Costs of resurfacing arena

TotalMadgeness

TotalMadgeness

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Apologies in advance for this slightly moany post!

A year ago me and the non horsey hubs took the plunge and bought a house with land, stables and a 20 x 40m outdoor arena. Arena is well built and well drained but surfaced with recycled woodchip which is now totally unusable. Poor horses just sink in it and are currently very bored field ornaments. So I started looking at replacing it with sand/fibre and maybe rubber chips on top to help minimise freezing.

If we did it ourselves it would come in at about £11K with delivery & VAT (so that's all the gear - membrane, sand, fibre, rubber and machinery hire). I also worked out it would probably take about 5 days to do. But with us both being pathetically incompetent DIYers this would represent a rather major leap of faith on our part and probably lead to a divorce...

So I got a well known and highly recommended arena guy to quote for the job and he came in at just over £14k. Bearing in mind he gets the VAT back I worked out he's charging like £5k for labour (I'll let him off £1k for machinery/fuel). Ouch.

Does anyone know how to do this more economically with someone who knows what they're doing (i.e. not me and hubs!)? Or am I dreaming!!!

I'm based in South Lanarkshire, Scotland btw. Any ideas most gratefully received... TIA
 
Not sure how your sums work out but that's not relevant. Your paying for his research, time, planning, experience and I would hope insurance in case something goes wrong. If you have the money just pay him.
 
Im taking it that if he is getting the VAT back he will then be charging VAT on the whole job. Where do you think the VAT goes just disappear. To be honest I think hes quoted you a good price for the job. Does that also allow for disposing of the old surface?
Hes actually charging you about 2.5k
 
Before you go any further I would double check your arena drainage. How long has the woodfibre/chip been down? It should not have become boggy. Mine has been down 8 years and is not boggy, just needs a big top up. If your drainage is not adequate whatever you surface with will be compromised.
 
Thanks guys! Glad to hear that the price quoted is deemed competitive - its always a worry when you're trying to finance things with a very limited pot and as you'll all know its difficult when there are so many conflicting priorities (e.g. we also need to replace the roof on the stables as that's leaking like a sieve despite numerous fruitless repairs). There is no water pooling on the arena surface even in the heaviest rain so I think the drainage is working OK thank goodness. I would guess the woodfibre surface was probably put down over 5 years ago but its like compost at the moment. Excellent for someone's garden but no good for horses' legs! :-)
 
Wood will eventually rot down however good your drainage, I have wood fibre on my hard standing in the winter paddocks over membrane and a course of limestone, that is now like compost but that's after around 10 years and much mistreatment!

I echo what others have said, if what your contractor is charging includes taking away the old surface you've got yourself a bargain.
 
The quotation is very reasonable in fact suspiciously so. Take a look at several arenas he has built in the past.
I would also suggest that your drainage is faulty and that it would be wise to replace it at the same time even if it adds to the cost.
 
OWLIE185 said:
The quotation is very reasonable in fact suspiciously so. Take a look at several arenas he has built in the past.
I would also suggest that your drainage is faulty and that it would be wise to replace it at the same time even if it adds to the cost.
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?? Why ? Its ready been stated he is a well respected contractor ,why doubt his opinion?
 
Do you need both fibre and rubber to use with the sand? I have rubber over sand and it is a lovely surface, never puddles or freezes. I inherited a 25 year old Charles Britton arena with excellent drainage though.
 
Pen said:
Before you go any further I would double check your arena drainage. How long has the woodfibre/chip been down? It should not have become boggy. Mine has been down 8 years and is not boggy, just needs a big top up. If your drainage is not adequate whatever you surface with will be compromised.
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Where in the country are you??? Mine began to rot within 4 years - IMHO as a product it is totally unsuitable for outdoor surfaces, when it gets wet it begins the degrading process. Another owner who bought at the same time as me has also removed and replaced his, saying it was like garden compost. And yes, there is plenty of drainage.
 
you only need sand and rubber, mine has no fibre and rides beautifully, never freezes, never deep, never dusty.

get the drains right and the sand right and the rubber does the rest. i can also suggest you put mesh round the arena fence which stops your rubber being pinged out of it....ive only needed one top up in 18 years :)
 
JillA said:
Where in the country are you??? Mine began to rot within 4 years - IMHO as a product it is totally unsuitable for outdoor surfaces, when it gets wet it begins the degrading process. Another owner who bought at the same time as me has also removed and replaced his, saying it was like garden compost. And yes, there is plenty of drainage.
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I'm in the west of Scotland so the surface has had a good testing weatherwise. Its had light use and has never been remotely boggy but as I say does need a good top up now. Last year my cob had acute laminitis in all four feet and lived in the arena for about 4 months while she recovered resulting in many grass seedlings from the hay fed. This meant multiple sprayings of Roundup to get rid of them but that has been the only downside of the woodfibre as far as I'm concerned. We spent much more on the drainage than the surface. The surface can always be topped up or totally replaced but you only want to do the drainage once!
 
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