Never too deep to drill

Terrain Aeration offers a unique long term cost effective solution for treating compacted soil structures with over 200 greens successfully treated. So when they were approached to review the water logging problems at Bridgend Bowling Club, it should have been a straight forward case of alleviating excess water retention using the renowned Terralift.

The Terralift can access easily through a pedestrian gateway and offers a clean, reliable, cost effective and environmentally impact free system, for alleviating soil compaction. It also encourages rapid drying through promoting efficient drainage with minimal surface disruption, leaving the run of the woods unaffected by the procedure and the green ready for use immediately following treatment.

Bridgend had a definite problem with the green holding water and becoming at times very slow and occasionally even unplayable. This tendency towards excessive wetness was also weakening the structure of the grass and increasing the risk of disease.

It soon became clear however that there was a bigger problem to consider. There are underground services beneath this green but no plans or records of the type of services or where they run. The Terralift operating at one metre deep is deep enough to hit all services buried at the usual minimum depth of 500mm.

David Green, Director of Terrain Aeration explained the action they took to accommodate the unusual circumstances. "In my experience this was a situation which posed too great a risk. We have had experiences in the past, where lack of information could have caused a potential disaster. This was narrowly avoided when the experienced operator voiced concerns. Fortunately in this instance, Bridgend were fully aware of the problem we faced and agreed with our solution to complete the task in a safe, yet still effective way."

David continued "We offer a very successful alternative method of aerating the surface using our Deep Drill which only penetrates to a depth of 300mm straight down and up with minimum surface disruption and so should never hit underground services. "

It was a great success. The Green now dries more quickly after rainfall giving a firmer, faster more wear tolerant grass sward. Surface water can percolate easily down to the subsoil. In the long term, the drill holes offer the grass roots an easy route down into the soil. Deeper roots give the grass a larger volume of soil to exploit and this increases the ability of the turf to resist drought as well as generally improving the vigour of the grass.

Now you know the drill all that's left is to get on with the job!