Help a lady please gentlemen and other ladies :) - Drainage and groundworks help needed

[Meerkat]

I am intending to build a turnout area for my horses this spring/summer on my land for when the weather is poor as my horses churn up the fields terribly. My land is at the bottom of a hill and we are on clay so it can turn into a swamp.

The area, which will be about 20x20m needs to drain well and it must be safe for the horses to amble on. So the surface can't be too hard, like concrete, plus concrete gets quite slippery. Some people have suggested road planings/scalpings but I'm not sure how hard this is? I assume they would have to be rolled so that they aren't too loose and the horses don't mush them up. Also, are road scalpings porous? Our land is right next to the road so assume ill have to be careful with loads of water running off the scalpings and onto the road if they are porous.

Has anyone used road scalpings? Are there different types? Asphalt..?

Sorry for being so naive. Heard rather conflicting info.

[Dave_L]

A decent strong stone sub base, properly compacted, topped off with 100mm or so of road planings will be fine; this is what we have done before for horse yard areas exactly the same as yours.

[GB_Groundworks]

As Dave said

Area needs to be stripped down to could firm ground, all soil removed so its firm clay then ideally some geotextile put down then

A good 100mm of type 1 that's stone graded under 40mm with plenty of fines in it roll that then blind it with the cold planings and roll, yeh
porrus but clay isn't so you might get ponding in really heavy rain

We've just done a bigger area next to a new sand school we just built for trailers and horses waiting.



Edited By GB_Groundworks on 1389218448