MAPLE ARENAS LTD

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onemoretime

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Has anyone had an arena put in by this company. I am looking to have a new school built and have contacted lots of adverts in HH for quotes. Maple came up with the best quote so far£24,000 for a 20 x 60 sand and rubber.

Or would a cheaper option be to get a groundworker in to dig out footings and lay necessary drainage then buy sand and rubber seperate - would this be any cheaper? or am I going down the path to disaster!! Any advice gratefully received.
 
Hiya,
Dont know where your are based but Im South Manchester / Cheshire borders .....ive just re done my 20 x 40 arena and my friend did her 20 x 60
We both used Peter Heap Equestrian (advertises in H&H)....who might i add were fantastic
I went the cheaper root using silica sand and rubber, my friend went the whole hog using top of the shop waxed surface and it was 15,000 all in! 24,000 is waaay to much!

I used my own ground workers, got my silica sand from a quarry that supplied HOYS with their sand and i got my rubber from Peter Heap. My drains were already in place but i needed 40 tonnes of limestone to level the menage out
Ground workers labour - 3000
Limestone 700
Rubber x 18 tonnes- 1500
Sand x 100 tonnes but 80 would have been plenty! (got massive pile left over!) 1750
This was for 20x40 arena with 4" sand topped with 2" Rubber

Shop around shop around!!!
 
Thanks very much for your reply. Have taken note of your costs. Have spoken to a ground worked who can do all ground works includeing drainage and crushed concrete, soakaways each end drainge pipes, fencing then we buy whatever surface we want seperate. He said he would do it for 12K. I dont think I can get it done any cheaper we are in Kent. Do you know anyone who has used Turf Float for a surface, had a chap ring me yesterday saying it was very low maintenance you dont need to keep raking it each time you use it it just falls in behind the horse. But spoke to well known dressage trainer and he said that most schools in the country are sand and rubber and he did not know anyone who has used Turfloat and for me to be careful. He felt that sand and rubber ( providing it is the right sand it should come from Redhill which is not far from us) should be OK as it will only be used by 2 horses at the most in fact mostly only one.
 
I dont know anything about turf float, but after having a look at my friends arena im pretty glad i went with sand and rubber.
It seems to me that waxed surfaces just dont allow the horse to 'travel' so to speak.......i would just be a bit worried about jarring etc, unless its just me being a bit pedantic! But mine rides great, very springy, i would imagine winter time will be best time to ride on it as the weather will keep the sand compact. Summer may be a bit of a pain but i suppose watering it will work.
Im just looking for some kind of leveller thing to run over the top once a week or something, ive seen a few but theyre soooo expensive for what they are...... i can feel a trip to my dads on the cards .hes good at making things! haha
oh and if you do decide on sand and rubber, before you ride on it make sure your absolutely saturate it with water, just helps it to compact before you ride on it. I had about 3 days of rain which was perfect! Good old british weather!
Im pretty sure my silica sand was grade 95 or grade 90 .....the finer the better, ask them to send you a sample before you buy, also when your sand is delivered make sure you check the ticket that the delivery man gives you as i had a one load that was 3 tonnes UNDER!
12k sounds like a good price, the labour is the thing that bumps everything up and to be fair there's alot to do starting from scratch.
 
Thank you again, I think I will go with sand and rubber. The well known trainer that I spoke to said the sand needs to come from Redhill in Surrey which is not far from us, apparently that is the correct type of sand, there are sooo many different types out there.

I noticed that you used limestone chippings, the ground worker quoted for tarmac plainings whcih is what is scraped off the road when they are resurfacing, but my husband and also they trainer said that you need to be careful with road plainings as it is tarmac and can seal across thus stopping water from draining down through crushed concrete. Spoke to groundworker and he said that limestone chippings are 3 times as expensive as road plainings so will look into price of limestone chippings around here. Your price did not seem too bad at all and you have done the whole school for about 15k which is very good. Thanks for all your help wil let you know how I progress.
 
Don't use tarmac chippings- they won't drain properly like hardcore!!

Out of interest how do you decide which rubber to go for? I am very anti tyres, but haven't found an affordable non-tyre rubber alternative!
 
Don't use tarmac chippings! Clean stone is what you want.

RE. TurfFloat. My contractor showed me one that he'd built and they had Silica sand and TurfFloat put on, I have to say I was VERY impressed with it! Springy and it hardly ever needed harrowing, however, it probably isn't as springy as sand and rubber. I decided on silica sand and Spring Tek rubber in the end, which is fab, but I wouldn't mind going for TurfFloat either!
 
[ QUOTE ]
Do you know anyone who has used Turf Float for a surface, had a chap ring me yesterday saying it was very low maintenance you dont need to keep raking it each time you use it it just falls in behind the horse.

[/ QUOTE ]

The last yard I was on for nearly 12 months had a Turfloat arena quite newly laid. Very expensive and was very disappointed. I hear it's the surface of choice for jumping but as I don't do much of that can't comment.

What I do know is it's rides very 'dead' and was very deep and dry in summer, getting full of holes when people had jumped or lunged. In winter it froze several times and was unuseable as it took days to thaw.

I'd be interested to hear what you do use as we are looking to build a manege ourselves in the next few months, just waiting for consent and quotes ATM but personally wouldn't bother with the above.
 
Dont think I will go with Turfloat have heard several not very good remarks about it - as you say rides very dead. Andrew Day well known trainer told me that sand and rubber is the most widely used surface all over the country. He has this at home and has 12 horses a day working on it and and levels it once a wekk - always picking up dropping straight away.
 
How many tonnes of rubber did you need for 20 x 60 arena and how much was it if this is not a rude question - sorry if it is just doing lots of research. You say Springtek is great - I will look into that one.
 
Just has a thought - groundworker said he woudl supply crushed conrete to go in base and then fill in with limestone chippings - is that correct or is the base ALL limestone?
 
60 tonnes (for a 40 x 60) was £5,000, although I think it has gone up recently!

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I used 18 tonnes on a 20x40, as long as you have a 2" covering over 4" silica sand...I didnt do the workings out , my dad did, he's a site manager so is clever like that lol. The terram (cant spell) was really overlapped just incase it moved.
Under my limestone i think are just old house bricks, just as long as water can drain you'll be fine.
We've had the most torrential rain in aaaages....roads were closed because of flooding and everything, but guess what..my menage is blinkin great haha, not one single solitary wet patch! AMAZING!
My groundworkers were tip top, my menage is about 1 1/2
foot higher then ground level and the groundworkers put a tiny gradient so all the water runs off at one end (obviously we have main drains in etc) you dont even notice it at all, made a huge difference to the drainage.
Im sure my rubber shreds were 20mm, theyre not huge chunks or fine bits, id say theyre just right.
 
We have just had a brand new school put in by a company that has just started doing them and it is brilliant and his prices are very good. The school is sand and rubber and we have a livery yard so it gets ridden on loads rides lovely great to jump on. Strongly recomend looking at this chap. pm me if youd like some contact details
 
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