Welcome to the AB Forum

I would like to know how departments are maintaining their synthetic turf rectangle fields. These would be fields heavily used by the community athletic groups. What type of broom or equipment are you using to groom the fields and how often? What equipment are you using to remove debris from the field and how often are you doing this task? How much infill are you adding to the field? How are the fields holding up and do they look like they will last 10 years with out major work? Are there any unexpected issues you have to deal with?

From the AB Article Archives:

What Lies Beneath (By Andrew Cohen, November 2008)
Regular maintenance can reduce the amount of detritus hidden within the blades of synthetic turf fields.

High Fiber Diet (By Paul Steinbach, November 2005)
Keeping infill synthetic-turf fields at their peak appearance and performance requires at least some periodic attention.

I would need to know more about your particular turf field(s) to give you some guidance. In the meantime you could go to http://psfs.us/synthetic_turf_maintenance_today for some help.
edited by psfsus on 5/23/2011

From a health, microbial and germ standpoint there is a great company called Coeus Technology out of Anderson, Indiana that has what appears to be one of the best deals around, cost too.

Phil - typically in a bid for synthetic turf, you will include a piece of maintenance equipment to groom the field. There are several good manufacturers on the market and I would recommend that you spec the machine vs. letting each manufacturer choose the one they will include as the quality will vary dramatically. Most of the turf companies seem to recommend that you groom a field approx. every 60 hours of play although it will depend on the manufacturer and the type of fiber you will be installing. Typically an all-rubber field will be a brush system and a sand/rubber field will use a groomer with tines. It is difficult to gauge how much rubber infill you will need to replace on a field because there are a lot of variables, but there is an article from STMA that recommends 1 time/year, 10 tons of topdressing (It's an article on comparing the cost of natural grass to synthetic found on their website). Not only do you need to be concerned with grooming, it is also recommended that you pull a magnet bar over the field on a regular basis to capture bobby pins, bottle caps or any other materials that damage the field or injure a player.

Hi Phil - not sure if you have weighed the cons/benefits of installing a permanent sprinkler system or portable cooling & rinsing of your synthetic turf. I would be happy to send you some info on our portable machine, the E200SST. This machine was specifically designed to cool, rinse and condition synthetic turf. Just shoot me an email if you would like some info. lclark@kifco.com