Tag: tennis court maintenance

artificial grass tennis court cleaning

Posted on by Sweepfast

In 10 Minutes

” Can I really clean the leaves, litter, other wind borne debris, bird poo!! from my tennis court in 10 minutes?”

Simply put the answer is certainly yes you can, and a 2 metre wide Cleansweep from Sweepfast is all you’ll need. These amazingly simple but effective tools have been around for years and still customers are finding out just how good they are. Initially they were intended to collect litter from asphalt tennis courts, which they do equally well, but it soon became apparent that they were perfect for sand filled artificial grass courts too, and now they’re finding a use on the old clay courts but also on the new generation of artificial clay courts to clean up the artificial clay and re-distribute it evenly.

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As with all Aerosweep products they work so simply, you provide the forward motion and everything on the surface of the tennis court is lifted up by the fingers and dropped onto the grid. From here the sand will fall through and be worked back into the court, whilst the larger debris is trapped on the top and stays there until emptied.

In fact because it’s 2 Metres wide it will only take 8 or 9 passes to cover the entire court once, and as it only weighs around 6kg, and you pull it not push it, it really is very easy to use.

The Cleansweep
The Cleansweep Artificial Grass Cleaning Tool

To empty you simply shake it off onto a sheet or in the gateway and 10 mins later when you’re completely finished, shovel it up into a wheelbarrow and that’s it done!!

All the teams at Sweepfast use these tools in the regular day to day maintenance of tennis courts, and always carry one in the van, but they also find them useful when putting new sand back in after a refurb.

But there is only one way to see just how good these tools are, and that is try it for yourself, visit www.sweepfast.com and type cleansweep in the search bar, or email us on sales@sweepfast.com, or if in doubt call 0121 747 9255 and a technician will talk through whether it’s suitable for you tennis court.

But hurry up, the leaves are starting to fall………………………

Artificial Grass Maintenance

Posted on by Sweepfast

With the huge amount of artificial grass surfaces now in use, and with more being installed every month an in house maintenance regime coupled with a professional contractor maintenance plan has never been so important. I know this works out as an unexpected expense but there really is no other option, and bad advice from poor quality contractors can be even worse. I’ll give you one recent example.

The recent spell of wet weather has brought home once again just how important maintaining artificial sports surfaces is. On a recent visit to a customer where the maintenance regime had simply been regular drag brushing. What is worrying is that more recently a “contractor” had advised that power brushing off the top surface and replacing a tiny amount of old sand with new would “revitalise” the pitch. But within one month the pitch had started to retain water once again, now rendering the facility totally unsuitable for use.

The only procedure to discover exactly what is going on beneath the surface is to take samples of the infill then return them to the warehouse and set about processing them. So after giving them this advice and at the request of the customer we took 9 samples from locations all over the surface, from high use areas to areas where there was very little foot fall. These have now been sampled and analysed and the results indicated that the contamination levels are way in excess of the standards for safe play, and the continuous free draining of the surface.

The conclusion of my report is going to indicate a spend in excess of £10,000.00 now to put things right, where if they had been given the correct information and acted on it the pitch would have still been playable now, with an annual spend of less than £2,000.00 and no loss of play and earnings.

It’s so frustrating in this industry that there are so much bad advice from convincing salesmen leading to spending money for the wrong reasons, with only one consequence, the customer has to eventually pay twice.

This is why at Sweepfast we pride ourselves in taking care to visit every site to assess its requirements whether it’s a small private tennis court or a university multi sports complex. We take every measure to ensure the advice we give is based on truth and not on assumptions, and we know then that we can rest easy.

For professional synthetic sports surface advise and service from the first site visit to completion of the works call 0121 747 9255 visit www.sweepfast.com or email sales@sweepfast.com

Horger Machinery

Posted on by Sweepfast

Quality Machines From The German Manufacturer Hoerger

Horger Machinery

Why Choose Horger?

Horger manufacture artificial turf equipment for the maintenance of synthetic sports surfaces. This synthetic turf maintenance machinery is hand built by German engineers in their factory near Hamburg, but  unlike other manufacturers they are purpose built to do a specific job and are not just modified industrial sweepers or grass mowers.

The KBR System for the deep cleaning of porous and non porous rubber  running tracks.

 
Hoerger started by manufacturing athletic track cleaning machinery (the KBR) in the 1980’s then started work on designing the SKU machines for deep cleaning artificial grass surfaces in early 2000.

 

 

The SKR System for deep cleaning water based synthetic grass surfaces

In 2001 Hoerger developed the SKR head water based hockey pitch cleaner to run in conjunction with the existing rear tank on the KBR for deep cleaning water based synthetic grass surfaces

 

 

The SKU system for deep cleaning of sand filled, sand dressed and 3G synthetic grass sports surfaces

The first Hoerger SKU machine to clean artificial turf was introduced in 2004 with sales starting in 2005. By the end of 2007 100 of these machines were working across Europe.

 

 

In 2008 the SKU Trac (pictured left) was introduced with a custom built 24hp hydrostatic tractor unit powering it.

 

 

A new SKU1200 rear mount and front mounted unit was introduced and then front mounted unit to fit Avant loaders was introduced (pictured right) .

 

 

 

 

There is now a 1500 Basic machine (left) added to this range with electric fan dust extraction to introduce an economical variant to the range.

 

 

 

Hoerger surface brushes.

 

At the end of 2010 the BS2000 range of brushes was introduced with the first one ready for the IOG Saltex show in September, and this has been augmented by the addition of de-compacting tines with depth wheels and a squeegee blade for levelling out the infill especially when re-filling a pitch with new sand and or rubber.

Extracting Sand From Astroturf

Posted on by Sweepfast

How do you extract the sand infill from an Astroturf pitch? The most successful way to extract contaminated sand and the associated contamination from a sand filled synthetic grass pitch, or tennis courts is using a high pressure injection system to displace it to the surface for collection. Sweepfast has developed the Hydrofast System which utilises high pressure water delivered at a precisely controlled height from the surface to lift out the material and also to wash the fibres of the synthetic grass clean as it goes. The system is built around an Avant telehandler which travels across the surface at around 0.5 km/hr lifting out the material as it goes and leaving it in a line to be collected by the following machinery.

The results can be very dramatic as demonstrated with the Sweepfast Infill Contamination Test Kit, with a total contamination ratio of around 70.49% on an extremely badly maintained pitch we have reduced that down to 1.38% in just 5 days, see the two images below for examples.

Before:-

DSC_0020
Pitch before refurb

And After:-

After Pitch Refurb
After Pitch Refurb

To see more of this impressive system visit www.sweepfast.com or call 0121 747 9255 for a free site visit, assessment and quote.

Tennis Court Maintenance

Posted on by Sweepfast

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How to maintain a tennis court?

As with all outdoor surfaces moss, algae, leaf litter and debris are the biggest enemy you will have to face to keep your tennis court in playable condition. If your tennis court was say a swimming pool you would have a cover over it, a filter system in place to keep the water clean, and you’d treat the water regularly to keep it in safe condition, then possibly once a year get the professionals in to do an annual maintenance on it. Well just carry that forward to your tennis court and you will quickly realise that the tennis court maintenance regime has to be pretty similar if you’re going to prevent it sliding into disrepair. So what should the routine be?

  1. Hygiene should be the first thing on the list, and that means keeping the surface free from organic debris that will decay into the infill and clog it up.
  2. Regular chemical treatment for moss and algae, with a chemical such as RBT247. This is essential because once either of these get a hold there’s only one way it’s going to go.
  3. Inspection of the seams, these must be re-stuck if they are lifting, before they become dangerous.
  4. Inspection of the sand levels, this must be at the recommended levels laid out in the data sheet from the installer, only kiln dried sand of the correct grade must be applied and brushed in.
  5. Finally at least once yearly the surface must be deep cleaned by a team of professionals such as Sweepfast, to lift out the sand infill clean it of fine debris, dead moss and algae etc etc. then brush the sand infill back in and treat the entire area for moss and algae control.

With this in place you should have a beautiful tennis court fit for play for many years to come.

Cleansweep

Posted on by Sweepfast

Maintaining an artificial grass tennis court is no easy feat, and it’s so easy to ignore the leaves etc etc until they decay and can’t be seen any more. But do this at your peril because this WILL BE the kiss of death for your artificial grass pitch or tennis court. If left to decay on the surface the leaf and tree litter will cause the infill material to become clogged, causing more problems as the water refuses to drain through. Black sludge patches rapidly begin to appear as the water which by now is lying on the surface brings this decaying matter to the top, and suddenly you will notice the results of your neglect. When this begins to happen there is only one way forward and that is a full refurbishment, where the sand infill is completely removed and replaced with new. This produces great results and you’re left with a virtually new surface that drains and plays as good as the day it was first installed.

But take this back a step, if the surface was maintained in the first instance this procedure would probably not be needed for many years, instead of after just a few. Brushing with a stiff broom was the traditional way to keep an artificial grass surface looking good, but brushing dead leaves across a synthetic grass tennis court is not good practice and will simply grind in the debris and push it into the sand infill. So what is needed is something light, easy to use but still collects the leaves as it goes.
Enter the Cleansweep synthetic grass cleaning mat.

The Cleansweep
The Cleansweep Artificial Grass Maintenance Machine

This device with a little forward motion provided by a reasonable walking pace will sift through the sand infill and separate it from the debris, working it back in as it goes. The debris can be shaken off every few passes and the court will be swept clean in about 10 mins. If done every time before play then the risk of walking the leaf litter into the surface will be almost completely removed, and with no noise created or additional cost input from fuel it rapidly becomes an economical piece of equipment despite its initially high purchase cost. There’s simply nothing else on the market that does what this device can and they are always in stock in the Sweepfast Midlands Depot.

Tennis Court Cleaning

Posted on by Sweepfast

With the summer promising to arrive sometime soon, and thoughts of playing tennis again firmly set in your mind, you walk out into the garden with raquet in hand only to find your beautiful artificial grass tennis court covered in leaves, blossom etc etc. With the only tools at hand being a large brush you start the arduous task of brushing the court, some 550 sq m of it, to enable play to take place. The after effects of brushing artificial grass surfaces look ok, but close inspection will reveal a lot of broken up leaf litter and other debris pressed into the infill, which is less than desirable and will cause long term problems encouraging moss growth and eventually leading to drainage failure leading to a tennis court looking a little like this:

Artificial Grass Tennis Court Covered In Moss
Artificial Grass Tennis Court Covered In Moss

This court was particularly bad with moss up to 25mm deep over most of the surface, it certainly looked as though it needed mowing!!

A few days later it looked like this:

Artificial Grass Tennis Court With Moss Removed
Artificial Grass Tennis Court With Moss Removed

After play had resumed on it all it needed was a sand top up and it was back to as new condition, but the most important question from the customer was how do I prevent this from happening again? The answer to this in essence is quite simple but it does need pressing home, MAINTENANCE!! If the facility, which had cost a lot of money to install in the first place, had been maintained from the outset this situation would never have arisen, and the golden rule for maintaining all outdoor sports surfaces is Cleanliness. The first weapon for the groundsperson or owner is the Cleansweep cleaning mat, with this simple yet effective tool you will be able to clean and remove litter from an artificial grass tennis court in just a few minutes. The Cleansweep will sweep, remove leaf litter, twigs, blossom, seeds and other biological debris from the surface, then at  the same time it is working back in the sand that has been brought to the top of the surface leaving behind a clean even tennis court. All this in one simple machine makes regular maintenance of sand filled artificial grass tennis courts so easy it becomes a pleasurable regular task with satisfying end results.

The next procedure to put in place is to treat the surface regularly for moss control, with the restrictions now on most chemicals that were effective on moss and algae some of the surface cleaner chemicals are suitable to apply regularly without causing environmental issues. One such product is Algon, this product works on contact with the plant and the process starts rapidly with noticeable effects visible within a couple of days. Once the kill has been completed and the moss is brown it can be brushed from the surface, this can be done by hand but again it is an arduous task, and a solution is to use a powerbrush. The simplest and cheapest of these is the Texas Handysweep 600TG, this will rapidly powersweep dead moss from the surface leaving it clear for another application of moss killer.

With all this in place the last course of action is to book in a deep clean service once a year during the driest period to remove debris, dead moss and broken fibre from deep down in the carpet where brushing with the Cleansweep and the Handysweep can’t reach. This process is carried out with a Hoerger SKU machine either driven by a tractor or mounted on an Avant machine and driven hydraulically.

As long as these procedures are followed strictly and carried out under the right conditions the artificial grass tennis court should stay in pristine condition for many to come.

Artificial Grass Cleaning

Posted on by Sweepfast

When William Blake penned the phrase “in England’s green and pleasant land” I don’t think he had an old Astroturf tennis court or synthetic grass hockey pitch. After, in some cases, just a few years they can turn into a nightmare for the owner, with brown sludge in patches all over and dead moss deeply rooted into the sand infill. For the owner of such a facility it must seem as if all is lost, as every effort to brush the surface clean produces no noticeable effect with the sludge appearing again at the first heavy downpour, of which there has been more than just a few this Spring. Then when they do get a break in the weather and succeed in killing off the moss and algae it all re appears with, wait for it, yes even more rain!! I can imagine the feeling of despair as the owner of a beautiful country house looks over the garden in the morning, from their kitchen window, and sees the tennis court like a blott on the landscape.

Sweepfast have had more than just a few such situations to deal with, and I’m sure more than once has a potential customer been scornful that nothing can be done and that replacement is the only way forward. This is brought on by installation companies only interested in selling a new surface and condemning the old one to the grave, or the skip!! And there’s another valid point to be made here, as we’re all doing our best to minimize landfill and re-cycle, why is it that old surfaces like these are ripped up and sent to the tip when with a bit of effort and money they can be back in service again in almost as new. The thing with many private synthetic grass tennis courts and a lot of synthetic grass hockey pitches is that as long as the seams are intact they will show very little signs of wear, and the only issue is the infill which is contaminated and refuses to allow any rain water to pass through.

Sweepfast have developed this Hydrofast System of refurbishing these surfaces using high pressure water which is fed into a machine that travels up and down the court or pitch very slowly driving out the infill, and contamination and removing it from the surface and even washing the fibres clean as it goes leaving behind an almost as new tennis court or hockey pitch. When the job is just half way through and the customer can see the comparison between the old and the new the difference is just staggering, but the best of all is the look on the owners face when their beautiful artificial grass sports facility handed back looking pristine, is extremely rewarding.

Once completed these sand filled surfaces can be easily maintained by a little effort every week or every day during Autumn and Spring, with such tools as the Cleansweep which will enable the user to clean a tennis court of litter, leaves, blossom, twigs etc etc in just 10 minutes, then use of a either a hand pulled weighted dragbrush or for the larger surfaces a towed weighted  dragbrush, then regular moss and algae treatment with a suitable chemical will go a long way to keeping it free of contamination for years to come. Then once yearly it must be deep cleaned by a contractor using such machinery as the Hoerger SKU to remove deeply embedded debris and lift the fibres upright again.

Sweepfast can be contacted on 0121 747 9255 for a free site visit to discuss a rescue package to restore your facility.

See the gallery below for examples of the whole process:

 

 

Moss and Algae control

Posted on by Sweepfast

Moss and algae are becoming an unsightly persistent nuisance to anyone who manages outdoor areas for public or private access. The slippery surface created when damp can also be a health and safety issue too. The search is continuously in progress to find / create a product that treats both types of growth without being a hazard to wildlife and humans alike. Many good products such as Algon will produce a safe, almost instant kill on surface moss without being a hazard to users and wildlife, although this product, like many others, is intended to be used as a surface cleaner, some are intended to be used as a wood preservative but have found favour in the treatment of moss and algae.

Sweepfast Ltd have been trialing, for some time now, in conjunction with RBT, a new variation with their existing RBT247 product. There have been mixed successes with this product in the past but it seems that now the way is clear to market a product that really works and, possibly the most exciting aspect of this product is that over time, it keeps on working! We have seen in the past with the previous blends of this product, where the sprayers have been filled up, there is no sign of moss and algae returning even after 6 months of damp weather, and with the new blend this will be a major influence for commercial users to switch to this product. It will mean that after an initial dense treatment then further treatments at a reduced rate moss and algae will be under control, and as time progresses these periods of treatment can be extended making it an economical product to use.

Further trials will continue and any results will be posted here

Maintaining Sports Surfaces

Posted on by Sweepfast

Outdoor sporting surfaces MUST be maintained constantly to provide a uniform surface to allow players to compete safely and effectively, and synthetic sporting surfaces are no exception. With the standard of maintenance demanded on all surfaces getting higher the demand on machinery and contractors is increasing. Sweepfast Ltd. are fortunate with the back up that they have from the major manufacturers in the synthetic sports surface industry from all around the world and constantly keep ahead of machinery and maintenance process demands

Sweepfast are in an enviable position of being able to offer a wide range of artificial turf, Astroturf™ or artificial grass maintenance services to many sports facilities, specializing in synthetic hockey pitch maintenance, synthetic football pitch maintenance, synthetic tennis court maintenance, whilst also providing hard surface refurbishment with many applications. We also now have the facility to install long lasting synthetic lines on natural grass pitches.

With maintenance historically being the last thing on the mind of many owners of synthetic sports surfaces, problems are arising where a pitch or tennis court is left unusable simply because it hasn’t been looked after correctly.

With the purchase of some costs effective equipment and a regular maintenance contract tailored to suit the purpose, location and usage this should never happen.