Did anyone put their arena in themselves? Advice/Help

[LucyMay]

I'm so frusturated trying to ride in the bad footing over the winter! And we got a quote but I don't think we can afford it right now....septic/excavating guy to come out and give us a quote for a 90 by 190 arena...Grading the surface to a 1 degree crown and compacting then 6 inches of stone dust and compacting then 1 and a half inches of sand. The quote was for 12k for grading/excavating/rolling work and then 8k for stonedust and 1,500 for sand.

Has anyone rented equipment and done the work themselves or could recommend someone to get a quote from in the mid-atlantic area? Any other ideas appreciated!

[FoxChaser]

You have a very long PM :)

[Debbie]

I'd actually love that info as well. My grass over clay footing got so slick for all December and most of January that I pretty much threw in the towel on riding, but I can't afford to hire an arena done for at least a few more years.

[JB]

OMG, 12k for the grading/rolling? Mine was about 1/3 of that.

Definitely get more quotes. What is $12k based on? 3 weeks of a little bobcat? Equipment rental is more, but time is MUCH less if they use a motor grader. Ask around nearby barns with rings - who did theirs? Mine was done by a guy who mostly does road stuff, but he does rings on the side. I did have to wait for him a bit when his real job called, but for the price it was well worth it.

[FoxChaser]

Debbie, I sent you the PM too :)

[didgery]

Can I get the inside story too?? I have NO arena budget now, but I hope to have something saved up within a couple of years and unfortunately there's no way it's going to be $20k.

[FoxChaser]

Done! Fence2Fence should write a book ;)

[Phoebe]

Could I please get the skinny too? We are in process of figuring out what we want for ring and the prices seem awfully high - we keep thinking we could do it ourselves with rented equipment but would love to hear actual experience and some ideas of what to watch out for

Thanks

[KarenC]

Me too. Or three or four. Same quandry here.

[didgery]

Great message, thanks for sending it!

[cherham]

We just completed our 100 x 240 foot outdoor sand ring last year and did a lof of the work ourselves. Still not cheap! Had to hire a bulldozer to remove the topsoil and crest the base so that the water would run off. Then hired a drainage engineering company to come in and laser level the riding surface and install drains all around the perimeter and ends of the ring.

After that we ordered all the screenings and two types of sand by the tandem dump load....load after load after load. It seemed to never end. We spread all the surface materials ourselves and rented a tamper for an entire weekend to first compact the base.

Then of course final landscape grading, seeding, shrubs etc etc etc. Took a whole summer of work but now all done. Could not be happier with it.

We were receiving quotes in the mid 30's and up. No way could manage that as we are only a private facility. I think we were still about $18,000 though...everything in.

[S1969]

OMG, 12k for the grading/rolling? Mine was about 1/3 of that.

Definitely get more quotes. What is $12k based on? 3 weeks of a little bobcat? Equipment rental is more, but time is MUCH less if they use a motor grader. Ask around nearby barns with rings - who did theirs? Mine was done by a guy who mostly does road stuff, but he does rings on the side. I did have to wait for him a bit when his real job called, but for the price it was well worth it.

I agree to get additional quote; my materials were far more than my excavator's time/machine operation. That said, our excavation work was *relatively* simple in as much as it *only* required removing topsoil & grading, etc.....a virtually dead flat location with no rocks and no trees. So of course if your site requires a lot more "prep" (tree removal, etc.) maybe that is why your excavation rates are so much higher? But it never hurts to get additional quotes for machine operators, especially. Materials shouldn't be too drastically different and are also easy to check on by calling around for load pricing.

[Foxhound]

FoxChaser,
Could you please send me the PM as well? We are looking to build and put in an arena. I would appreciate any information that people can share with me.

[classicsporthorses]

Our small ring is 65-95 and we did it mostly ourselves. All tolled I think it was under 5K, including site work. We have 8 inches of stone dust and about 3 inches of mason sand, we moved that ourselves wheelbarrow after wheel barrow too.

What REALLY work for us at least is that we had the site work and limestone put down in the fall. I let it sit all winter and then I had graded it in the spring. This way it settled first. It came out nearly perfect.

We plan on expanding that ring to 80/120 in 09 and have already had the site work done and the top soil removed. We were also able to sell our top soil which really helped with the overall cost. Who knew Dirt went for so much!

[FoxChaser]

I would post the arena info I have on here, but it is loooooooong to say the least! I've posted it on my blog, so please check it out there: http://www.chronicleofmyhorse.com/profiles/blogs/arena-building-101?xgs=1

[FatPalomino]

I would post the arena info I have on here, but it is loooooooong to say the least! If anyone else would like it, feel free to PM me and I'll send it on. :) Me too. Or three or four.

[ponygirl]

FoxChaser you have a pm! Okay, you have many PMs but you have only 1 from me. :)

[LucyMay]

Great helpful stuff guys! I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one out there who dosen't have that much money for an arena...I've been trying to ride in the muck all winter and keep gettting on and just walking and worrying that riding will end up being like this forever! I have hope now!!!!

[LucyMay]

I'm curious on everyone's opinions regarding depth of base.... What have people done and are they happy with it?

[Brydelle Farm]

I would post the arena info I have on here, but it is loooooooong to say the least! If anyone else would like it, feel free to PM me and I'll send it on. :)

PM sent...TIA!! :)

[FoxChaser]

I've been getting a ton of PMs :) I'm happy to share second-hand the information my friend, Katie, sent me on how she did her arena. Please read up on it on my blog page at: http://www.chronicleofmyhorse.com/profiles/blogs/arena-building-101?xgs=1

[LAZ]

I hired a bulldozer guy that came in, stripped off topsoil, made drains and compacted the subsoil. We put down geotextile fabric, then a couple inches of #8 stones (1-2"), then about 6" of fines. Graded for a crown, compacted, it then rained and the whole thing turned to soup. Regraded, recompacted, rained, soup again. I went to the gravel store, looked at what they had, bought 12's (3/8), graded and mixed that in with the fines and the the base hardened up like magic. We rode on that for about 2 months, it was hard as pavement so put about 1 1/2 inches of washed concrete sand on top of that. It's been nearly perfect, drains, we can ride on it regardless of rain.

My arena is 120 x 200 and it cost about $26,000 to put in--the main costs were in the stone and geotextile fabric.

[Watermark Farm]

I researched doing it myself but wound up with a hybrid after hearing many stories of arena installation (both professional and not) gone very wrong. it's a huge investment and the road to arena building is paved with horror stories. Do your homework, research the heck out of everything, and find out what failed with bad arenas.

I used an arena contractor but acted as the general, coordinating materials and trucking, which cut way down on cost. I paid him in cash under the table, which saved us money. Our arena is 90x160 (94x164 with the shoulder -- do cost the shoulder, as it adds up!). Contractor scraped the flat site and compacted, put down geotextile fabric, then what was ultimately a 12" base (flat site that floods in winter so the engineer designed it like a "rock island" so that it could handle constant water contact. This drove up the price substantially) made of 3/4 by fines baserock. Base is capped with a 3" layer of 1/4" by dust that's creamed up like cement from the vibratory roller.

Compaction rates of the base are crucial. Compaction is a real art and requires a skilled operator. Also, you don't want a contractor who is moving your base material around a lot as it makes the fines separate from the big rocks and you wind up with inconsistent compaction rates (soft spots or worse later), aka "popcorn." Compaction should be 95% and up.

We crowned our arena at a slope of slightly less than 2%. I am very happy we went with more slope as it drains very well. Contractor pushed for 1% dressage arena slope, but many people told me they felt their arenas flattened out over the years and encouraged starting with more slope.

Contractor was $25,000 with the base costing about $20,000 (materials and trucking). Fencing and footing ran another $10,000. So about $55,000 total. My husband and I put in the fencing, kick rails, and footing over a 2 month period. If we'd had the same contractor do a turn-key project, it would have run $85K for the same arena.

The arena is now 2 years old and is simply amazing to ride on, with no down time for winter weather!