The footing installed in the covered arena at The Oaks of Lake City is our Pinnacle
dust-free footing, while the Watchung Stables footing is GG-T Footing. This is sand mixed with geofelt and fibers, which does need a watering program to control the dust.

Generally, an arena’s ability to deal with large amounts of rain is more dependent on the base than the footing. A minimum requirement is a french drain along each low side of the arena. For arenas in wet climates, we recommend a herringbone pattern of small french drains across the entire arena.

However, a perfectly free-draining base built in layers is the best option. Start with 4 to 5 inches of compacted clean 1/5 inch drain rock with a layer of washed stone dust on top.

Another important aspect of the base is to make it slope to one edge (or two with a crown) and not to one corner. Draining from one corner to the opposite corner will cause the low corner to be constantly wet. We touched on some of this in our Arena Building 101 series in this blog.

To help with deep and dusty arenas in the summer, you can incorporate an additive like our GGT-Footing. The fibers knit the surface together to prevent it from being deep and the felt helps retain moisture in the footing.

Thank you for your question, and please let us know if we can be of any other assistance.

I live in the Jacksonville, Florida area and at times we can have up to a couple of inches of rain in one storm! How would the footing manage that much water? My ring is actually very good except when it gets hot and dry in the summer, then the dirt/sand mixture gets quite deep and very dusty.

Thank you.

Thank you for your question. For an outdoor arena, we use both the woven and non-woven Geotextiles for varied applications. It really depends on the soil make-up.

You are correct that the non-woven Geotextile is a felt that can have small pin holes in it that allow it to be permeable. We use it when we are not concerned with soil stabilization, especially where the soil sub-base does not have a high clay content. We typically use non-woven Geotextile when we trench drain tiles into the base, helping to speed run off.

When we build a base with a non-woven Geotextile (separating the base from the sub-base/soil), this allows water to pass through it. It keeps the fines from mixing with the aggregate base and keeps the aggregate (stone dust, etc.) from penetrating into the sub-base. We either use 3-5 inches of a washed stone dust or layer of base rock capped with 3-4 inches of stone dust to create the base structure above the non-woven Geotextile. Most arenas do not require this non-woven Geotextile to separate the sub-base from the base.

The woven Geotextile is used to reinforce and stabilize the sub-base when it has a high clay content. It acts as a moisture barrier by reducing the amount of water that permeates down from the footing and base surfaces. This keeps the integrity of the compacted sub-base from being comprised. We use the same base aggregate application as above.

In both of these examples we will have a grade in the arena of 1-1/2% minimum. This can be a crown in the center or sloped to one side, preferably to the long side. This aids in directing the water flow away from the center of the ring. We recommend drain tiles in the base that are parallel to edge that the arena is sloping too.

When you cover the entire arena and trench with a non-woven geotextile fabric, does that mean that the water is to drain through the cloth to the base? Non-woven geotextile is felt?
Felt will let the water through. A woven geotextile will allow about 1 to 3 percent of water through, the rest will run off.

Which would you use?