Artificial Surfaces
I
n my final article for this series on Synthetics, Construction and Maintenance, I wanted to discuss some topics surrounding the maintenance of synthetic and artificial surfaces. I have
personally been involved with synthetic and artificial maintenance for at least twenty-five years across a wide range of sports, ranging from tennis, hockey, winter sports and athletics; in the private club and independent schools sector in particular. A lot of my experience and
recommendations these days is based on practice and observations made in the field during my consultancy work. I have always held the opinion that a qualified, competent groundsman should, and will, know how to manage a surface to optimise performance and condition over an extended period of
time. However, it is fair to say that my observations in the field don’t always support this. For some reason, there seems to be a
slight mental block when it comes to maintaining synthetic and artificial surfaces to the extent that, on occasions, I see weed growing on margins and headlands far in excess of anything that would be acceptable in a natural turf environment. Presenting the facility in optimum
condition not only maximises quality but potentially increases income in that aesthetics are an important part of the production and preparation of modern sports surfaces. I know I have no need to tell anybody about this when presenting natural turf, and the standards achieved and progress made over the last couple of
decades in this area is unbelievable and recognises the skills set that the modern grounds manager has. Sometimes, however, the same philosophies are not applied to synthetic and all weather areas. This is particularly the case with seasonal facilities such as cricket nets. I don't want to over emphasise this point, but it is important to recognise that maintenance of a site should include the entire site, including these aforementioned areas which can actually be very expensive to construct in the first instance.
Objectives of Maintenance
When developing a maintenance strategy for artificial surfaces, it is really important to understand your objectives. Sometimes, maintenance can constitute what might
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