Magazine - Technical Surfaces Sail In To Save Royal Naval College

By Tina Ribbans in Synthetics on 3rd Mar 2007 12:00

After suffering continual problems with the drainage of their synthetic sports surface, the Britannia Royal Naval College at Dartmouth called in the experts from Technical Surfaces.

Following an earlier successful completion of a deep-cleaning rejuvenation programme in 2001, Facility Manager John Walker knew that Technical Surfaces could be relied upon to help resolve their current difficulties.

And so it proved.

To help preserve the playing and draining characteristics restored by the rejuvenation process, Technical Surfaces always recommends the implementation of ongoing regular maintenance; unfortunately on this occasion such works could not be instigated, and so five years later the pitch had once again fallen into a state of disrepair.

One phone call later and Technical Surfaces' Technical Manager, Sean Colbert, returned to Dartmouth to assess the situation, whereupon concerns were raised that the problems lay in the drainage system beneath the pitch.

To establish this, porosity tests were undertaken through an excavated section of carpet, which showed that once the contaminated layer of the sand infill had been removed, the surface water was freely draining through the carpet and to the base.

The Naval College has since agreed to RE-order a REjeneration® of the pitch, and will be sure to implement the appropriate maintenance to support the surface in the future.

For further details please contact Technical Surfaces' National Office on 08702 400 700 or visit www.technicalsurfaces.co.uk

Photo caption: Removing the contaminated layer exposes clean carpet below and restores porosity on a section of surface.

Read more articles in Synthetics, by Tina Ribbans or from March 2007.