Replay Maintenance, market leaders in providing artificial surface maintenance solutions, has been praised for its “thoroughness” after solving a drainage problem on a water-based artificial turf hockey pitch at Tonbridge School in Kent. 

Here you can see the the bottle containing dirty water taken from the surface.

Tonbridge School is one of the leading boys’ boarding schools in the country and is highly respected internationally. It boasts excellent sporting facilities along with professional coaching of the highest standards. In particular, the school takes pride in its outstanding hockey facilities. Tonbridge is an England Hockey accredited Junior Regional Performance Centre and the Kent County Hockey Association use the school’s training facilities. Most recently, the full England Men’s team also trained at the school.

With the school enjoying considerable success in both regional and national competitions; it is imperative that the hockey pitches are in pristine condition at all times. It is for this reason that Replay Maintenance were called upon to solve a drainage problem.

The eight year old hockey pitch was starting to accumulate a build-up of silt and algae in the carpet pile, which was in turn, impeding the drainage. Puddles were appearing with holding water sitting on the surface, the pitch was becoming unplayable. Replay Maintenance sent its experienced team in to investigate and after a professional assessment it was decided that its unique Aquatrax process should be used.

Aquatrax is a revolutionary process which applies pressure water jets to dislodge any dirt and debris. With a powerful vacuum extraction system, the machine then removes the dirty water into a tank on the machine so that contaminants are not returned to the playing surface. Operated by a highly trained expert, the machine’s combination of washing and vacuum extraction restores a pitch’s looks and playing characteristics. It also an environmentally-friendly process by not use any chemicals – only cold water is required.

Aquatrax is highly regarded as being one of the top performing maintenance solutions available. In fact, it is so effective that it was selected to clean the track at the London 2012 Olympic stadium both after the opening and closing ceremonies. 

Just as the Aquatrax process worked for the world’s finest Olympians it has also impressed at Tonbridge School. 

“The Aquatrax process has removed the algae and all the fine silts in the carpet pile so now during the wet weather that we are experiencing at the moment, the carpet is not holding any water on the surface. The drainage has been vastly improved,” said George Alexander, Director of Grounds and Gardens at Tonbridge School.

George was familiar with Replay Maintenance after previously using them to perform maintenance on the school’s athletics track. The company formed a lasting first impression from that first piece of work and George insisted that he will certainly be using Replay Maintenance in the future.

“I’ve used other companies before but I prefer the thoroughness that the Replay team offer. I would highly recommend them and I’ve just awarded them another contract to come in and perform a rejuvenation of our sand-filled artificial turf pitches,” he said.

When an artificial pitch ages, it is common to see a weakening in the playing and draining characteristics of the carpet. This is why more and more sports facilities like Tonbridge School are turning to Replay Maintenance. A regular maintenance programme helps delay an expensive replacement and can in fact add years of life to a playing surface.  

For further information, please contact Replay Maintenance on 01636 640 506 or visit the company’s website www.replaymaintenance.co.uk. You can also follow the company on Twitter: @ReplayMaintain