How to Maintain a School Artificial Sports Turf?: Offers maintenance tips for artificial turf sports courts.

How do you maintain an artificial turf sports court?

Artificial turf/artificial grass sports courts are well known for being very low maintenance.  It is what makes an artificial turf court such an attractive option for the school environment. Once the turf has been installed and sanded, there should be minimal maintenance required on the court for several years to come.

There are however a few things a school property manager or court owner needs to check on a regular basis as a preventative measure.

Firstly, a regular broom or blow of the court surface.

If the court has trees surrounding the perimeter of the artificial turf, it is important to remove leaves and debris from the court area so that they do not decompose into the turf surface. Unlike a natural grass area where debris decompose into the underlying soil surface, on a turf sports court these debris can break down into the artificial turf surface creating an environment perfect for algae, moss and mould to take hold.

The easiest method is to use a stiff broom to sweep the leaves into a corner and collect up, or use a leaf blower, taking care not to point the blower too close to the surface of the court as this may displace the sand infill.

Done regularly, you will limit the possibility of unwanted growth on your school sports turf.

Also check the turf regularly, particularly the edges or joins,  for any weeds that may appear.

These are generally minimal but may pop up on occasion from the likes of seeds in bird droppings, or being carried in the wind. The sand base within the turf fibres can provide enough sustenance for a hardy weed to take hold. These can generally be gently pulled from the sports turf and disposed of.

On occasion, where preventative measures have not been taken and moss or weed growth has occurred, a weed killer product can often be sprayed onto the surface. A test patch should always be undertaken on the sports court to ensure it does not damage the yarn.

Don’t eat on the turf

Food or drinks should be kept free of the school turf and certainly chewing gum is not permissible!!

Lastly, The more foot traffic a court gets often the better the court looks and ages!

It is designed to provide over ten years of consistent play and use  – but should last many more years than that. Use it!