Message Board - Football: leveling of for a training area
18 Feb 2010 by Paul Barnett
I am Helping out With a contractor looking after football pitches, ie end of season renovations. A football club Has ask me to help . Whould it be ok to level of the training area with a dozzer to scrape of the surface, then i thought about top dressing with sports sand and vertidrain to open up surface ,followed by seeding or would i have to cultervate the sand into the soil and then seed the area. the area is about 35 yards /50 yards.
Any help would be greatful cheers
Paul barnett.
18 Feb 2010 by Stephen Hodson
What is your soil type, and when are you planing to do this work ? How much levelling needs to be done and to what depth are you trimming the surface levels. All these factors will determine the best course of action for re-seeding.
18 Feb 2010 by Andy Church
Paul
You need to be careful you don't create a pan when using the dozer! By putting sand on top of the area following levelling you stand a good chance of roots growing in the sand and not penetrating into the soil beneath (even with verti draining). I would definitely ameliorate the sand to create a healthy growing medium and avoid root break.
I am sure a more experienced contractor would advise you of the many ways to do this but be careful you don't create more problems than you solve!
Good luck.
18 Feb 2010 by Barry Pace Last edited 18 Feb 2010
Hi Paul, so many variables as ever, it depends on how much you need to level up the area to dictate the best/most economical method. If you are looking at 'regulating' an undulating area by pushing the highs into the lows by say no more than 50mm off the highs then this may not need a D4/5/6 and could be done by a box grader and cultivations. A Dozer with laser grade will however give you a fantastic finish far better than any other method.
If the levels are more severe than this then you risk thinning the soil too much in the high areas and creating poorer growing/draining areas by having variable depths of growing medium. Then the answer is really a strip off, regrade and resoil.
For both you ideally should decompact and fully cultivate the soil after regardless.
If there is any amount of fibrous material/thatch/grass on the area at the end of the season this should be thoroughly cultivated into the soil first so that you do not fill up the low areas with just turf, or, if you are going to work the soil to consolidate evenly consider ploughing BUT only if you put in enough passes after to prevent soft pockets from settling and giving you a ridge effect during establishment, have seen this so many times before when sportsturf inexperience contractors have done minimal cultivations after.
Once you have got a 90% finished surface then sand could be added and worked into the top 30-50mm before final finish and seeding maybe.
Get a proper sportsturf contractor in to look at the work rather than someone who plays with soil if you can, it is worth it in the long run.
Plastic.... it's The End I tell you... THE END!!!!
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