Having a synthetic 5-a-side football MUGA facility built is a popular choice for many clubs and schools in the UK as it can often be difficult to look after a natural grass pitch, especially during periods of wet weather.
Artificial turf sports pitches can be used for many activities including football, rugby and hockey as the specification of the grass carpet can be designed differently to suit the needs for each sport. This makes the specification versatile, meaning that schools and clubs can use the surface all year round and for a number of different activities. Check out this post to see the benefits of MUGA pitches in schools.
MUGA facilities can also help promote teamwork and develop a range of skills, which you can see more about in this post.
5-a-side Football MUGA Construction
We recently built a 5-a-side football MUGA in 3G synthetic grass for a client in Gloucester who wanted to convert an unusable grass area into a multi purpose all weather sports facility. Before we could begin the construction for the 5-a-side MUGA facility, we had to excavate the existing natural grass down to the desired depth to prepare a suitable foundation for the installation.
After excavating the ground for the sports pitch, the next part of this construction project was to put in a porous stone sub base layer to act as a strong and durable sports pitch foundation. The dynamic stone sub base is specially designed to be used in sports facility installations because it’s porous to allow efficient drainage, and it is very long lasting and strong.
We compacted the stone down to lock each of the particles together and keep it secure before the next stage of the multi use sport surface construction. Next, we added a macadam base layer on top of the porous stones, this makes a smooth foundation which is perfect for the 3G synthetic carpet to be installed onto.
Take a look at the video below to see the construction process for this facility from start to finish:
Installing the 3G Grass Carpet
To install the 3G synthetic turf for the 5-a-side football MUGA, we rolled the carpet out onto the macadam base and glued the pieces down at the edges and the seams. The specialised glue is designed to be extremely long lasting and durable so the artificial turf carpet will stay in place through heavy year-round use.
Once the synthetic grass has been installed, we then put in a sand and rubber infill which keeps the artificial fibres upright and creates the right playing characteristics for the 5-a-side football pitch facility. Over time this infill can become compacted and dirty, so it’s important to regularly maintain it by drag brushing to keep the particles evenly spread across the surface.
After the 3G synthetic grass had been fully installed and the line markings were applied, the end result for this project was a top quality synthetic football pitch facility which can be used for a number of activities. 3G pitches are becoming more popular in the UK because they have a similar playability to natural grass but they require much less maintenance.
Once installed, a synthetic grass surface is a lot cheaper to run and maintain and can be used all year round in all weather conditions so the facility can be rented out to generate extra revenue. Check out this post to find out more about maintaining these pitches throughout the year.
Please get in touch with us if you’re interested in installing a 5-a-side football MUGA or similar sports surface to this one and we’ll discuss prices and designs with you. Our website https://www.softsurfaces.co.uk/ explains more about the work we do and the products we can supply and install so feel free to take a look at that for more information. If you’ve got any questions about building a small sided football pitch, leave them in the comments below and don’t forget to share this post with your friends if you thought it was interesting!
