With a growing number of communities and amateur and professional clubs struggling to keep their natural grass sports surfaces in a usable condition due to a lack of space or high investment costs, it’s no wonder that artificial turf has become more widely adopted.

But how do you know if a football pitch surface is safe and meets the performance requirements of your sport? The most common artificial sports surface is a third-generation surface (or 3G Pitch Resurfacing) which combines an artificial turf carpet with a combination of sand and rubber infill. This type of synthetic surface can be used for a variety of different sports and can be installed in many different pile heights depending on the sport. The surface is also designed to incorporate a shock absorbent pad where required.

The Ultimate Guide to 3G Pitch Resurfacing: What You Need to Know

The latest 3G sports surfacing has been developed to offer greater ball responsiveness than the first generation of artificial turf which had short fibers filled with sand and provided a hard, unnatural surface on which players can suffer injury. The new 3G sports surfacing has longer fibres and the gaps between the fibres are filled with a layer of recycled rubber which is much softer than the original sand infill. This provides a more realistic ball response which allows the surface to feel like natural grass to the player.

It’s important to note that a 3G football surface still requires specialist maintenance to ensure that it performs to the highest standards. This includes regular drag brushing to redistribute the infill and preventative moss and algae treatments to stop contamination.