Stall Floor Material?

  I am looking to raise our steer barn floors up out of the mud and don't want to go with concrete.  I was wondering on what type of material everyone is having the best luck with.  Large grain sand, clay, clay/sand mix (called select fill in our area) or something different.  I have access through work pretty much any type of material.  It will be about 8 inches thick to raise it to the level needed.

<beer>

Crushed limestone packed really well with some water is about as good as it gets IMO, 2nd to concrete.

We used #2 road base, leveled, soaked, then viber plated it down for compaction, will give you a solid base to work from.

Make sure you have adequate drainage.  If you are raising it 8inches, you will be able to put a 57 stone down around some underdrain to take care of any water coming up.  You could also put down a layer of geofabric and then geogrid w/ a well graded aggregate slightly sloped to keep the area dry.

The road base/limestone is not 'hard' on their feet?  I guess it wouldn't be any worse than concrete.  I process many tons of it each year for the streets we build, so getting it and putting it in would be a breeze.

I like the limestone cause if done right is almost as good as concrete and you could use a loader to clean it if need be. I'd say no worse than concrete on their feet.

Thanks for the info guys.  I haven't been in the show cattle side in 20 years and there have been so many changes since I finished up.  My wife has never been involved before, but she has really taken a shine to it and has no issues with getting her hands dirty, so this has become our new family hobby!

<cowboy>

Crushed limestone packed is the best option

would decomposed granite work similar to crushed limestone?