SportsTurf provides current, practical and technical content on issues relevant to sports turf managers, including facilities managers. Most readers are athletic field managers from the professional level through parks and recreation, universities.
Issue link: https://read.dmtmag.com/i/141613
Facility&Operations the night. This was a practice field, but a disaster to me none the less! Field painting tips & disaster stories What 3-4 factors do you consider most important for efficient and successful field and logo painting? What is the worst painting disaster you've ever been involved with or seen happen? MARTIN KAUFMAN, CSFM Turf Managers LLC Nashville, TN Efficient and successful field and logo painting begins with: 1. Preparation; 2. Planning; 3. Observation; and 4. Focus (& double check). The worst painting disaster I have been a part of is painting a 30 yard line from the west side of a football field to the 31 yard line on the east side of the field, letting it dry and not discovering the problem until I was painting hash marks on the east sideline. This game was on TV too. ALLISON MOYER Grounds Manager Collegiate School, Richmond, VA Pre-paint by planning out on paper what needs to be painted. The colors needed, measurements of the logo and overall look of the project Timing is crucial in getting a good logo. Give yourself plenty of 22 SportsTurf | July 2013 time to complete the logo. Also, make sure you paint it in enough time for it to completely dry before players arrive. Check with coaches and find out practice/game schedules before you start. Wet paint on a field does not mix well with people walking all over it! Equipment. Always check your equipment before beginning. Check rollers, paint, strings, & tapes are good and usable. Patience. Don't get frustrated. It takes time to create a logo. Things will always turn out better if you do not get frustrated On the coldest night of the year, I painted an Arena Football field on an outdoor regular football field. It happened to be a synthetic field that had that needed to be painted with embedded regular football hashes, numbers, & lines. After much discussion, the complex made the decision to paint the embedded hashes, numbers, & lines with green paint to cover them up and then repaint the correct lines for arena football. We tried to get a green as close as possible but in the end it looked tacky. BILL CONNELL Field Operations Buffalo Bills First, all equipment is in good working order (cleaned after last use, properly tuned, all parts, spray tips, etc., inspected. Second, check weather, team schedule or any other source of disruption that would prevent the goals of the task from getting done. Third, get proper amount of paint ready to go: mixing, cutting, and filtering. Fourth, start job and be neat and precise. Don't get lazy or sloppy; be consistent from start to finish. My worst painting disaster was painting the numbers college distance from the sideline (21 ft), not the professional distance (36 ft) from bottom of the template. I had to dye out wrong numbers during RYAN NEWMAN Director of Athletic Grounds University of Colorado Athletics First factor for successful and efficient painting is monitoring the weather. Try to get ahead of forecasted precipitation to make sure the paint dries before it rains. If you can avoid painting in windy conditions, this will minimize the amount of drift you have. Also, as the season progresses, we get colder temperatures and shorter days, so we start the painting earlier to ensure the paint dries in time. The second factor, and probably the most important, is having a knowledgeable crew; they need to know proper field dimensions, painting equipment operation, and be on the same page with one another. There is a lot of teamwork involved in painting; most processes involve multiple team members so knowing what the other guy is doing and when he is going to do it and vice versa will eliminate most mistakes. The last one is using quality paint and reliable painting equipment, and making sure the paint is mixed properly and consistently. Taking care of your painting equipment by properly cleaning it when finished will ensure reliability and functionality. The worst painting disaster I've seen was when I was a student at Iowa State. We had a stand alone unit in the back of a cart and were moving from one end zone to another along the perimeter. We did not wind up the hose for the painter, we were just pulling it behind the cart. We made the turn at the corner and the hose snagged the nail holding the sideline string and it jerked the paint and painter right out of the back of the cart. The other one I witnessed; we had the painter in the back of a truck heading to one of our facili- www.sportsturfonline.com