Cleaning and sanitizing artificial turf successfully

[Steve Lawrence]

Has anyone done this? Reading old threads it seems that there's a lot of loose rubber pellets in this stuff (polyester?) that gives HWE people headaches with maintaining clean filters. There must be an easier way or is there?


What was your method and how much did you charge?
Thanks!

 

[Jimmy L]

Think it's used tires ground up.

 

[Lee Stockwell]

Lots of turf is just like carpet.

 

[FredC]

usually sports fields that have the crumb rubber

@Desk Jockey did "your guys" ever clean the baseball field?

 

[Desk Jockey]

We cleaned the infield and anywhere the clay had discolored the grass. The pellets were a huge problem. We tried several filters but ended up just letting it fill the recovery tanks. If we do it again in the spring they plan to try 55 gallon barrels.

We simply steam cleaned with Zipper Spinners, plain water. In really impacted areas, we pressure washed and extracted to remove the clay.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

We cleaned the infield and anywhere the clay had discolored the grass. The pellets were a huge problem. We tried several filters but ended up just letting it fill the recovery tanks. If we do it again in the spring they plan to try 55 gallon barrels.

We simply steam cleaned with Zipper Spinners, plain water. In really impacted areas, we pressure washed and extracted to remove the clay.


View attachment 86427View attachment 86428View attachment 86429View attachment 86430

55 gallon barrels to dump the pellets in as you clean? Puzzled?

 

[Jimmy L]

They do make specialized machines to clean the turf with the pellets.

 

[Desk Jockey]

55 gallon barrels to dump the pellets in as you clean? Puzzled?

Erik Hiltz (Zipper) suggested a PVC port on each end at the top. The idea being the solids drop and water pulls straight across.

We didn't have time to get barrels and work out where we would dump. They wanted us to start right away. They were on a tight time frame.

 

[Desk Jockey]

They do make specialized machines to clean the turf with the pellets.

Yep those are gigantic machines mounted to big cabover vehicles. I've also see some fancy ones on tractors. Really specialized stuff.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Thanks for the input, guys. Rich, you are hilarious!

BTW, I have no idea what you said in your post.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Do you have to replace the pellets you remove to maintain the appropriate bounce protection on the field?

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Beuller? Beuller? Anyone?

 

[FredC]

Yes the pellets need to be there....who is responsible for putting them back or more down would need to be worked out I guess

the 50 gallon drum would act as an inline waste tank/filter. You would put an inlet and outlet fitting on the lid and place it between the wand and the truck. Probably still needs some type of screen filter/baffle attached to keep any crumb rubber from making its way to the truck's waste tank...but maybe not.

I don't know that the water would just pull straight across though

 

[FredC]

at least I think this is what @Desk Jockey meant

 

[FredC]

looks like there are prefab solutions (for dust collection) that sit on 30 gallon cans...would still need the drain and reducers

not sure how well they would seal

https://amzn.to/2OWGSjY

Amazon product

 

[Desk Jockey]

We tried several things. Some worked but too slow. A regular filter works great but filled in 3 minutes.

 

[Steve Lawrence]

Huh, okay, guys, thanks. Doesn't sound like this job is gonna happen. I'll let you know. Thank you all so much for the info!