Artificial Surfaces
programme of regular maintenance, can add a further five years’ use to an older pitch that might otherwise be considered beyond repair.
So, having identified the essentials of maintaining your artificial pitch, the next task is to assign the responsibility to a dedicated team, be it your in-house groundstaff or outsourced to a specialist contractor. Again, any decision-making will be governed primarily by constraints on time, funds and knowledge, so you will need to adapt your maintenance regime accordingly. You could choose to project-manage the full maintenance requirements of your artificial pitch in-house. To do this correctly requires a large initial budget (in the region of £20,000) in order to purchase a suitable machine. There are a select number of specialist manufacturers in the industry, whose machinery has been modified from the technology used to develop grass-cutting and floor- cleaning equipment.
As advancements continue to be made in the science behind artificial turf, so too does the machinery required to maintain it evolve to cope with the latest innovations. These machines are especially versatile, and designed to carry out a wide range of maintenance functions; from the everyday - regular brushing, leaf removal, chemical spraying - to the more advanced (decompaction, infill top-ups, deeper
cleaning). This option would be suitable for councils or facility management companies, charged with maintaining multiple pitches at a number of sites, but it is always worth stressing the importance of operator knowledge and experience. If purchased through a specialist maintenance contractor, you should be able to arrange for training on the correct usage of your machinery and its attachments. The one procedure that cannot be completed using this type of machinery, however, is infill extraction and replacement - a highly specialised process typically required later in the life cycle of an artificial pitch, when draining capabilities have failed. Regular brushing and mechanical
removal of leaf and tree debris, dirt, detritus and broken-down carpet fibres will help to minimise contamination levels, if administered at appropriate intervals throughout the life of an artificial pitch but, ultimately, whether it is the result of insufficient maintenance practices or simply the age of the artificial turf itself, the likelihood is that water will eventually fail to drain away completely.
When this happens, you will be faced with either resurfacing your artificial pitch or replacing the contaminated infill by means of a specialist deep-cleaning service that is only available from dedicated pitch maintenance experts.
Replacing the artificial pitch before it is has reached its full life expectancy is an economically redundant decision, and represents a poor return on your initial investment. Yes, resurfacing is a certainty with an artificial pitch, but there are services available that can help to delay the inevitable, from which you may not benefit if you choose to complete all your maintenance work in-house. Another potential pitfall to the ‘do it yourself ’ option is the hidden cost involved - of labour, of servicing, operating and maintaining the machinery, and of ordering replacement parts when things go wrong. Furthermore, experience tells us that it can encourage a more ‘reactive’ attitude to pitch maintenance requirements, with tasks such as brushing, sweeping and leaf collection simply ‘fitting in’ around pitch usage. Dedicated maintenance timeslots should be allocated on a daily and weekly basis (even during school holidays), whilst artificial pitch maintenance practices, as a whole, should follow the adage that ‘prevention is better than the cure’.
So, if you lack adequate funds and capabilities to tackle the full remit of artificial pitch maintenance yourself, should you, instead, hand over full responsibility to a specialist contractor? By comparison, this is certainly the most hassle-free way of ensuring that your pitch is maintained correctly,
Portman Road artificials receiving a thorough cleaning following a Pink concert
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