snowhitex
Member
hello people i have a dilemma we are buildin a sand school an cant decide whether to have membrane or not 1 of us is sayin yes an the other is sayin no(we're goin halves) wat do you think?????
sand schools
- Thread starter snowhitex
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Cop-Pop
Well-Known Member
Do it - theres a sand school at the yard I livery on and when they YO bothered to maintain it it really helped stop the weeds comng through. Since shes given up it looks awful tho!
Booboos
Well-Known Member
You have to do something you can't just lay the stone and pop the sand on top as all the stones would ride up and all the sand would work its way down.
You have two options:
- membrane is the most common one. Ideally you need a high quality membrane to allow water through but not the sand. Membranes are rated by number, the higher the better, so something like 100 would be the common variety used in gardens (not good enough for an arena), something like 500 would be more suitable for the fine sands used in arenas. If correctly laid the membrane should not cause you any problems, i.e. you need to carefully tack it to all the retaining boards and seal the strips with each other so that there are no gaps where the sand can go under and cause the membrane to ride up.
- blinding layer: this is a layer of finer stone, compacted to just the right consistency to allow water through but not stones. There trick here it to lay it absolutely level, have the right type of stone and compact it to just the right amount. If it is bumpy your surface will be bumpy. If it is overcompacted it won't allow water through, if it is undercompacted it will allow stones up/sand down. The cost of this option depends on the availability of the stone locally, the travelling distance ot the quarry and the access to the site.
On the whole, unless you know your stone well, membrane is a much easier option.
You have two options:
- membrane is the most common one. Ideally you need a high quality membrane to allow water through but not the sand. Membranes are rated by number, the higher the better, so something like 100 would be the common variety used in gardens (not good enough for an arena), something like 500 would be more suitable for the fine sands used in arenas. If correctly laid the membrane should not cause you any problems, i.e. you need to carefully tack it to all the retaining boards and seal the strips with each other so that there are no gaps where the sand can go under and cause the membrane to ride up.
- blinding layer: this is a layer of finer stone, compacted to just the right consistency to allow water through but not stones. There trick here it to lay it absolutely level, have the right type of stone and compact it to just the right amount. If it is bumpy your surface will be bumpy. If it is overcompacted it won't allow water through, if it is undercompacted it will allow stones up/sand down. The cost of this option depends on the availability of the stone locally, the travelling distance ot the quarry and the access to the site.
On the whole, unless you know your stone well, membrane is a much easier option.
lazybee
Well-Known Member
I put our sand school down directly onto grass. As long as the sand is deep enough with a suitable retaining 'kick plate' fitted all the way round you won't have a problem. I haven't had anything growing through it at all. I may have been lucky with properties of the sand. It's porous enough to allow draining but dense enough to suffocate all the grass beneath. It's now 8yrs old and doing fine.
Mainland
Well-Known Member
This subject has been discussed at length here http://www.horseandhound.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=518982