[Buckland]

Anyone got experience of cleaning this - may not actually be the actual trade-named product but it is a good quality tennis court/playing surface - near trees so is mossy in the winter - now its been successfully moss-killed by the gardeners (yes there is more than one) with something I had not heard of but it has all been killed - they have asked me if I can extract it at a cost effective rate - they want rid of all the dead moss which is ready to remove and fairly loose (can be scraped with a spatula for instance and comes away) but still intertwined with the artificial surface - it apparently soon goes green again by late summer and has never been successfully removed - just wondering if I can use a turbo-head sx15 on it or maybe a mossie (with vacuum) they have said I can do a test without commitment -
anyone?
I have pictures if anyone wants to see them
cheers
dave

[Buckland]

Pics

[Buckland]

Anyone prepared to give some friendly advice

Its just a single court and I am pretty sure I cannot damage it - they are not sure what the base is as they bought the court with the house (some years ago) and it was very heavily mossed at that time and subsequesntly has mossed up again until they discovered a suitable treatment which has definitely killed the moss but left it in the surface - apparently it plays ok with the dead moss in the weave - I really want to do a test run with a turbo head just to check and see how long it will take me to do the whole thing - although some parts are actually fine and never has moss on- the owner wants it to look pristine even if it plays ok - although it does get slippy in parts when wet apparently...

I see the court everytime I go to work eleswhere on the' estate' and they have not found a suitable solution so asked me... we do a fair amount of ordinary outdoor surfaces.

[Ben Marriott]

I know we supply the big 30LPM machines to a large court cleaning firm - they clean using FSC and Turbo heads mainly... on two man operation

[Buckland]

Thanks Ben - without vacuum I am assuming right?

There is a number of threads on here about this and I have always steered clear before but it seems on the face of it straightforward as long as you are not too heavy handed - the sub-surface could be disturbed but I cant see any other way they can remove the dead moss as they cant rake it out.

[Ben Marriott]

I would image that the flow is more important than the pressure as you say being careful is probably the most important thing. Do a test patch or give a tennis court cleaning company a quick call they might well be able to help you

[Buckland]

Thanks Ben - just to update we have done a half day testing using a heavy-duty pile lifter to see if we could remove the contaminants dry - works brilliantly - so no need to get it wet at all - we probably have to do about (in total) 40% of the area of  a single court - the main ingredient is time as to get it back to green condition we were doing multiple passes and are having to remove a lot of the contaminated sand which will have to be replaced with fresh - so its not a small job by any means. It will keep me and my son busy for a couple of days at least! Very awkward situation as well surrounded by trees and grass with no hard paths etc - I suppose one of the big contractors would just cut the chain link, drive a mini tractor onto it and then repair the fence again afterwards. Its nice work in this weather anyway!

[Buckland]

Couple of pics: before (top) after (below)

[wpclean]

Looks like a good earner that, well done.

[Buckland]

Thanks, yes I am going to make sure its a good earner as its hard work and I like the fact it will be low impact job i.e. just sweeping the old moss away with electricity (quiet too) and clearing it up...