FAQs

Synthetic Grass

What is it?
Artificial grass is normally a polyethylene or polypropylene fibre (plastic) woven into a rubber latex backing. It comes in various heights, densities and colours. The traditional pile height used is 19mm throughout child care centres and council playgrounds. This synthetic grass is still very popular but the longer pile 40mm more natural looking product has nearly become the standard that is being used particularly in child care centres.

Why is the synthetic grass filled with sand?
The advantages of having a sand-filled product are, firstly, that the sand anchours the grass to the ground, secondly, it keeps the pile fibres upright (which gives the grass a longer life) and ensures that the pile is not flattened, losing its natural look. Thirdly, it assists with drainage after rain.

Does it burn or is it scratchy?
An adult can get friction burn from playing cricket or tennis on the surface. Children don't have the same mass or velocity and don't achieve similar results. The grass has an initial scratchy feel, but has a much softer feel after a "wearing in" period as the product "fibrulates". Over the years, synthetic grass has been developed into a low-skid resistant surface and , as such, the amount of friction burn is reduced.

How long does it last?
Products will last from 5 - 15 years depending on the quality of the product and the amount and type of foot traffic.

Does it have to be green?
Artificial grass comes in a range of colours other than green. Ask about our rainbow of colours that are available.

Does the ground have to be flat?
Artificial grass can go over any surface, even bare earth or sand, but the final look of the product will directly reflect the evenness of the sub-grade below.

Will it burn?
Polyethylene and polypropylene will melt rather than ignite, but with sand infill only the tips of the fibres will be affected, the sand will extinguish the flame.

Is it waterproof?
Water won't damage the product as it is made for outdoor use. Water can penetrate down through the backing of the material. The material will not perform as a waterproofing membrane.

Does it fade?
All of our artificial grasses are made in Australia for our climate. They are U.V. treated and made for outdoor conditions and carry a seven (7) year UV stability warranty from the manufacturers.

What happens when it rains?
The water will take the line of least resistance. On areas where the fall is greater than 1%, the water will drain off the surface of the product. In areas where there is no fall, water can penetrate through the latex (rubber) backing, but this will not affect the grass in any way.

Will our trees die?
At Gadsby Surface Solutions we are conscious of your trees getting sufficient moisture. The artificial grass should always be cut back from around the base of the trees.

Does it need any maintenance?
Generally, artificial grass is considered a low maintenance product, but it is always a good idea to do some general "housekeeping" by sweeping off foreign objects i.e. leaves, dirt, sticks etc. Gadsby Surface Solutions has a maintenance team with "high pressure" equipment that will clean your grass.

Can it go over hills?
We have successfully contoured artificial grass over varying landscaped surfaces, but the higher the mound the more cuts in tHE synthetic grass is needed to 'form' it to the shape.

Softfall®

What is it?
Softfall® is an impact absorbing system. Its purpose is to serve as a cushion to protect against head and neck injuries and the critical fall height from equipment will determine its thickness.

Softfall® can be a variety of products: wet pour rubber, synthetic grass, sand, bark chip and other strange substances such as grape seeds.

The Softfall® we specialise in are the wet pour rubber and synthetic grass types. Our Softfall® comes in the form of EVA closed cell impact absorbing pads, approximately 2 metres by 1 metre in size and from 10mm to 40mm thickness, or as a wet pour rubber seamless surfacing system consisting of a unique single component polyurethane resin binder, combined with black SBR rubber shred.

Softfall® pads are used under synthetic grass, but the wetpour rubber alternative can be used under both synthetic grass and rubber but mainly for rubber surfacing.

Has it been tested?
"Lab testing" - Reports are available
"Site testing" - Reports are available

How does Softfall® work?
It absorbs and disperses impact with minimum rebound. This does not mean injuries do not occur, the purpose is to protect the head and neck.

How long will it last?
Our Softfall® pads are inert and don't absorb moisture, we estimate their lifespan is in excess of 10 years. The Softrax Softfall® base rubber has a similar life span.

Does it drain?
Water tends to drain off the surface to the falls and the Softfall® pads will not become "water-logged". The Softrax Softfall® is porous, however most drainage occurs due to the falls of the sub base surface not the rubber.

What preparation of the surface is required?
If installation is over dirt or similar surface, the base is prepared with 50mm of crushed metal dust, screeded and compacted. we can directly install over an existing concrete or asphalt area, povided that the surface is in good condtion. If the concrete is badly cracked or teh aspahalt broken it should be repaired prior to the installation of any surface.

Wet Pour Rubber

How is wet pour rubber applied?
Wet pour rubber comes in 20-25kg bags and is already coloured. The technique of colouring rubber on site has been replaced with factory coloured products.

The rubber is mixed with a moisture cured, single part polyurethane binder in the minimum ration of 1kg binder to 5kg rubber. It is imperative that this rate is applied otherwise the finished surface will basically fall apart.

The rubber and binder is mixed in a mortar screed mixer and barrowed to the installation point. The rubber is roughly spread out using timbers as a guide to depth and then finished to a smooth surface using a steel trowel.

Why did my rubber go yellow upon installation?
If the rubber surface is in the sun, and depending on the colour of the rubber, there can be a noticeable yellowing of the surface. This will literally happen from one day to the next. The yellow can be spectacular, with greys, creams and greens turning brown, blue turning green, white becoming cream. The reason for this is that the single part moisture cured binder reacts with UV light and it will take time (how long is an unknown but normally a few weeks) to continue the reaction and the binder then returns to clear and allowing the true colour of the rubber to reappear. It has nothing to do with the rubber, it is the binder. To eliminate this one of two methods are employed. The first is to change the colour to be installed using terracotta, red, yellows, oranges. The other is to change the type of binder to a two part polyurethane, but the cost of this binder is 3 to 4 times that of the single part product, making the the two part option a very expensive one. (5 kg binder is used per 1.5 to 2.0m² of surfacing).

How will you finish the wet pour rubber edge?
How we finish the edge on wet pour rubber is dependent on what is the type of material coming up to the rubber. Expand the diagrams below and the preferred edging details are shown.

What about the joins in the rubber?
Traditionally the joins between two runs of rubber were a simple butt joint, i.e. one section of rubber butting up against the other. This has been superceded with a Z join where one section of rubber is finished with a Z edge so that the two sections of rubber overlap. We employ this join in all new installations and try to do this in repairing old rubber, however, the thickness of the old rubber dictates if a Z can be cut into it.