During some recent business travels Tru Mark had the opportunity of applying a water-based synthetic turf paint on existing soccer field lines of a synthetic turf field at Wyzata High School, MN.

This particular turf field used a crumb rubber infield with sewn-in football field lines and the soccer field touch lines (sidelines). This field is used by a local lacrosse club as well. The field had been previously painted several times and the paint build is significant reminding me of gum in a carpet situation. The football field hash marks were painted along with soccer goalie, penalty, and center circle and the standard lacrosse markings. The soccer field lines were painted yellow and the lacrosse field lines painted red.

The customer asked Tru Mark to over stripe the existing soccer field painted lines with the TrailBlazer Solar Trail, Bison Gold, permanent synthetic turf paint. There was no attempt to remove the paint that had been previously applied. The existing paint appeared have a very strong bonding agent, similar to rubber compound, and was concentrated at painted intersections. Also a lot of the paint had been applied to the crumb rubber infield making it just about impractical to clean the lines effectively before reapplying turf paint. During the striping operation we did not use a string to guide us, just the existing line.

Lesson Learned: Avoid overstriping at intersections when painting synthetic turf surfaces. Plan ahead when to start and stop your striping. For example, Minnesota Metro Dome uses a 4" x 4" cardboard spacer at the edge of the sideline when painting the 5-yard lines to ensure separation.

Lesson Learned: Whenever time allows and precision is needed pull a string to guide your striping operations, especially on synthetic turf surfaces.

Lesson Learned: Under application of paint on synthetic turf surfaces is preferred. Reduce the amount of pressure on your line striper to minimize over application and over spray. Practice your walking speed, stop and starting procedure, on a test strip when possible.

Lesson Learned: On new multi-purpose turf fields facility turf maintenance staff should consider whether personal resources and equipment support the paint removal process to minimize build-up or whether a less permanent field marking solution is desirable where build-up will less of an issue. Tru Mark aerosol chalk and Double Play bulk liquid chalk solutions may be a good alternative, yes restriping is necessary however you avoid the paint build-up.