Field Drainage
Water needs to go somewhere - how do you handle that? Well, first let me tell
you what I did. Before I laid down my turf, I had a concrete company come
in and cut up my foundation. We made long cuts all the way down the field,
and cross cuts every now and then. We cut out concrete about 18" wide,
then dug out the dirt, put in an elaborate drain system with a little
tapered drain every 5-6 feet, then poured all the concrete back in. This
was very expensive - and in retrospect - very stupid. There... I just
saved you $25,000. Don't bother do it.
It would be nice to have a few drains, maybe at each end of the field - but doing all the drainage I did was a huge waste of time and money. When we had to go in and do the first initial cleaning of the turf - it was handy. We even hooked up a constant flow hot water heater, so we could flood the field with very hot water to wash everything down the drains. We located the drain holes below the turf, and cut tiny little holes to help the water get through. The concept was, the hot water would break up the grease, and it would flow to these drains and out... but it really didn't work that way.
It turns out that too much water being put down creates more troubles than it solves. The water takes the grease, and it flows down to the bottom, or below the turf (turf has tiny drain holes in it), but then no matter how much water you put down - it really does not flow well to the drains. Instead, the water slowly leaves - by flowing away, or evaporating, and you are left with a soggy, greasy mess. You would walk on the turf, and it would cause goo to ooze up from the bottom. Nasty. So skip that idea.
We also put drains in the staging area - thinking we could hose that down when it got greasy, but again - a waste of time and money. You can't leave the concrete floor. You have to cover it with something, otherwise it just gets too slippery. After being open for the first weekend, a customer came walking in off the field wearing turf cleats, and hit the now greasy concrete floor, and out went his feet from under him, and bang - onto the floor.
Until I had a better solution, I ran to home depot and got some of the
stuff you pour down on oil spills, and spread that around the floor to
stop it from being slippery. And this was in spite of the fact that I
had used the concrete paint with the texture sand in it. Very expensive
stuff - 50 bucks a gallon for special non-slip garage floor epoxy - and
it was still slippery. So learn from my mistakes. Don't go with a bunch
of drains.
The secret will be to use minimal water, and remove it instantly
with a commercial steam cleaner. You suck up the water instead of let it drain. So now we'll talk about steam cleaning.
And Visit our Indoor Field Site
Visit our Location
582 E Hwy 121
Lewisville, TX 75057
(972) 956-5500 Fax: (972) 956-5514
info@gatsplat.com
All text and images © GatSplat
|