Home made Manage?

[dbard]

Has anybody built a manage how much did it cost? what did you use?

 

[rara007]

I'm not sure how much our old menage cost, but it was a HUGE amount of hard work. It was quite a while ago, and the surface was originally wood chunks as it was all we could afford, and after that we had sand with little rubber bits put down. I'm not sure exactly what we did with the woodchips when we put the sand down but I do remeber helping dig the drainage before. I was 7 at the time!

 

[dbard]

Haha Well My dad is a builder so would have alot of help

 

[lucym]

at our yard they converted a sheep shed to an indoor school ,and the surface alone (fibre sand and rubber) cost 6 grand, so im thiking alot of money

be worth it though, i thik that is the ultimate luxury, to keep your horses at home and have a school

 

[palomino698]

Think drainage, drainage, drainage, drainage and drainage. And don't forget drainage. Can't help with costs but far more than you budgeted...

 

[Jane_Lou]

I got the top soil scraped off and then laid a membrane direct onto remaining clay and then laid woodchip which is the cheapest surface you can buy. I managed to get some old scafford boards to retain the surface. I didn't have any drainage but it was at the top of a sloping field and it actually drained really well. The only down side to this surface is that it can be quite loose and I had a couple of horses slip badly when having a hoolie on the lunge. Ok for small grids etc but again, a bit slippery so not great if you are wanting to jump decent fences. There are a number of people who sell this surface but a friend made hers with stuff she got from a local tree surgeon - they chip the offcuts - difference to professional suppplier is that theirs is mature, dried wood whereas the stuff from a tree surgeon (while very cheap) is green wood.

 

[dbard]

If i was to build it on a SLOPE with No drainage, and spend more on the surface ???

 

[Jane_Lou]

I levelled the ground before laying the membrane, the ground was very free draining which I knew in advance. I know a few people who rent land who have put in woodchip surfaces just to give them somewhere to ride in all weathers as it tends to drain better than sand etc without proper drainage. I would not be tempted to spend too much money if you are only renting the land. You cannot build on a slope as you will never be able to keep the surface level. It depends what you want it for - if you just want somewhere to school and ride in all weather then woodchip is the best option, it never freezes and does not need watering in the summer like sand. The difference in price between woodchip and sand is massive by the way - I was looking at about £6000 for sand and £1500 for woodchip!

 

[Booboos]

You really don't want to do that! I had to ride in an arena someone else built that had a two foot drop from one end to the other and although it never flooded it was a nightmare to ride on. You could really feel the downhill bits and the horses became quite unbalanced.

Your costs will depend on:
- the size of the arena
- the access to the site, bad access will mean extra dumper trucks, etc.
- the distance from the quarry for hardcore, etc. as transport costs can be very high
- the type of surface
- how much of the work you are willing to do yourself

We did a 20x60 with good equestrian sand, on a difficult site, doing all the work other than the big digger digging and leveling and it came out at just under £9,000.

 

[RLF]

[ QUOTE ]
If i was to build it on a SLOPE with No drainage, and spend more on the surface ???

[/ QUOTE ]
your having a laugh - right?