Stop the Funk: The Importance of Extracting

However, when it comes to synthetic turf, we must stop the funk. There are many factors that can impact your synthetic turf’s playing surface, including funk. Whether that funk be paint, debris or bacteria, extracting synthetic turf is vitally important to the longevity of your field. In some circumstances, you may be pushing your paint down instead of fully extracting. For fields with little paint, like lacrosse, rinsing the field and pushing down is an acceptable solution. However, in more dense cases where mid-field logos, lines and endzones are being painted, extraction is absolutely necessary.

When you push paint down in the wrong scenarios, you’re possibly blocking field drainage and hardening the surface. Additionally, if you have a multi-purpose field or you’re frequently changing logos and colors, extracting helps with ghosting effects that can ruin the aesthetic of your field. To properly remove and extract paint from your field’s surface, you need to scrub the surface and apply remover solution. You must also use paint that has a special resin formula, such paints will return to its liquid state so it can be mechanically extracted without impacting or removing the infield. If you do not choose a cohesive paint and remover solution, the paint will fail to re-liquify, therefore creating a sticky rubber solution that is quite frustrating to extract.

Extracting not only removes paint seamlessly, it can clean your field of any bacteria living in your turf. When debris finds its way below the surface, it breaks down and turns into dirt, which is permanently trapped in your turf. This can cause disease to take life on the surface of your turf. Indoor fields and high traffic synthetic turf surfaces are constantly exposed to sweat, dirt, shoes, etc. It’s crucially important to be regularly disinfecting these areas for the health and safety of players. It’s best practice to keep a cleaning solution always on deck for spot treatments, but in between games, you should be cleaning your entire field on a weekly/bi-weekly basis.

If you fail to extract paint or clean your field through extraction, you’re asking for your synthetic turf to fail you. Excessive paint build up causes a hard, cement like surface, which is a grave safety hazards to players who are being slammed into your field on the regular. Funk can fester in a field that is rarely cleaned, again creating a health hazard to its occupants. Not only does extracting protect your investment, but those who are investing their time to play on your field.

Lastly, extraction may move some things around, requiring you to put everything back in place. Grooming will help even out your surface and return infill to places where there is high traffic or where you needed to clean more aggressively. For paint removal and extraction, made simple, discover our P-REX here.