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I've used hardstanding before and its no problem, in fact, I find it better to use than grass at times, a lot of people think "hardstanding" is just a strip of hard concrete, well it is if you have a caravan or motorhome, but for tent use its normaly a 6 inch layer of pea shingle laid over soil.

You just have to make sure you have some long tent pegs, I use 12-15" rock pegs just to make sure I get a good solid purchase in the ground, I then use a plastic tarpaulin first then my footprint, I've never had a problem with any rips at all.

Because any rain water drains away you will never suffer from water ingress in your tent, and apart from a bit of chalky type dust your groundsheet and footprint is kept a lot cleaner, I just wish a lot more campsites would use it as you don't need any ground "recovery" time, or have to pitch on a very muddy patch.

Hope that helps you 

 I have been giving this problem some thought myself over recent weeks. I think a pond liner (Wickes circa £15) instead of, or as well as a footprint might do the job. The only problem I can see is the weight of the pond liner when travelling, which will not be inconsiderable.

Cheers,

Bert.

I would always choose a hardstanding over a grassed pitch especially if the weather is mixed. Keeps the tent nice and clean inside. We use a tarp under the tent and rock pegs knocked in with a lump hammer. Never found it uncomfortable under foot although the materials used for the hardstandings can vary.

we camped on hard standing and we got afew dimples on the ground sheet but no holes next time iam going to get a taupauline sheet and lay that under the groundsheet footprint thus giving an extra layer of protection apart from that we had no problems. Just make sure you take rock pegs and a metal mallet to knock them in and a good extractor to get them out again. Enjoy.

Geoff