dust it proved itself (to my great relief as I had not been entirely convinced by my husband's argument) by having 4 continuous days of rain and not a puddle in sight. It also stood up to me flying around in a dumper truck for the next week whilst spreading sand and none of the hardcore was dislodged. Having said this you would have to be very careful that the dust was granular to aid drainage and not too "dusty" in which case it would turn to mush and set hard during dry weather. I probably went overboard when I drilled a bucket to test the speed the dust drained over a 30 min period but I think this is the only arena I'll be building so wanted to get it right - sure our digger contractor thought I was nuts though!

The only area we laid membrane was directly over each drain using 1m widths - this was more as a failsafe as we were not entirely confident of how well the quarry dust would work as a substitute for the membrane.

Fencing we sourced from a local sawmill. Cost about £1700. Sand was an issue as we can not source silica sand within 200 miles. We've opted for a dirty sand which seems to have good drainage and is packing down well. The sand cost £11 per ton ex VAT including haulage. We needed 300 ton to cover 5 inch depth over 30m x 50m area.

Rubber is very expensive due to haulage costs - approx. £65 ex VAT per ton plus carriage but this is something I hope to lay in the spring when the sand has settled down a bit more.

To date we are looking at costs approx. £18,000 - about £4,000 more than budget but then at least £10k cheaper than the quotes I received from local contractors.

Good luck with your plans and happy building!

 

[LankyDoodle]

Wow, the costs of these schools seems amazing!

OP: There are people on here who have built outdoor schools with proper drainage and surface, for around £10k. I came across an online guide to building a school, but it was linked to their own product.