Three stages, and you sign off each one
Nothing gets covered until you have seen it. At each stage we walk the arena with you, photograph and dimension what is there, and you approve it before the next layer goes on top. Most builds photograph only the finished surface, which is exactly backwards: the finished surface is the one part you can still see.
- 1
Sub-base and drainage
The topsoil is off, the formation is cut to its designed falls, and the drainage is in: perimeter interceptor, laterals at their designed centres, the carrier drain, and the outfall connected and proven to run.
What you sign off
- Formation levels and falls, measured rather than eyed
- Every drainage run photographed in open trench, with dimensions taken off fixed points
- Rodding eyes and silt trap positioned and recorded
- The outfall, and evidence that water actually leaves through it
Once stone goes over this, nobody sees it again for the life of the arena. This is the single most important set of photographs in the whole record.
Clean angular stone, not rounded gravel. The angularity is what lets it lock together and stay compacted. - 2
Base and drainage
The stone sub-base is built up and compacted in layers, drainage connections are made good through it, and the geotextile membrane is laid.
What you sign off
- Stone type, depth and compaction at each layer
- Drainage connections through the base, photographed before the membrane
- Membrane specification, laps and edge detail
- Levels re-checked after compaction, because compaction moves them
The membrane is the layer people forget. When an arena fails years later and stone is coming up through the surface, this is the photograph that tells us whether it was specified correctly or has simply been damaged since.
The membrane going down over the stone. This is the last moment anyone sees the base. - 3
Surface
The riding surface is supplied, laid, spread and levelled to its specified depth, then left to settle before it is ridden.
What you sign off
- Material, batch and supplier, recorded so a top up years later can be matched
- Depth measured at multiple points across the arena, not averaged
- Final levels, and the fall retained through the surface
- The ride check, and the snagging list that comes out of it
This is the only stage a client would normally ever see. On most builds it is also the only one that gets photographed, which is exactly backwards.
Surface material on the membrane, ready to be spread and levelled to depth.
The final report
The three stages come together as a single document you keep. It exists so that in twelve years somebody can work on this arena without excavating it to find out how it was built.
- A dimensioned drainage plan showing every run, connection, rodding point and the outfall, measured from fixed points that will still be there in twenty years.
- Stage photographs tied to those measurements, so a photograph is evidence rather than a nice picture.
- Materials and depths for every layer: stone type and depth, membrane specification, surface material, batch and supplier.
- The formation falls and the final levels.
- The three signed stage approvals, and the ride check snagging list with what was done about it.
Why you will be glad of it
- When you come to refurbish
- In twelve years, when the surface is spent, the first question is whether the base and drainage are still sound. With a record, that is a survey against a known specification. Without one it is trial holes and guesswork, and the guess is always priced in somebody's favour.
- When something goes wrong
- A blocked lateral is a morning's work if you know where it runs. If you do not, it starts with excavating to find out, and that is a cost that never needed to exist.
- When you dig anywhere near it
- Fencing, lighting, a new track, a building. Knowing exactly where the drainage runs is the difference between a post hole and an expensive repair.
- When you sell the property
- A documented arena with a known specification and a maintenance history is a described asset. An undocumented one is something a buyer has to take on trust or discount.
The care plan
Handover is not a set of keys and a wave. You get a plan written for the surface you actually own, because a well maintained sand arena rides better than a neglected waxed one, and most owners are never told how to look after the thing they just paid for.
What you have, in writing
The surface you actually own, its depth, and where to get matched material. Adding a different sand or fibre to an existing surface gives you two materials that behave differently and never quite integrate, which is a common and avoidable way to spoil a good arena.
How to maintain this surface
Not generic advice. The harrow settings for your material and depth, which direction to work, how often for the amount you ride, and when to pull the edges back in before the middle goes thin.
The seasonal jobs
What to check and when: the outfall cleared in autumn once the leaves are down, depth probed twice a year against the specification, watering in a dry spell if your surface needs it.
What normal looks like, and what does not
The changes that are simply use, and the ones that mean something is wrong underneath. Knowing the difference is what turns an expensive failure into a ten minute job.
Who to call, and when we come back
We return at four weeks once it has settled and been used, and again after the first winter, because a surface tells the truth in February rather than in July.