Indoor Arena Height

[Brown_Derby]

@endlessclimb

Ok until Pookie decides it’s rodeo time.

No joke. This is how the late, talented FEI rider Terry Koenig was presumably killed. Low indoor height. Please consider some of the suggestions here.

[Clark.kait121]

Good news everyone. I talked to the Civil Engineer today and it looks like digging out the footing and taking the original “floor” down 4-6’ is the best option as far as cost/value. I asked specifically about flooding and drainage and, when done right, will not be an issue. Thank you everyone for the suggestions. Believe me I am well aware of the height issue and will definitely be taking my noggin into consideration, being an ex-racing cyclist I have already experienced multiple concussions and its not my intention to get another.

I hope this also helps the people that may want to add height to their existing arena too.

Thank you again for all the suggestions/advice! Happy riding :).

[js]

@Clark.kait121

That was actually another thing we were looking at lol. The arena is a little over 150’x60’ and I believe the peak height is 18’. Thank you for all the suggestions! This is really helping me feel more confident about solutions… even though they may be expensive. It’s looking like a commercial roof lifter would charge a minimum 100k, so i’m ruling out the option, a new indoor would be a better option to that.

Is it’ 12’ at the sides and 18’ in the middle? I’m not sure adding 4-6" on the sides is going to accomplish much, still going to be very low. Most suggest 14’ as a minimum height.

You might want to sit on your horse and have someone measure from the ground to the top of your head while mounted to see just how tall you/your horse are, then see how much head room you will have. I would also hesitate on digging down unless your engineer is positive there will be no drainage into the arena if there is rain etc.

[Clark.kait121]

@js

Is it’ 12’ at the sides and 18’ in the middle? I’m not sure adding 4-6" on the sides is going to accomplish much, still going to be very low. Most suggest 14’ as a minimum height.

You might want to sit on your horse and have someone measure from the ground to the top of your head while mounted to see just how tall you/your horse are, then see how much head room you will have. I would also hesitate on digging down unless your engineer is positive there will be no drainage into the arena if there is rain etc.

12’ at the side and 18’ at the center, but we were planning to dig it down 4-6 feet. So we should end up with an arena with a “ceiling” height of 16-18 feet. I don’t think 6 inches would do much either :).

I am pretty confident with the Engineer, she’s been working in the field a long time and has been to the property already. She conveniently has taken an interest to the horse stuff and has kindly consulted other engineers for me out of curiosity about our world. She mentioned something about shore walls and retaining walls.

[clanter]

The arena is a little over 150’x60’

going down six feet will require removing about 2,000 cubic yards of dirt …a small mountain

You may be able to sell the dirt for fill …you will have about 100 18 wheeler dump loads

be sure there is a site inspection for buried utilities

[Clark.kait121]

@clanter

going down six feet will require removing about 2,000 cubic yards of dirt …a small mountain

You may be able to sell the dirt for fill …you will have about 100 18 wheeler dump loads

be sure there is a site inspection for buried utilities

Great idea! Will do!

[Bluey]

@Clark.kait121

12’ at the side and 18’ at the center, but we were planning to dig it down 4-6 feet. So we should end up with an arena with a “ceiling” height of 16-18 feet. I don’t think 6 inches would do much either :).

I am pretty confident with the Engineer, she’s been working in the field a long time and has been to the property already. She conveniently has taken an interest to the horse stuff and has kindly consulted other engineers for me out of curiosity about our world. She mentioned something about shore walls and retaining walls.

Guess that you can go down without hitting rock?
That would complicate things, greatly.

Would be interesting how they will enter such a deep hole on that small size arena without losing considerably riding floor space.
Maybe it is on enough of a slope, the low end is all these feet down.

How much did they built up the site to build the arena, maybe they are considering these feet also?
Most are built on a 2’ pad over the surrounding terrain, that is standard here for any structure.
If so, you really only have to go down on the level 2’ less than your desired extra height.

You may consider riding in there for a bit before deciding what to do and if taking soil, how much deeper you really need to go.

[js]

How will you do the transition from the entrance and exit from the indoor to other attached buildings or the outside?

[clanter]

personally I would at least get a quote from a building mover company that has the expertise …they could jacket that building straight up then insert a new foundations wall or extend the legs of the columns … I really would think they have done similar things before and could be straight forward with an answer

I do not know these people but their web site shows that they could have the ability I would think (been wrong there before) that it would be less expensive to raise the structure rather than remove 2,000 cu/yd of materiial (also remove replace the arena footing

http://www.rybergconstruction.com/

If you go the digging route make sure at the foot of the ramp there is french drain that goes into a sump with an all weather pump that can remove a high volume of water into an area of drainage… also might want to have the sloped ramp surface have incorporated a heating element to melt snow/ice … this will be a shadowed area no matter.

My company did a project for the city of Fort Worth on the Fort Worth Botanic Garden… the landscape design had us put our gate operators below grade… I told them that was not a good idea, which was met with with We Know What We Are Doing. which I said OK

Got the equipment in, during the acceptance tests we had a thundershower… everything worked fine until the water from the upper parking lot ran down the street into the gate operator pits flooding them with water putting six inches of water over the top of the 480 volt operators … change order was issued afterwards as I had inserted a clause in the contract about the potential of flooding damage and that was not a warranty event.

[endlessclimb]

@clanter

personally I would at least get a quote from a building mover company that has the expertise …they could jacket that building straight up then insert a new foundations wall or extend the legs of the columns … I really would think they have done similar things before and could be straight forward with an answer

I do not know these people but their web site shows that they could have the ability I would think (been wrong there before) that it would be less expensive to raise the structure rather than remove 2,000 cu/yd of materiial (also remove replace the arena footing

http://www.rybergconstruction.com/

If you go the digging route make sure at the foot of the ramp there is french drain that goes into a sump with an all weather pump that can remove a high volume of water into an area of drainage… also might want to have the sloped ramp surface have incorporated a heating element to melt snow/ice … this will be a shadowed area no matter.

My company did a project for the city of Fort Worth on the Fort Worth Botanic Garden… the landscape design had us put our gate operators below grade… I told them that was not a good idea, which was met with with We Know What We Are Doing. which I said OK

Got the equipment in, during the acceptance tests we had a thundershower… everything worked fine until the water from the upper parking lot ran down the street into the gate operator pits flooding them with water putting six inches of water over the top of the 480 volt operators … change order was issued afterwards as I had inserted a clause in the contract about the potential of flooding damage and that was not a warranty event.

A few columns to hold my mom’s house up from falling down the hill ran her around 20k, so I don’t think 100k is out of the question in regards to quotes. Totally depends on the actual structure though.