Terrain Aeration

New Housebuilders Division

One problem facing housebuilders both before and after development is ground compaction. Open spaces designated for building may suffer years of neglect, constant foot traffic or use of wheeled machinery resulting in panning deep below the surface. Similarly, during the building process bulldozers, diggers, dumper trucks and concrete mixer lorries flatten the air out of the soil in areas that will eventually become gardens and shared grassed areas. Often the land itself may have had previous buildings, and the subsoil contains old bricks, rubble and landfill. All these factors contribute to waterlogging which normal aeration cannot relieve.

 Terrain Aeration’s Housebuilder’s Division has developed the specialist machinery and a full service needed for deep penetration aeration to relieve the problem of heavy compaction and waterlogging. Designed to access tight areas, their Terralift tracked aerator can enter small gardens through a gateway or garage and provide unique one-metre-deep aeration. At this depth, compressed air is released via a probe to fracture the soil and create fissures, allowing drainage and letting oxygen reach deep into the soil. Such work has been carried out for many years by Terrain Aeration for the UK’s leading housebuilders including Taylor-Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. A typical recent contract saw them treating ten small gardens and a small open flower meadow for Barratt David Wilson Homes in East Anglia while a project for Taylor-Wimpey was treating an open space so the housing development could be signed off with the council as ‘decompacted’. In this instance, the full-size Terralift machines were used, driving the JCB road breaker probe into the ground. At one metre depth the compressed air, up to 20Bar/280psi, was released from the probe which, on the tail-end of the blast, injects dried seaweed. This sticks to the fissures created as the Terralift process is repeated at two-metre centre spacing on a staggered grid. The seaweed expands and contracts with the soil’s moisture content to allow drainage and aeration.

 The Terrain Aeration process has been in operation for over thirty years, providing compaction relief for new-build gardens, sports grounds, golf courses, amenity areas, racecourses and public spaces. The Terrain Aeration Tree Division provides the specialist treatment for Royal Parks and arboriculturalists throughout the UK.

Terrain Aeration injects polymer

While it may be wet, water everywhere at the moment we will soon be heading into the summer months. That’s when the problems begin for turf and trees. Increasingly, year on year, we are seeing the effects of global warming across our landscape as droughts persist. Sports pitches, golf courses, trees in parks, amenity areas right through to lawns in private gardens will all suffer from the lack of rainfall. Ground becomes hard and compacted to considerable depth and when the rains do come, this often leads to standing surface water and waterlogging.

Suffolk-based Terrain Aeration has specialised in one-metre deep soil aeration to relieve compaction, panning, and waterlogging nationally for over thirty years. While that takes care of the drainage and aeration when it’s very wet there remains the opposite problem of grass and tree roots not getting enough water in periods of drought. It’s a problem addressed by the same machine, Terrain Aeration’s Terralift system, that aerates the soil at depth by releasing compressed air via its one-metre depth probe. As that fragments the soil to create fissures and cracks to allow drainage and aeration, the probe can also inject water-storing polymer. Once in place, the polymer will expand one-hundred fold with rainwater or irrigation water which it stores for the turf or tree roots to take up as needed. It’s a one-way system, so the polymer does not take water from the roots.

In this way, we will be able to make better use of what water we have and it’s a very long-term process as the polymer takes a long time to degrade. Spreading the polymer on the surface is not practical, as when it rains it turns into a gel, making the area dangerous to walk and play on. Injecting it into the ground using the Terralift machine offers the best, most beneficial, and wholly cost-effective method, says the company. Terrain Aeration is the only operator of the Terralift in the UK and the treatment has proven itself since 1985. There are different versions of the machine to treat large open spaces such as sports grounds, golf courses, and avenues of trees to narrow accesses onto bowling greens and gardens. Anywhere from airports to zoos.

After the Flood

The long, hot summer of 2022 made the year the second warmest on record in the UK and led to drought in many areas. With the ground dried out and continued heavy footfall, amenity areas, sports fields, parks, other tree lined spaces and even domestic back gardens suffer heavy soil compaction. When the rains come, water is unable to penetrate the soil and sports grounds in particular turn into quagmires, stopping play and resulting for many in lost revenue. Exceptionally heavy rainfall leading to flooding has a number of other knock-on effects for turf and trees. Flood waters are heavy enough to force the oxygen out of the soil structure, leading to dead or dying turf and trees showing signs of severe stress, leaf fall and rotting roots. No amount of normal aeration, spiking or decompaction of the topsoil is going to solve a problem that goes much deeper. That is where deep aeration specialists are called for and one company, Terrain Aeration, has been solving these problems for well over thirty years.

Take some typical examples. A bowling green in Wales that has seen over ninety years of play. Built on shale, like so many, even with regular Vertidraining, the ground had become compacted at depth. The club treasurer remembers well the day in 2018.

“The green was filling with water before my very eyes,” he says, “and after the heavy showers it remained quite sodden and unplayable. It seemed no amount of work could get it back into shape.” This left fifty or so members without playing facilities until it dried out.

 

One contractor working with London councils has among the sites under their watchful eye many of the city’s sports pitches, of which there are ninety-five football pitches, ten cricket squares, bowling greens and running tracks.

 “A lot of the sites are on made up ground and experience major problems with drainage,” says their parks officer. “We have carried out aeration down to 300mm, but it’s not enough to get to the pans.”

So what’s the answer? Terrain Aeration has a range of machines with the ability to send a probe to a depth of one metre. It penetrates the ground with the help of its built-in JCB road breaker, reaching the pan. Here it injects compressed air, working on a grid system and fragmenting the ground into fissures. These interlink to help restructure the soil and let in vital oxygen. Turf roots will grow stronger and uniquely the soil structure is kept open by Terrain Aeration’s Terralift machine process, which has proven itself over the past 30 years. With the Terralift’s probe reaching 1m depth, it’s also the perfect way to help move excess water away from stagnating around tree roots. By going deeper than the growing roots, excess water can percolate away and save the roots from rotting. Again, vital oxygen is injected into the soil along with other products to help with the root system in re-establishing itself. The results being a healthier and stronger root growth, a visibly stronger canopy and even more fruit on the trees. Diseases such as Phytophthora (water borne problems for Yew trees) can be stopped as opening the soil structure and injecting oxygen back into the soil is beneficial to the health of the tree.

 

As in the above examples Terrain Aeration’s system has come to the rescue after the flood for sports grounds, parks, golf courses and even new-build gardens for major housebuilders’ developments.

Terrain Aeration Services are deeply saddened by the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth 11. She showed us all how to cope with life, how to have fun and laugh, but also the power of calmness and dedication. She stood by her own rules and dedication to the people of the UK, a true lady. She will be missed as the most popular and well known person in the World.
Lynda and David Green

Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders

One problem facing housebuilders both before and after development is ground compaction. Open spaces designated for building may suffer years of neglect, constant foot traffic or use of wheeled machinery resulting in panning deep below the surface. Similarly, during the building process bulldozers, diggers, dumper trucks and concrete mixer lorries flatten the air out of the soil in areas that will eventually become gardens and shared grassed areas. Often the land itself may have had previous buildings, and the subsoil contains old bricks, rubble and landfill. All these factors contribute to waterlogging which normal aeration cannot relieve.

 Terrain Aeration’s Housebuilder’s Division has developed the specialist machinery and a full service needed for deep penetration aeration to relieve the problem of heavy compaction and waterlogging. Designed to access tight areas, their Terralift tracked aerator can enter small gardens through a gateway or garage and provide unique one-metre-deep aeration. At this depth, compressed air is released via a probe to fracture the soil and create fissures, allowing drainage and letting oxygen reach deep into the soil. Such work has been carried out for many years by Terrain Aeration for the UK’s leading housebuilders including Taylor-Wimpey, Barratt and Persimmon. A typical recent contract saw them treating ten small gardens and a small open flower meadow for Barratt David Wilson Homes in East Anglia while a project for Taylor-Wimpey was treating an open space so the housing development could be signed off with the council as ‘decompacted’. In this instance, the full-size Terralift machines were used, driving the JCB road breaker probe into the ground. At one metre depth the compressed air, up to 20Bar/280psi, was released from the probe which, on the tail-end of the blast, injects dried seaweed. This sticks to the fissures created as the Terralift process is repeated at two-metre centre spacing on a staggered grid. The seaweed expands and contracts with the soil’s moisture content to allow drainage and aeration.

 The Terrain Aeration process has been in operation for over thirty years, providing compaction relief for new-build gardens, sports grounds, golf courses, amenity areas and public spaces. The Terrain Aeration Tree Division provides the specialist treatment for Royal Parks and arboriculturalists throughout the UK.

Terrain Aeration launches Tree Division

David Churchyard has joined Terrain Aeration Services to head up the new Terrain Aeration Tree Division. The company has been treating trees for over thirty years and sees this as an opportunity to expand their specialist service. David brings an extensive wealth of knowledge regarding pests, diseases and fungal growths to trees as well as turf. He was employed as a head forester for twenty-one years on a 6000 acre estate where he was involved in working on and looking after all aspects of the estate’s extensive woodlands. This covered planting heritage oaks, caring for the veteran 900-year-old trees and drawing up management plans for current and future works. To increase his knowledge over the years, David has taken part in many lectures and courses on veteran trees in various locations, including Windsor Castle estate. He also took part in a film on AOD (Acute Oak Decline), the relatively new disease that began affecting many British oak trees since the last quarter of the 20^th century. Climate changes are strongly affecting our trees and helping keep them alive is now a priority and one which David relishes in having a key role in.

Terrain Aeration’s Terralift machine is recognised by Tree Officers as a solution to deep aeration and relief of compaction panning around tree roots. The Terralift is the only machine which can aerate around the root zone and put oxygen back into the soil. It breaks up compaction and panning, providing relief from waterlogging and the danger of the waterborne disease Phytophthora. Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division can inspect and advise on suitable treatment without exposing entire areas of tree roots, which may cause undue stress to the trees. One metre deep penetration aeration treatment is used around trees and to treat compacted turf and grass areas. David has joined Terrain to head and expand the division and to get the critical message out there that “it’s the roots that are the root of the problem!” Many trees of all ages are struggling with compaction. This means that essential nutrients are not getting down to the life-giving area of the tree. The message is simple, take care of the bottom-the roots-and the top of the tree will look after itself.