Author Archives: Marc Adams

How to get your track competition ready

Winter can take its toll on your athletic track and before you know it, spring is on the horizon and the event calendar will start filling up with bookings ahead of the athletic season.

Following this checklist will ensure your track is safe and ready for a busy season of sports.

Track maintenance:

The safety of your track is paramount. Small repairs and loose granules may seem like small issues at the beginning, but if left, these small problems can result in much larger scale repairs and worse, cause injury to users of the track.

Track cleaning:

Yes, this comes under the umbrella of maintenance but every 1-2 years, we recommend you get your track surface professionally cleaned. The advantages of this ensures the track surface is clean from any moss and contaminants to avoid any slips or trips on your track.

Planning events:

Check what events you’ll be running at your event. Do you have all of the equipment prepared and correct track markings? White Line Services will set out and paint tracks to the latest UKA and IAAF standards to ensure your track is event ready. There are new regulations in place from 2018 for hurdle markings, so it’s always worth checking your current markings are up-to-date before hosting any events.

See guides online for up-to-date track markings on the IAAF website or drop us a message and a member of White Line Services team would be happy to help.

Hurdle markings at Hoe Valley Athletic track

Indoor Office Mini Athletic Track

Our last job of 2017 was to carry out the line markings around an office block in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, London. The customer asked for a 3 lane mini athletic track to run around each section of their office.

To complete this job, the lines had to be measured and set out using tape before line marking the red rubber surface in white. The total length of the track was 940lm long

Working Overseas in Kuwait

After returning to the UK before Christmas from the Middle East, we are due to return again this Friday to complete a further 2 athletic tracks.

Here’s what we got up to when we were in Kuwait in December 2017.

Above image is of John from White Line Services and two local workers are getting ready to start surveying and painting the Kuwait City International Stadium.

The surveying and painting took us a total of 6 days to complete with only one day of rain and was marked with standard IAAF lines and events.

We are looking forward to keeping you posted on our next 2 new tracks out in Kuwait.

Installing an Indoor Sprint Track Flooring

Over the course of 2 weeks, White Line Services installed a new blue athletic track surface to a school in Dorset. The below pictures demonstrate the stages of the installation, starting with the initial screeding of the concrete flooring to iron out any minor defects and improve overall levels.

Once this layer had set, the next step was to install the base layer 10mm rubber shock pad that ran the length of the area.

Once the base mat layer has been successfully stuck down, the sealer coat layer was applied and left to cure, as shown below.

Then finally, the top layer 3mm flowcoat system was applied and left to cure. Once any excess EPDM granules had been swept away, the surface was then ready for painting. Below you can see the finished blue 3 lane sprint track.

Birmingham City Football Club

In July, we were busy at the Birmingham City Football Club based at St Andrew’s Stadium in Birmingham. Ahead of their upcoming games, we carried out washing to the area of blue synthetic track which surrounds the football pitch.

Images shows mid way through the surface washing.

The narrow area of synthetic medium blue surface runs the length and width of the football pitch measuring approx. 2.5m wide. White Line Services have specialist cleaning machines designed to clean a variety of different areas. The area at Birmingham City Football Club was a narrow but long area and our team took 1 1/2 days to clean this area to a high standard.

Getting Ready for the IAAF World Championships London 2017

Over the last few weeks, White Line Services have been preparing the Queen Elizabeth Stadium for the biggest sporting event since London 2012. Last held in Beijing in 2015, this year London is home to the IAAF World Championships, the track has undergone track washing, repairs, and full remarking of all lines and events.

The IAAF World Championships will last 10 magical days, where the world’s top athletes will race to glory including Mo Farah, who wants to finish his track career in style by winning gold as well as Usain Bolt, who’s hopeful to set an “unbreakable” world record ahead of this retirement.

Read about what happened when we washed the Queen Elizabeth track in June, a job which involved two teams working around the clock using various specialist machines to clean the track.

Marc spray painting hurdles

Phase two took place in July and involved rewashing the track, carrying out repairs and line marking. This time 3 teams worked side by side washing the track and remarking all lines and events.

Final preparation for the IAAF World Championships

London Queen Elizabeth Stadium Track Washing

The team at White Line Services recently carried out track washing and repairs to the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Stadium in Stratford, London. With only a few days to carry out the work, 2 teams worked around the clock to get the track cleaned ahead of the upcoming sporting events.

We are very honoured to be helping prepare the track for some of the most prestigious events in the sporting calendar for 2017. One event in particular, the London World Championships in August, will be Usain Bolt’s last ever competition before he retires. Hopefully he will win his 11th World Championship gold.

The above image shows a panoramic image taken at the beginning of day 1 before the cleaning and the second at the end of day 3 after the cleaning.

2016 Overview from White Line Services

2016 has been a fast-paced and exciting year for us, we have been super busy all year round and have only just come up for air now! From Scotland and Ireland to Exeter and Liverpool, we’ve travelled a lot and carried out work we’re very pleased with.

Some of the exciting projects from 2016 include school track washes and remarks such as Radley College and line marking at the Chelsea Academy Football ground.

The athletic tracks we have worked on this year include Gateshead Stadium, Scotstoun, Ellesmere Port and the Queen Elizabeth Stadium, London.

We’ve also done several indoor sports halls and a number of mini sprint tracks in gyms across the UK.

The work this year on athletic tracks has ranged from repairs and resurfacing work on tracks including Ellesmere Port, washes and remarks and sometimes just simple repairs. We have surveyed and painted new tracks both indoors and outdoors. Nottingham University was an example of one of the indoor tracks surveyed and painted by us this year.

We’ve worked abroad a few times in Holland and Norway with hopes to travel further afield too in 2017.

We are now taking books for the summer of 2017 and the calendar is slowly filling up. We’re looking forward to making lots more happy customers this year and wish you all a Happy New Year.

Fungicidal Wash Treatment

When it comes to cleaning your sports surfaces, White Line Services can remove almost all of the moss and algae with their bespoke water vacuuming track cleaning machines. The machines are equipped with high- powered water which cleans with pressures in excess of 2000PSI. This pressure is enough to remove dirt, grime and other contaminants including moss and algae, leaving a streak-free finish to your track.

However, small spores of moss and algae will still remain on the surface of the track which causes moss to eventually regrow. To ensure the longevity of your track and help delay and reduce any regrowth of moss, White Line Services offer a fungicidal wash treatment which can be applied to the track after the deep clean has finished.

This services helps to eliminating moss and algae regrowth on your athletic track. If you would like any more information, please contact the office.

Nottingham University – England

White Line Services line marked the indoor 6 lane x 60 m sprint track at Nottingham University.

Our recent projects