Technical Surfaces, the UK's leading synthetic surface maintenance specialists, has recently completed their patented Rejeneration works on the synthetic sports surface at the Royal Wootton Bassett Academy.
At 10 years old, the sand-filled pitch was in need of a deep clean to remove excess mud and silt, to help resolve the problems the players and teachers had been experiencing with the playing surface. Resurfacing is not considered a viable option at this stage, and so the specialist contractor was contacted in late 2012 to provide a condition report on the pitch.
In situations such as this, the ideal solution is to extract the contaminated infill that has caused the problems to occur, replacing it with clean, fresh aggregate to restore the draining and playing properties of a synthetic sports surface.
Technical Surfaces inspected the pitch and submitted their findings in early December. Shortly afterwards, they received an order to complete the Rejeneration, with a view to following this with a regular MatchFit Plus maintenance contract.
"We have worked closely with the facility operator, G4S Integrated Services (UK) Ltd, at every stage of this process, to ensure that the Rejeneration® works would minimise disruption to the academy", said Tom Nott, Technical Manager at Technical Surfaces.
The air-extraction and sand re-dressing was completed within a week, with a return visit for a second re-dressing a few weeks later. For the Rejeneration process to work effectively there must be a gradual re-introduction of infill into the carpet. An initial heavy dressing should be completed immediately after the extraction of the contaminated infill, and then allowed to bed in for a sufficient period of time before another visit to carry out the secondary application.
"I would like to thank Technical Surfaces for their prompt response to our request and for the professional way that the Rejeneration works were carried out", says Steven Glass of G4S, who made the initial enquiry. This sentiment is echoed by Contract Operations Manager, Paul Schafer, who is based at the Royal Wootton Bassett Academy: "Many thanks for the good work completed and for the professionalism as a company."
As Royal Wootton Bassett Academy and many more customers have discovered, when it comes to the deep-cleaning of a synthetic sports surface, making the right choice in the first instance provides better value for money in the long run.
Some statistics from 2012:
- 4,772 jobs completed on 872 artificial surfaces across the UK, including:
- 263 schools
- 93 colleges and universities
- 42 academies
- 174 leisure centres
- 68 sports clubs
- 25 technicians travelling far and wide – from Land's End to the Orkney Islands
- 3,060 sweeps, decompactions and drag brushes
- 1,063 pitch inspections
- 57 Red Range demonstrations and certified training for on-site maintenance
- 9 tonnes of glue used to repair damaged carpet
- 1,581 tonnes of sand used for top-ups, repairs and deep cleans
- 202,082 m² of turf restored by the patented Rejeneration process – the equivalent of over 28 Wembley pitches
- 500,000 miles covered – further than a trip to the moon and back.
