Newmat

New Bowling Mat at Ryedale

A diary of the fitting of the new Greengauge carpet at RyedaIe IBC, April 2021

Day 1– (Tuesday 20th April 2021)
Greengauge fitters Chris and George arrived on site at 8.30 am prompt. First job was lifting out the old ditch rubbers and lining boards. Following this the panels of old carpet were quickly separated by pulling out the stitching thread from one end of each panel.

As carpet panels were separated and rolled up it was realised that there was no skip! Just as panic was about to set in it arrived, just in time. A few rolls were set aside for members to take away and a couple of spares were retained “just in case”.

Next the old underlay panels were cut apart along the joining seams and rolled up. Chris using his special tool (an arrow shaped knife attached to a brush shaft )

By the end of the day all the carpet and underlay had been removed and ‘skipped’ leaving the floor down to the bare boards. Boards were all checked and found to be in good condition, There was surprisingly little dust, considering the old Greengauge carpet and underlay had been down 21 years.

Day 2
In the morning the floor surface was laser checked for level. (We had previously experienced some unwanted bias on rinks 4 and 5.) The operator reported there was an overall maximum of 6mm variance which was well within tolerance. It was suggested the problem was likely to have been “bunching up of the underlay” so laying the new carpet could commence.

Next job was removing old and fitting of new double gripper rods round inside of ditches. (Tight side ditches left very little room to wield a hammer!) This was followed by loose laying out of Formula 1 underlay – which had arrived on schedule – and taping of seams

A leaf blower was used to clean off underlay. Loose threads were snipped off ready for the carpet which arrived today as arranged. (We had a struggle getting it in the hall – had to offload it with the carriers long reach fork-lift, through the restaurant door, then wheel it through the entrance hall.)

Day 3
Starting at the clock end of the green the first panel of carpet was laid out. The second panel was laid out on top of the first, edge to edge ready for stitching. Once stitched the top panel was flipped over ready to lay the third panel on top of the second panel. This procedure was repeated for each panel.

Day 4
Almost there! All stitched and set in place so today is s-t-r-e-t-c-h day. Also:

            Fit and glue down carpet to internal banks.
            Tidy ditches and insert new rubber infills
            Measure and mark out rinks
            Tidy up – skips full

Job well done by the Greengauge fitters.

The fitting of the new carpet was carried out just as the restrictions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic were being tentatively lifted. It is part of the Club’s planned upgrade programme.

The Covid-19 pandemic has slowed things down a bit but not stopped progress!

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