We are a new village club with a pieste
built as part of our new village hall.
It appears the pieste was built by putting
down a layer of scalpings,compacted and then covering with a mixture of sand and grit. The problem is that with use the layer of sand and grit has migrated to the edges and thinned. ( I suspect that it was too thin initially ) The result is that underlayer has been breaking loose. Our Club captain is going to add to the sand and grit layer. Is this a good idea?
Or should we be removing the sand and grit, making the lower level more solid and then putting in a layer of sand and grit ? We may add a second pieste next year, what should we do differently to avoid the same problem?

Oddly enough, I have come to play the game of boules by way of creating my own game called Rocks. My friends and I started playing one summer when we were at the beach and had no sporting goods with us. So we came up with a game called rocks. I always thought that it was a combination of curling and horseshoes but now i realize that it is simply petanque with rocks for boules. Feel free to check out the website I have put up for the organization that i have started with my friends. While it is a bit tongue in cheek we do take the game quite seriously.
cheers,
Doug Slater
Toronto, Canada
beginning to boule

It sounds like the problem is that the sand/gravel top coat was either too thin, as you suggest, but probably also isn't the best material to properly bind together and provide a more stable surface.

I've just resurfaced my own small terrain in the back garden that was also sand/stones, with Redgra. This is a specialist gravel manufactured in the UK by Hanson for all-weather sports surfaces and has a particular property of binding together to create a firm surface. IMHO it provide a VERY good approximation to the typical Terre Battue (baked clay) surface in Provence.

For your own terrain, does it have a wooden border to stop the spread of gravel? Assuming you're going to top-up the gravel, you could also try watering it then compacting it which should help it bind-in a bit better with the underlying stones.

Keith Sloan wrote:
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We are a new village club with a pieste
built as part of our new village hall.
It appears the pieste was built by putting
down a layer of scalpings,compacted and then covering with a mixture of sand and grit. The problem is that with use the layer of sand and grit has migrated to the edges and thinned. ( I suspect that it was too thin initially ) The result is that underlayer has been breaking loose. Our Club captain is going to add to the sand and grit layer. Is this a good idea?
Or should we be removing the sand and grit, making the lower level more solid and then putting in a layer of sand and grit ? We may add a second pieste next year, what should we do differently to avoid the same problem?

I guess that an address would help if anyone wanted to go and visit eh?
http://rockscanada.tripod.com/index1.html
cheers
doug


Doug Slater wrote:
------------------------------------

Oddly enough, I have come to play the game of boules by way of creating my own game called Rocks. My friends and I started playing one summer when we were at the beach and had no sporting goods with us. So we came up with a game called rocks. I always thought that it was a combination of curling and horseshoes but now i realize that it is simply petanque with rocks for boules. Feel free to check out the website I have put up for the organization that i have started with my friends. While it is a bit tongue in cheek we do take the game quite seriously.
cheers,
Doug Slater
Toronto, Canada
beginning to boule