New school basketball surface - Replacing uneven playground

[Jer05]

Very helpful website - Thanks!

At our school we have an 18m x 27m tarmac playground with a fall of 530mm across opposite corners to a single gully.
Despite this the surface is uneven and ponds. The court is surrounded on all sides by tubular and chainlink fencing. On two sides there are concrete kerbs on the other two the surface finishes into concrete steps, or a wall.

We would like to renew the surface and are considering breaking out the existing bitmac, relaying the subbase to level up the court with a 1 in 80 cross fall to a drainage kerb or channel along the lowest side and then to a new soakaway. Use maybe 50mm binder and 30mm surface ensuring we have a Min of 150mm subbase (to correct the levels - in some parts we will have whatever is there + 225mm or more to level it up.

Questions:

1) I have seen a pc concrete kerb on highways with drainage channel in the edge facing the tarmac but can't locate a supplier?

2) Bearing in mind the steps and wall on two sides would this area be practical to machine lay?

Regards

Jer

[msh paving]

DaveL our tarmac expert will be along soon, he will put in the right direction MSH

[Dave_L]

I'll try and answer in detail later, method statements and risk assessments etc to do tonight.

[Tony McC]

The kerb-drain units are reasonably easy to locate if you ask at a CIVILS merchant rather than the usual unhelpful Builders' Merchant. Marshalls and Aco are just two of the names that spring to mind, and there's plenty more on the drainage suppliers page.

If you can get a machine in to the site, then I would definitely recommend that method of laying over hand-lay any day of the week. It gives you much greater control over accurate profiling and levels. There are smaller machines that can be used on tricky sites.

I'd also recommend you get AT LEAST three reputable blacktop contractors to take a look at the work. It may be that an overlay would be adequate rather than ripping up all that existing surfacing, and they may be able to identify simpler drainage routes. With almost 500m² of black to lay, you should have no problem in getting decent *professional* contractors interested in taking a look.

[lutonlagerlout]

we had to get a larger area resurfaced for a school and the cost was astronomical,as i remember it was a specialist contractor that did it in the end,and they did all the lines for various courts etc too
i will see if i can find the paperwork
LLL

[Dave_L]

Sports surfaces are tricky to lay and get right - but my reply is-as Tony says really.

I would definitely get 3 decent contractors in to quote.