Technical Surfaces, the artificial surface maintenance specialists understand all too well that the condition of an artificial sports surface is a reflection of the amount of maintenance it receives.

Although for many people ‘artificial’ surfaces still equates to ‘maintenance-free’, be assured that a poorly-maintained pitch will come back to haunt you in the end. Issues with drainage, contamination and carpet pile wear will soon combine to significantly reduce the life expectancy of your synthetic sports facility.

Ipswich Town FC Head Groundsman Alan Ferguson recently had no hesitation in contacting the UK’s largest synthetic surface maintenance specialists after the recent Pink Summer Carnival tour finished at Portman Road.

While the superstar and her team made the final preparations to the show, which included performing her hits on stage, upside-down on silk ropes, in a giant plastic ball that ‘surfed’ across the crowd and on a high wire that saw her flying over the heads of the audience, up to 25,000 of her fans were forced to wait in the ‘chill out’ area directly outside the stadium – a full size synthetic pitch used upto 60 hours per week by the clubs community as well as local Suffolk schools.

With that amount of people eating, drinking and smoking for up to 4 hours before the concert, the large amounts of spillages, litter and compaction caused to the surface meant that Alan simply could not rely on his in-house team to deal with the big clean up after the concert – especially with the main stadium needing to be ready for the first pre season match against West Ham on 31st July.

“The surface is now in its tenth year”, commented Alan. “In all truth it should probably have been replaced by now, but due to the budget restraints of a Championship club trying to win promotion back to the Premiership, we just don’t have the budget. That is why I turned to the professionals to maintain our synthetic pitch and keep it playable. I’ve known Technical Surfaces for a number of years now and have attended training courses run by their Technical Manager Sean Colbert, so when it came to choosing a specialist artificial surface maintenance contractor, I had no hesitation in calling in Technical Surfaces.”

It wasn’t only the fantastic reputation for maintaining 3G soccer surfaces that impressed Alan. He was also impressed by the large number of specialist pieces of equipment the company have as well as the know-how of the technical team. “We do have our own in-house equipment for regular drag brushing, but after the concert we needed to bring in the specialists so that we are able to continue to offer our academy and local community a wide range of use. Technical Surfaces simply have some excellent pieces of equipment.”

The two day brushing and de-compaction process carried out by Technical surfaces to get the pitch back in a playable condition is ideal to augment any on-going synthetic surface maintenance programme. The ‘Revite®’ process should be carried out annually or bi-annually dependent on the levels of pitch usage and current maintenance procedures. The specialist brushing process is designed to get much deeper into the artificial carpet than conventional Power Sweeping as it is far more intense, de-compacting the surface as well as lifting the pile.

Due to the nature of the operation it is most effective during the summer months when the pitch surface is dry allowing the brushing action and powerful vacuum turbine to remove dust, debris and broken-down carpet fibres. Failure to remove such debris will result in the contamination filtering down through the infill ultimately affecting drainage and the playing characteristics of the surface.

Although Technical Surfaces can implement effective maintenance at any stage of a facility’s life, they always stress that the most successful regimes are put into practice as soon as the installation is complete.

“We believe that the best maintenance package you can implement on your synthetic sports surface will combine the outsourced works of Technical Surfaces with your own in-house efforts and continued diligence” comments Sean Colbert. “This is the very cornerstone of our philosophy, ‘Maintaining Standards’, and is an ideal that we also encourage our clients to work towards.”

For further information please call Technical Surfaces’ National Office on 08702 400 700 or visit www.technicalsurfaces.co.uk and ask to speak to a Technical Manager.