3G Pitch Repairs

Have they started sorting out the pitch drainage problems?

A great deal of investigation of the problem has been undertaken. The underlying drainage system is fine.

Options have been proposed for altering materials in the synthetic grass and will be tested on small parts of the pitch in the coming weeks before treating the whole of the pitch.

I was reading the FA guide to Artificial Grass pitches on the net, Pages 36 - 38 it is quite interesting regarding the maintenance frequencies, equipment and costs, I thought these pitches would require little maintenance at low costs.

Admin wrote:A great deal of investigation of the problem has been undertaken. The underlying drainage   system is fine.

Options have been proposed for altering materials in the synthetic grass and will be tested on small parts of the pitch in the coming weeks before treating the whole of the pitch.

With respect John, I thought 3G was a proven standard synthetic pitch, therefore I would have thought that all 3G pitches would have the same materials and these would have been proven and tested in the UK before ours was installed.I know Cambrian and Clydach had their pitch installed after us and they have not had any problems to my knowledge, Hope you are correct and the problem will be resolved, but with respect it seems a bit strange to me!

Any update on the repair of the pitch?, i,m i right in saying the company who installed the pitch believe it was not anything in the installation causing the water to hold!!!,
There is not a lot of time left before the season starts, (both football and rainy)
as a proven synthetic surface we should not be facing these problems, this was not a cheap project,the envy of many clubs, lets not make it a laughing stock!!!
It seems there is not much being done to come up with a solution?
hope this assumption is wrong,if so please can we have a update to the situation

Not sure of the exact details myself but I'm sure The Board are on top of it. We don't normally get to see the amount of work that goes on via the forum and online etc.

Last I heard, a patch of the pitch was or going to be tested by the installers and then repaired in accordance to what they found? Am I way off?   

Mat, can you contact me as a matter of urgency.

If I remember right, from what was said at the club AGM back in March the problem was something to do with the type of sand used not working as it should have done, even though it was to the correct specification.

Even if things weren't quite as they should have been there were still three matches last season that would either not have been played or would have been abandoned if it hadn't been for the new pitch.

Ye i agree match's were played ,but if it is a sand problem then surely the whole of the pitch
would have held water ??
we should not be going in to a new season with last seasons problems!!!
if the company have taken this long to surmise the problem is sand then
i wont hold my breath to a solution being found

douggolfer wrote:
if the company have taken this long to surmise the problem is sand

 
I did say that's what we were told in March, so I'm not sure what you mean by 'this long'.
 
But I've no idea what has happened about identifying the problem and putting it right since then.
 
John did say in his post on 29th May that 'Options have been proposed for altering materials in the synthetic grass and will be tested on small parts of the pitch in the coming weeks before treating the whole of the pitch.'

No doubt we'll hear more when there is anything definite to report.

Hope you are right,i think that's one of the big problems with this type of forum
lack of information. Just a bit worried the season is close,so we could be limited to the amount of work being done

The testing of new sand on one side of the pitch is currently underway. The relative reaction of this part of the pitch and the rest of the pitch to the next bout of rainfall may point towards a solution.

The contractors are committed to solving the problem, but it may take some time.

douggolfer wrote:,i think that's one of the big problems with this type of forum
lack of information.

Yes, my own view is that the club could do with a sort of publicity/communications officer who could respond to things in this Forum and provide information, also maybe to manage the Club Website (which I believe is contributed to by a variety of people who all have other responsibilities), and have overall responsibility for the match programme and what appears in the Press.

But as I always say - like so many things to do with the running of the club it needs someone to come forward and volunteer to do it.

Admin wrote:The testing of new sand on one side of the pitch is currently underway. The relative reaction of this part of the pitch and the rest of the pitch to the next bout of rainfall may point towards a solution.

The contractors are committed to solving the problem, but it may take some time.

With respect shouldn't this work have been carried out after our last home game, not 6 wks before the New season starts! Why give ourselves such a short space of time to remedy/resolve the problem!...With respect I believe, we could have been a lot more Pro-Active in resolving this!!

I don't know the exact time scale, but I don't think work to resolve this problem has only begun just now.
 
In a thread on here - 3G PITCH PROBLEM - Meurig Price told us at the end of January that:
 
'The installers of the pitch are working very closely with the Club to find a solution... Only last week the firm who issued the FIFA license for the pitch came along and took away samples for analysis and we are waiting for the result of those tests. The installing of the pitch was closely monitored by the licensing company and both they and Verde are confident that one way or another the problem will be sorted.'
 
And it was almost a month ago that John Strand told us what I've already quoted: 'Options have been proposed for altering materials in the synthetic grass and will be tested on small parts of the pitch in the coming weeks before treating the whole of the pitch.'
 
So what the technical details of the problem are I've no idea, and therefore can't say why it's taking so long (maybe it did have to wait until the season ended) but as I say, it's clear work on it has been going on for some time.

Excuse my ignorance but i thought 3 G was a proven surface?  We all understand that this problem
as been investigated, we've seen some of the info from this site, i still believe it's taking a hell of a long time to sort, as you stated John reported this in January that's six months!!!
sorry i think from a business point this company don't seem the best.
anyone thinking of laying a 3 G would not find this a positive for hiring them.
Perhaps it's a luck of info regarding the ongoing problem that causes speculation!!!
i do think we need to  put this to bed before the start of the season

Agree with Douggolfer.

Would suggest that someone from the Board should put a full and frank report on the matter on this Forum so that everyone is aware and up to date on all of the issues.

We all own the Football Club and are entitled to be brought fully up to date on all matters relating to the Pitch.

We don't want to start next season with 3G Pitch Problems.....As one of the reasons for having it installed was to ensure there would be no worries about matches being cancelled (I know none were last season....but only because the Contractors worked on the pitch on the day of the match, which is unsatisfactory going forward).

The reason that the issue with the pitch has taken so long to sort out is that the contractor has been investigating all avenues towards solving the problem. This has involved detailed (and to them expensive) independent testing, which has concluded that the pitch has been installed to the specification provided (to us by a consultant) and universally accepted by the industry. However there is a problem and the contractor is determined to correct it. We are experimenting this week with a solution. We need heavy rain to test it.

So can you please enlighten us on the nature of the problem
can we not use hosepipes' to provide the water just incase we don't get the heavy rain
also cost to the company who installed the patch is not relevant,if the pitch is not capable of standing up to the elements then the contract is not complete
sorry still believe this is taking hell of a long time considering the pitch was correctly installed.

As I said testing of the pitch suggests it is to spec, but we think there is as problem with the sand on the pitch. Testing with a hosepipe will not tell us if the solution has worked. We need heavy rain and then to compare the part of the pitch which has been treated with the part that has not.
The contractor is looking at every aspect of the problem, but it will take time.

Admin wrote:As I said testing of the pitch suggests it is to spec, but we think there is as problem with the sand on the pitch. Testing with a hosepipe will not tell us if the solution has worked. We need heavy rain and then to compare the part of the pitch which has been treated with the part that has not.
The contractor is looking at every aspect of the problem, but it will take time.

Thanks, perhaps you could update us after the next Test.

cf482nt wrote:
Thanks, perhaps you could update us after the next Test.

 
Against India?
 
But seriously, to clarify in case anyone's not aware, I'm fairly certain there's no question of any part of the pitch having to be ripped up and re-laid in order to fix this problem. Perhaps no-one is thinking that, but just in case.
 
It appears, as indicated by John, and as we were told at the meeting in March, it's just a question of getting the type of sand used on, or in, the surface right.

The pitch is still being used by the community, training and matches despite this issue. Something that we wouldn't have been able to do before. This is a massive project and it's not like the pitch is being ripped up after every tackle. A long term project like this was going to have teething issues, this is quite a small issue in context. It's not as though the of the pitch has been stopped.

Just a thought: the missus bought this in a garden centre earlier today. Any good for our pitch?