Be Clear About This First
A Mill Can Price Timber. It Cannot Price a Build.
Searches for what an arena costs usually want a single number, and anyone who gives you one without seeing your site is guessing. Site work on a flat pasture and site work on a sloped, wet one are different projects before a stick of wood arrives.
What we can do is price our part precisely, because timber pricing is arithmetic rather than judgement. Board feet times a rate, plus surcharges that are published and fixed. No estimating, no allowance, no contingency.
That makes the timber line the most predictable item in an arena budget, which is useful when everything else is a range. It is also why it is worth pinning down early rather than carrying a placeholder.
Worked Examples
What Single Members Run
Sections and lengths that turn up on arena work, priced both ways. These are illustrative members rather than a design. Your engineer sets the real ones.
| Member | Length | Board Feet | Surcharge | Rate | Standard | At Volume |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8x8 | 16 ft | 85 | none | $4.60 | $393 | $307 |
| 10x10 | 20 ft | 167 | none | $4.60 | $767 | $600 |
| 12x12 | 20 ft | 240 | none | $4.60 | $1,104 | $864 |
| 12x12 | 30 ft | 360 | +$1.00 | $5.60 | $2,016 | $1,656 |
| 14x14 | 40 ft | 653 | +$3.00 | $7.60 | $4,965 | $4,312 |
| 16x16 | 40 ft | 853 | +$3.00 | $7.60 | $6,485 | $5,632 |
Rates exclude freight and any grade upgrade. Select Structural adds 30 percent to the stacked rate. Free of Heart Center adds $0.50 per board foot from 10x10 through 12x12 and is not available above that.
If the Number Is Too High
Four Levers, in the Order They Pay
People asking how to build an arena on a budget are usually offered thinner timber, which is the one thing nobody should do. The sizes come from an engineer and they are not where the saving lives. These four are.
1. Narrow the arena
By a distance the biggest lever, and the only one that has to be pulled before the drawings are done. Span drives member size non-linearly, so taking an 80 ft width down to 70 ft saves far more than the 12 percent the footprint suggests. It also keeps the sections inside ranges that are routine to cut rather than exceptional. If the riding you actually do fits in a narrower arena, this is the decision that funds everything else.
2. Cross the volume threshold rather than stopping short
Covered in full above. If the order lands within a few hundred board feet of 4,000, rounding it up costs less than stopping short, and you keep the extra timber. Spare members are not waste on a project like this. Something always needs replacing during the raise.
3. Spend the grade upgrade where it shows
Select Structural adds 30 percent to the stacked rate. Applied across a whole arena package that is a serious number, and most of it is spent on members nobody will ever look at closely. No. 1 Structural is the correct specification for the great majority of the frame. Save the upgrade for exposed columns, if anywhere, and the same logic applies to Free of Heart Center.
4. Be deliberate about length, in either direction
Going past 20 ft adds to the rate, so a frame designed around standard lengths is cheaper per board foot. But splices are hardware, labor and engineering, and a frame with fewer of them can come out ahead overall. This one genuinely goes both ways depending on the design, which is why it is worth asking your engineer to price it twice rather than assuming shorter is cheaper.
Worth saying plainly: on most covered arenas the timber is not the largest line in the budget. Site work, the riding surface and erection frequently beat it. Squeezing the timber has a floor, and past a point the better question is whether the arena is the right size rather than whether the wood is the right price.
Everything Else
What Sits Around the Timber
No prices here, because they depend on your site and we would be inventing them. This is the checklist, so nothing lands on you late.
Clearing, grading, drainage. Often the first surprise on a sloped property.
Piers or footings for the columns, and perimeter work. Engineered alongside the frame.
Base course and footing material. A real cost line, and the one that decides how the arena rides.
Ours. The part of this list we can price to the dollar.
Brackets, plates, bolts. Specified by your engineer, sized to the frame.
Metal panel, fasteners, trim, and insulation or a liner if the package needs one.
Two inch or three inch material rather than timber. Usually sourced locally.
Entry width matters more than people plan for. Equipment has to get in too.
Fixtures, conduit, and a service run that may be a long way from the house.
A covered arena is a permitted structure. The stamp is not optional.
Labor and craning. Your contractor, or Svensen Builders in Western Washington.
For a construction number rather than a materials one, that is a contractor's job. In Western Washington our partner company Svensen Builders works out of the same Arlington location and can price the build. Anywhere else, your own contractor, and we will supply them directly.
Getting an Exact Number
Send the Cut List
With sizes, lengths and quantities we will return a priced order, usually the same day, with the tier and every surcharge shown as a line rather than buried in a total. Without one, send the footprint and we will work from there. You can also run sections yourself on the load calculator, check the full rate card on the pricing page, or read how covering an arena changes the order.
Send a Cut List