Quote: Originally posted by Therealcampsite on 31/1/2016
Quote: Originally posted by Jakers on 30/1/2016We have 10 awps, installed as you say but loose the gravel board as tents come in too many shapes and sizes, you seriously limit the pitch size edging the pitch. Plus it acts as a container for the rain so you risk ended up with 'ponds'. Also no sharp stone we filled terram with approx 4-6" of rounded gravel single size, they have been extremely popular here, good luck.
Thank you, Jakers. Glad to hear your AWP's have been well received. We think/hope that offering them alongside grass will be an attractive thing for potential campers.
Interesting what you say about forming Ponds - we don't want that!
Main reasons for using some edging boards is to contain the gravel whilst at the same time enabling us to provide a level area on what is currently a mild slope. Perhaps if I didn't lap the terram up the side of the board that would provide some 'run off' for any trapped water.
As for limiting the size of tents, the size of pitch we are going to make AWP is 9m x 5m, this is within an overall grass pitch of typically 20m wide x 16m deep (not in the ground!) Do you think 9m x 5m would cause problems with restricting the size of tents?
Our all weather area is 8mtrs by 6mtrs and we have those who overspill - the long thin is better than the short fat BUT tents are not regular sizes EVER! We no longer allow spider/pod type tents as we found they just didn't fit on the AWP AND if they were on grass just made an horrific muddy patch.
The trouble with terram is whilst it is semi permeable it actually doesn't drain very quickly - so, if like we do, you get a torrential downpour that gives you an inch of rain in a hour you need significantly longer for it to 'seep' through the terram to the ground.... we edged all of our compacted hardstanding caravan pitches and the following year removed all edging as we simply got ponds! My husbands a civil engineer so knows his stuff and thought ( wrongly ) we were engineering it correctly.
We 'turned up' the terram around the pitch edges as it's strong enough stuff to 'hold' the gravel in place, we have little overspill onto grass - that is made by customers ( children normally ) who like to dig it up - it's not compacted for ease of 'pegging' altho 'pegging for most tents we have found now takes place in the grass surrounding it. The overall pitch size here is 10mtrs by 8 mtrs if you look at our website and select 'pitch types' you can 'see them'. we sought advice from FForest FFields prior to construction some 6 years ago I would advise against bigger stuff underneath, you put bigger gravel underneath the small stuff just drops through, unless you are going to top up each year? not at all comfortable for the customer...
Thank you once again Jakers for your input - plenty to think about!
I think instead of edging boards I will dig down to level the pitch, then fill with gravel and use the surrounding grass to contain the gravel. It may be that at the front (lowest) edge of a pitch I will have to use gravel board, at least then there will be 3 'open' sides to aid drainage.
We will make sure that the AWP size is clearly stated on our website and ask people to make sure their tent fits! We might even consider enlarging what we already have which is a 9m x 5m patch of bare earth left after 5 years with a Featherdown tent on top of it.
I hear you on not using larger stone underneath as some have. We're aiming for an even coverage of 5 inches of rounded 20mm stone.
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Quote: Originally posted by David Klyne on 02/2/2016
Sorry, until I looked at UKCampsites website I didn't realise that you only accept tents, not sure you make this clear on your own website unless I wsn't looking in the right place? Do tents really need hadstandings?
David
Yes we are tent only, we do only mention camping on the website but I can see that we need to perhaps emphasise that we are tents only.
We are keen to avoid the grass getting killed off by larger tents over longer periods as we understand that people will be less than keen to move a large tent after a week or so (about as long as grass will survive and recover when conditions are right) We also want to offer a cleaner easier option for camping - no more mud being walked in to the tent etc. AWP's are so much better in the event of a downpour when the ground under your tent can get saturated when on grass. Much has been written on UKCS about the merits. Not for everybody we understand but increasingly popular for those in the know.
I know its all personal preference, but if your pitches are 20x16 ish then adding a nicely sized awp somewhere in that pitch would be very favourable, most large std style tents even with extensions on them would fit, say in half that size 10x8.
again personal preference, but i wouldn't like to have a restriction, at the front of the awp section of the pitch such as a board, it restricts where you can put your tent on the pitch.
I personally dont like to walk out onto the awp from my tent, grass is more comfortable.
if it was in the middle say, at the back, this would give most tent designs adequate chance to step out from the front or either side onto grass? most of the tent would be sat on the awp?
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Topic: All weather pitch construction
I would advise against bigger stuff underneath, you put bigger gravel underneath the small stuff just drops through, unless you are going to top up each year? not at all comfortable for the customer...
