park a caravan on a shingle base Post your questions and get answers regarding all areas of drives, pathways and patios

[Norman41]

The previous owner of my house has laid a shingle area to the side of the drive, the shingle is about 6 inches deep laid over a membrane.
I need to park a touring caravan on this area.
Would it be better to lay slabs on top of the shingle, mix the shingle with cement or is there a better option to prevent the caravan sinking into the shingle.
My wife is not too keen on the shingles as the grand children have a habit of kicking the small stones on to the surounding paths.
Thanks, Norman

[thedoctor]

Slabs laid on the shingle will be all over the place in no time Norman and the real answer to this question is how much do you want to spend. If your wife hates the shingle then scrape it all up and take a look at our builing a driveway or block paving projects. If you want to concrete then make sure your ground is solid with no soft spots and then lay a sub base of scalpings and concrete. You can use the shingle, mixed with sand (see our mixing concrete project) for the concrete. If you want to keep the shingle but lay "tracks" for the wheels of the van, then dig two "trenches" out of the shingle, lay 600mm x 600mm slabs on a 50mm bed of sharp sand and cement mixed at 6 to 1, fairly dry ( You should be able to squeeze a lump in your hand so that it stays together in a lump but does not leak water) then push the shingle back to the sides of the slabs.

[Norman41]

Hi, Thanks for the reply - I hope I haven't duplicated this message as my internet went down this morning.
My wife likes the look of the shingle area but the grandchildren have hit the windows a couple of times through kicking the shingles.
I wondered if I could mix the shingle with cement so as to keep the appearance - I have a cement mixer.
The base is very firm but as it is over six inches deep I am very wary about putting wheels onto it - the wheel barrow sinks if loaded.
The area is 17 x 16 metres and has a brick surround to enclose it
Thanks, Norman