those that have had menages built

[I_A_P]

just out of curiosity please

which surface have you had on, and which do you think is best for all round use? and fairly cheap

also, how much did it cost? did you do anything yourself, is so what did you do?

im just asking as we have been nagging at my dad to put a menage in for the last year or so, and as he does a lot of digger work we have been thinking that he could probably do most of the preperation and drainage work himself, would just like to know ins and outs
many thanks

 

[airedale]

sand with PVC on top - but you'd have to top up the PVC after about 4 years

much cheaper than rubber (and doesn't make the bottom of the horses legs black from the rubber if the legs are white)

must be the 'right' grade of sand and not just any old builders sand

 

[vicster]

PVC sand and Rubber on the top, ours was built before we got there so not sure on costs although i know someone that paid around £10,000 for one

 

[MrsMagoo]

our yards just had a mashoooosive one built, sand and rubber on top and all work done by contractors...your looking in the region on £30,000....

 

[vicster]

OMG that is a huge amount of money holy hell

 

[miller]

Literally just had a 20x50m silica sand with rubber builte - completely fenced - total was £18600 but the guy has just put the price up a bit.

Personally I would go sand and rubber every time but it isn't the cheapest surface - woodchip/fibre is cheaper (guy we had does that too) but it degrades quicker and will need replacing completely whereas sand/rubber or sand/pvc just needs a rubber/pvc top up.

Where are you? I can forward you the details of our guy?

 

[I_A_P]

thanks, im on norfolk/suffolk border, it will be useful to have good contacts fr the ruture as im pestering dad enought at the moment, and hes really busy!

i have 2 instructors and i must say i prefer the sand and rubber

 

[miller]

Fran - our guy is right near you then! We are lincs/norfolk border and he is from Soham nr Ely!

Take a look at www.mallowarenas.co.uk

Can't fault ours and he was done in 2 weeks (very little groundwork as we are in the fens and field was dead flat already - well 2" drop along the 50m)

Drop me a PM if you want to know any more

 

[Triskar]

Have just self-built 42 x 20m manege with all new timber, 280 tonne clean drainage stone, 80 tonne blinding grit, 300 tonne basalt sand and 22 tonne dust extracted rubber ( so £1k dearer than usual rubber) cost including plant hire around £13k. Basalt surface absolutely brilliant in the drought - horses still rinding on top of it, very little dust, but it can ride hard, which is why the rubber.

 

[henryhorn]

We did our own, sea sand and silica mixed (we already had the silica in the indoor school) and added jackson's rubber.
It has no drains as the land drains really well there, a membrane , sleepers and post and rail round.
It has been usable all year round, perfect in winter (see blog pics back in the archives for building in progress) and the biggest problem has been a little dusty this summer.
cost £11000 to do ourselves includes some contracting (paid digger hire, men to fence it but we did the rest)

 

[dieseldog]

We made our own. Bought a very old tracked digger, did all the work ourselves. Went to the local building sites where they were demolishing buildings and let them dump the stone up here FOC as the base, put in loads of drains, got the surface for free from the local police force, got the fencing for free as friend was a tree surgeon. So it was pretty cheap to build a 60x25 arena. We do need to add some rubber to it now though and think that will be about £3k.

 

[Giggs]

We put in 35mx62m at our our riding school/livery yard early on last winter. Had to do it all from scratch including levelling the site. We had drains put in, membrane underneath and then silica sand and rubber as the surface. It gets used around 9 hours a day and so far is standing up to it really well. Only problem we've had is if we don't get it levelled each day, it can wear down on the track and expose membrane.
The surface only froze one day through the winter (and we were minus figures with serious snow for two weeks).
Cost was £24,000 with contactors doing it all and then a post and rail fence all the way round for £2500.