Soccer That Plays Like Real Grass

General preliminary information about planning your football field.
Wimbledon can make any variation to height or density of our grass products. We also have straight pile, curly or KDK (non directional hockey and golf) grass.

Colour
We recommend a medium dark green (Olypic green/ sports green) colour for your grass as this provides the best vision for all sports - no glare.

Material
Wimbledon can provide polypropylene (PP) or polyethylene material (PE). PP is always used for low impact sports such as tennis and is stronger, whereas PE is softer and causes less skin burn for high impact sports or where a lot of sliding takes place like rugby. We also now also have an excellent combined PP and PE product that offers the combined benefits of both PE and PP.

For a high impact football field such as a rugby field you would normally choose a material between 25mm and 50mm in height. It would be PE or combined PP / PE. The height of the grass often depends on the budget. Whereas a lot of schools use 19mm height grass, a 25 to 32 mm field will prove very satisfactory and a 50 - 55mm field is for the professional and is normally regarded as the maximum. However some US football fields are made of 70mm grass but this is specific to US football.

Sand / Rubber Infill
Your field will always be filled with sand or a mixture of sand and rubber granulates. If a mixture is used the proportion of sand and rubber (see additional infill technical information) can vary but typically would be 70% rubber by volume and 30% sand. Over a period of time the sand granule will work its way to the base but by the time this happens the field will have stabilized and this will not cause any problem bearing in mind some people choose to use 100% rubber granule.

The infill used is medium gauge local clean washed sand and rubber granulates.

The provision of rubber granule of course provides a shock pad and may help to reduce sports injury even more than natural grass. However with non-impact sports like tennis that require a very consistent bounce rubber granule is not required or recommended.

For a school where budget constraints are important, we propose a 19mm 170 stitch PP or combined PP and PE field. Using only sand infill will contain costs and with a multi purpose field it will provide a perfect ball bounce for ball sports like tennis, volleyball and basketball.

Basework
Constructing the base need not be complicated. For all sports fields other than tennis you allow approximately a 1 to 100 fall from a center crown to all sides. This allows good drainage. Tennis courts must fall in any one direction only ie you can not have a ridge under the net

Perimeter drainage is always recommended to ensure that water does not seep under your base and undermine the foundations or base,

The base should be made of the most economical local material available, which is normally reinforce concrete or asphalt.

The finish of the concrete or asphalt base is very important and any faults will follow through onto the finished field. The finish must be very very smooth, perfectly level and not have absolutely duck ponds. Check the finished surface and fill any duck ponds prior to laying the grass.

Linemarking - Layout
Wimbledon will during manufacture build in all straight white or yellow lines.

Sports fields roll layouts are designed to meet specific requirements but for example a field can be laid like a picture frame by first laying the perimeter lines on all 4 sides in place. Secondly the rolls with the center and other cross white lines are installed across the field. Thirdly the remaining grass is laid across the field filling in the remaining space. Curved and other small white lines are then laid in place.

Once an order is confirmed, by sending us the exact field measurements including the side and end run-offs we will provide an exact most economical calculation of your grass requirement including adhesives and joining tapes.

All material is produced in 3.72 m (12 foot 2 1/2 inches) rolls and therefore some minor wastage sometimes occurs.

Installation
Depending on circumstances and available labor it will normally take between one to 2 weeks to lay a full grass field. If you need an expert laying supervisor from Australia to assist in laying your first field, we can provide a practical expert at a relatively nominal cost. In which case you would need to provide the assistance of a good local carpet layer and 3 strong assistants.

.............................. Please contact us for further assistance.