Tag Archives: Track Maintenance

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

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.

Ellesmere Port, Liverpool – England

The athletic track at Ellesmere Port underwent 4 weeks for track resurfacing which included repairing 200 linear metres of cracks and a removing a large area of subsidence and repairing the tarmac below. The whole track was then resprayed using 2 x coats of red textured spray. New lines and events were then surveyed and painted giving the track a total transformation.

Resurfacing at Ellesmere Port Athletic Track

In September/October, White Line Services were busy at the Ellesmere Port athletic track carrying out track resurfacing to the whole track. The team began by washing the track to remove any unwanted dirt and grime and prepare the surface ready for the repairs and respraying.

This image was taken after the track was cleaned, as you can see the track has started to wear down to the base mat below.

There were a number of repairs required to the surface including 200 linear metres of cracks and a large area of subsidence where the track surface was removed and the tarmac below repaired.

Two coats of re-textured spray were then applied to the whole track by the team ready for the line marking to begin. Below shows an image during the respraying of the track.

Following the application of re-textured spray, the new lines and events were surveyed and painted onto the track.

With allowances for some rainy weather and curing time, the work took 4 weeks. Please note, all of the materials used by White Line Services are IAAF certified.

If you would like any more information about getting your track repaired and resurfaced, please call up the office on 01342 851172 for a bespoke quotation.

Gateshead International Stadium Track Wash

Last week at the Gateshead International Stadium, Tyne and Wear, White Line Services pressure washed the sprint track and full sized athletic track ahead of the ESAA Track and Field Championships.

The Gateshead International Stadium has an 11,750 seater stadium, ideal for spectators at International Athletic events and other sporting events including football.

Here is a mid-clean shot where the team have currently cleaned a lane width at a time, leaving no overlap marks.

Here is our before and after pictures from the track wash. It’s nice to see how smart the track looks and how nicely a simple track wash can brighten up your track.

We are really pleased with the results and left Gateshead event ready for the ESAA National Championships on 8th and 9th July 2016.

Track of the Week: Tilburg – Holland

Whilst the weather is holding us back today, even in Holland, we are happy with the work we’ve done so far.

The Tilburg track in Holland, is an all blue athletic track located in the city of Tilburg. They asked us to venture over to Holland to give their track some TLC with a full track wash and remark. Over the last week, we have been cleaning the track using our specialist track cleaning machine, and have now began remarking.

This image is taken after the track wash but before the remarking. We are currently in the process of remarking, in between the showers of rain. The perks of a job that relies solely on good weather- right?

Track of the Week: Keepmoat Stadium, Doncaster

Keepmoat Stadium is home to the prestigious sporting teams – Doncaster Rugby League FC, Doncaster Rovers Belles and Doncaster Rovers. The stadium has undergone a £32 million transformation to become one of Yorkshire’s premier event locations. Alongside the stadium, is the athletic track, used by the Doncaster Athletic Club.

We love the track and have worked there for many years on the maintenance of their track. Last year, White Line Services carried out repairs then remarked the track.

This year, White Line Services carried out different repairs then resprayed and remarked. The end result shown in the image below.

We are always happy to walk away leaving a happy customer with a newly maintained athletic track.

If you would like more information about this post or information on how we can maintain your athletic track, please email us on: office@white-line-services.com

Getting Your Track Repaired

Keeping up-to-date with repair work that’s required on your track is so important. At White Line Services, we offer a maintenance package offering discounted rates to the wash, repairs and remarks of your athletic track. The wash and remark alone should help increase the longevity of your athletic track.

Repairs are always inevitable and part of the wear and tear from athletes but they CAN be prevented in some cases. Tackling them early can help reduce significant costs in the long run.

You can prevent this by keeping the track clean from dirt and grime as much as possible by having your track high-pressure cleaned every year. At the first signs of wear on the track, allow us to come and assess your track to advise the best course of action. This could be either a small respray or a patch repair depending on the extent of the repair.

There are many positives to keeping up to date with the maintenance of your athletic track. For example, a small crack can gradually become a large crevice and will likely become dangerous to your athletes during training.

When a crack appears, the best and most cost effective thing to do is have it repaired as soon as the crack appears.

White Line Services are always happy to chat about any problems on your track and find out the best course of action to increase the longevity of your running track.

Track of the Week: David Weir Leisure Centre

The David Weir Leisure Centre (which used to be known as Sutton Arena) is named after the British Paralympic wheelchair athlete David Russell Weir. David Russell Weir has won a total of six gold medals dating from 2008 to 2012. Not to mention winning the London Marathon on six different occasions. Born in the London borough of Sutton, it seems apt for a leisure centre and athletic track in Sutton to be named after this sporting superstar.

David Weir Leisure Centre, run by Everyone Active, has both an indoor 6 Lane sprint track and an outdoor 8 Lane 400m track plus Pole Vault, High Jump, Throwing Cage, Javelin, Shot Putt and 2 Jump Pits.

The indoor 60m sprint track provides athletes with the ideal winter training facilities. The track itself is a 60m track with a 22m run off. There is also a pole vault, high jump, throwing cage and 2 jump pitts.

Below you can see our recent repair work to lane 3 of the indoor track which is barely visible now that the repair has been matched to the surrounding green synthetic track surface.

High-Pressure Sports Surface Cleaning

Maintenance is so important for the overall up keep of your athletic tracks and sports surfaces. By having White Line Services give your sports surface a high-pressure clean will remove any dirt, grime and contaminants including most weeds and moss, leaving your surface in prime condition for your next events.

Our AquaVac mobile cleaning machines are fully equipped with a high-pressure water pump which cleans using pressures in excess of 2000 PSI. The machines clean 4ft (1.22m) at a time making them perfect for cleaning a full lane width at a time. The finished product will have no overlapping marks, spray marks or wobbly lines, and we guarantee you will be pleased with the finished result.

The AquaVac is also designed to collect and dispose of any dirty water, by vacuuming it off the surface and pumping it away down the drain. We collect and dispose of all dirty water and we won’t leave site until you are entirely happy with the quality of your clean.

The machines are compact so we can easily clean both indoor and outdoor sports facilities.

By having your track cleaned every year or two will ensure that any dirt and grime doesn’t cause major damage to your track and sports courts which over time would be very costly.

Here you can see our high-pressure machine in action, cleaning a full lane width at a time.

Our recent projects