Unless you do a proper construction job you're wasting your time as this is not a job you want to do twice. Depending on the subsoil you may have to remove anything down to 600mm depth, compact the subsoil surface, fill with two compacted layers of crushed rock sub-base (local quarry or builders' merchant).
Make sure the track is plenty wide enough for the widest vehicle, and then a bit more, and the finished level is 150mm above the adjacent ground, otherwise you will find vehicles running along the edge of the track and dragging soil onto it, making a mess of your job.
I agree with Joe - dig out and compact base then fill with crushed concrete/rubble/hardcore and compact again (or get tractor to drive back and forth over it lots of times) and then top off with a finer grade hardcore type stuff.
It may be worthwhile letting local farmers/builders know that you have a need for broken up hardcore as they sometimes have to get rid of it and would have to pay to take it to a tip.
But make sure they know it must be broken up (or rather down) to a size that can be compacted before they deliver it, as otherwise you'll get chunks the size of half a house tipped up on your driveway.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It'll depend what the subsoil is like. In the worst case you may need 600; you could get away with less, but I would base my design on the worst case during the year.
I would ask the farmer first what he advises as they must be used to making tracks.
If it's only going to be used 1 or 2 times a year, you might as well just grass it over and see what happens - you could always reseed if if necessary and it's probably the cheapest option. The other cheapish option is coarse bark mulch, if you can get it by the lorry load and just replenish it as and when.
To go for the "proper job" (although desirable) is probably going to be too expensive - our 40m x 40m hardstanding 7 years ago was about £900 from memory.
Just as an update as the tractor has just been through 6 times, existing dirt road unmarked by it (v dry - so ground v hard aT the mo), but it wasnt wide enough with the trailer attached doh! Have to move the bed back a bit.
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Unless you do a proper construction job you're wasting your time as this is not a job you want to do twice. Depending on the subsoil you may have to remove anything down to 600mm depth, compact the subsoil surface, fill with two compacted layers of crushed rock sub-base (local quarry or builders' merchant).
Make sure the track is plenty wide enough for the widest vehicle, and then a bit more, and the finished level is 150mm above the adjacent ground, otherwise you will find vehicles running along the edge of the track and dragging soil onto it, making a mess of your job.
I agree with Joe - dig out and compact base then fill with crushed concrete/rubble/hardcore and compact again (or get tractor to drive back and forth over it lots of times) and then top off with a finer grade hardcore type stuff.
It may be worthwhile letting local farmers/builders know that you have a need for broken up hardcore as they sometimes have to get rid of it and would have to pay to take it to a tip.
But make sure they know it must be broken up (or rather down) to a size that can be compacted before they deliver it, as otherwise you'll get chunks the size of half a house tipped up on your driveway.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
im hoping 600mm is a typing error! That seems huge.
I suppose it's worth bearing in mind that if the access is only needed for haymaking, the ground should be pretty firm at that time of year.
Haymaking is rarely done in wet weather
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
It'll depend what the subsoil is like. In the worst case you may need 600; you could get away with less, but I would base my design on the worst case during the year.
I would ask the farmer first what he advises as they must be used to making tracks.
If it's only going to be used 1 or 2 times a year, you might as well just grass it over and see what happens - you could always reseed if if necessary and it's probably the cheapest option. The other cheapish option is coarse bark mulch, if you can get it by the lorry load and just replenish it as and when.
To go for the "proper job" (although desirable) is probably going to be too expensive - our 40m x 40m hardstanding 7 years ago was about £900 from memory.
Less than £1 per square metre sounds like a bargain to me, even at 2007 prices!
Sorry Joe, got my metric/imperial mixed up, I think it must have been 40ft x 40ft,not metres. As you say, it sounds rather cheap!
Just as an update as the tractor has just been through 6 times, existing dirt road unmarked by it (v dry - so ground v hard aT the mo), but it wasnt wide enough with the trailer attached doh! Have to move the bed back a bit.