Neglected menage

09days

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Hi everyone,
I have to admit I'm not into horses just looking for some advice. In our back field we have a 38.5x19m menage that has kind of been neglected for the last 7 years. We have other animals (a couple of cows and sheep) and have used it to overwinter the sheep on. As far as I'm aware it is made up of around 20cmish of silver sand straight onto clay with rubber on top. It is now also mostly covered in grass that has grown thickly on the surface (not from underneath). Is there anyway to make it sellable? Ideally we'd like to replace it with topsoil, could it pay for that? I have quite a bit of spare time at the moment so happy to put hours in.

Thanks,
Sam
 

Red-1

I used to be decisive, now I'm not so sure...
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Idon't know about selling, but when we bought our place it was neglected, and had been down for about 30 years. There were stacks of plants, plus tree/bushes to about 5' tall.

I used spray on everything first, because the plants were big enough that if we tried to pull them up, the roots brought the membrane with them. So, I weed killed and when they were dead eased them out. TBH, I also rode on it, and the feet of the horses macerated what was left.

Once it was mainly clear of the bigger plants, we harrowed and picked out what vegetation was obvious. It then looked OK.

I did later top up with other material, plus added rubber. It has been OK for 22 years now!
 

flying_high

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Are you looking to get menage back to being useable? Or to sell the top surface? When you say replace it with top soil?
 

09days

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Thanks for the replies! It sounds like I may be able to make it useable then! Ultimately I don't want to use, it I want to sell it and hopefully make enough to buy top soil to replace it. However I'm not sure I'll be able to sell it without making it useable?
 
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The problem is unless you fix the surface whilst it is in place (I.e spray to kill off the weeds), it will not be a useable surface for anyone if you just try to scrap it all up weeds included.

You could advertise is as is and “buyer removes” but you’ll get very little for it but it would be moved and you could then replace with soil.

It’s it’s fully weeded and harrowed, you’ll obviously find it more sellable.
 
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