Football Pitch Drainage

Football Pitch Drainage, Design & Installation

Following the submission of a detailed tender submission, Fieldform were appointed by Hillingdon Council to design and install a primary drainage system at Bourne Farm Playing Fields in Hayes. This site is home to Sandgate Football Club who provide teams and coaching sessions for boys and girls aged from 5 years old through to senior 11-a-side.

In previous seasons Sandgate FC often lost games and training sessions at Bourne Farm Playing Fields due to standing water and waterlogged pitches caused by poor drainage. To counter this, Fieldform provided the Council with a comprehensive drainage solution that linked to an older drainage network on some of the lower pitches. Prior to starting construction works several surveys were instructed including a CCTV scan of the existing drains to gain a practical understanding of the issues causing waterlogging and standing water.

Once the final design had been approved by the Council our in-house site team were deployed to Bourne Farm along with the Fieldform drainage fleet consisting of trenchers, tractors, hoppers and turf tyre dumpers. Works were completed within four weeks and were complimented by additional secondary sand drainage slits.

Why is Drainage Important?

Drainage is an important consideration when constructing natural turf sports pitches capable of withstanding regular use. At Fieldform, we excel at providing design advice and construction services relating to pitch drainage schemes, we will always offer a site specific and budget sensitive solution. When starting a new drainage project, we take into consideration the existing turf, natural environment, and any drainage systems already in place for surrounding roads and buildings. These factors are used to design a site specific drainage system, other considerations include, calculating trench width, size of drainage pipe, distance between drainage runs and type of back fill. 

To provide clients with a turnkey service we have invested heavily in plant and equipment, the newest addition to our fleet is the award winning, Shelton Supertrencher+. This specialist piece of laser guided equipment creates a trench with minimal disruption and is capable of digging up to 760mm deep and 155mm wide using twin hydraulic cylinders. The two gearboxes enable the machine to work in all weather and ground condition. To create a trench, this machinery excavates soil and dispenses it into a large aperture on the front body of the machine. From here the soil is moved to either our trailer or dumper truck running alongside, creating a neat trench ready to lay pipe and with minimal clean-up.