Tag Archive for: Terrain

Terrain Aeration hitches a lift

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Terrain Aeration hitches a lift: Devonshire Homes has been committed to building high quality new homes across the West Country for more than thirty years. As a wholly owned subsidiary of London and Devonshire Trust, they have built over 1500 new homes and created over thirty new communities.

One such development at Gwallon Keas, St Austell, is built on clay laden soil and they encountered a common problem facing new build developers. During construction, the use of heavy machinery can unavoidably cause compaction panning in areas designated to be the gardens of new houses. Even with land drainage installed and soil ripped, the compaction can reach such a depth normal treatment will not relieve it and provide the natural drainage needed. Consequently, with seven gardens of the new houses, severe waterlogging was occurring. To rectify it, they were given what they called ‘some silly quotes’ with no guarantee the solutions would work. A ground works contractor recommended compaction specialists Terrain Aeration and Devonshire Homes decided to proceed with them. However, there was just one further problem, how to get the Terrain Aeration’s Tracker Terralift machine, compressor and aggregate backfill material into the gardens with limited access.

Terrain Aeration hitches a lift

Terrain Aeration hitches a lift

The solution was a crane presented itself with the arrival of a crane to lift bags of topsoil into the gardens. Whilst Terrain Aeration has had machines lifted before, they have never been this high. The fences between the seven gardens had been taken down, so the Tracker Terralift could move along the gardens to do its work. This comprises the machine’s JCB road hammer and probe driving down to a depth of one metre. At this depth, a blast of compressed air is released to a maximum of 20Bar (280psi). This has the effect of fracturing the compacted soil and creating fissures. The treatment is worked on a grid system at two metre spacings so the fissures interlink. As the probe withdraws, dried seaweed is injected which expands when it rains and keeps the fissure open to allow normal drainage. The probe holes are then backfilled with aggregate It is a solution Terrain Aeration has specialised in for over thirty years, treating areas ranging from back gardens to sports pitches, golf courses, bowling greens, race courses, parks, trees and public spaces. For Devonshire Homes, it provided a timely solution, albeit one which, on this occasion, needed a crane to carry it out.

Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.co.uk

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Terrain Aeration injects polymer

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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.

Terrain Aeration injects polymer

Terrain Aeration injects polymer

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.

Terrain Aeration www.terrainaeration.co.uk  01449 673783

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Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias

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Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias: Darlington’s South Park is home to two of what are believed to be the largest giant Redwood trees or multi-stemmed Sequoiadendron giganteum in England. Planted in March 1863 to commemorate the marriage of the future King Edward VII to Princess Alexandra of Denmark, the trees are placed in the top ten in Britain.

The only other multi-stemmed Wellingtonia is at Stratfield House, the former home of the Duke of Wellington. It was planted by the 2nd Duchess of Wellington in 1857 in memory of the Duke and the Battle of Waterloo, hence the alternative naming of the tree as Wellingtonia. This caused outrage among US botanists when the Sequoia was rediscovered in 1852 in Sierra Nevada and a sample taken to England to become named after the recently dead duke. The tree council believes the trees in South Park are most likely from the same seed as the Stratfield trees.

Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias

Terrain Aeration for England’s largest Sequoias

Recent times have seen one of the Darlington trees suffering from the effects of compaction. The top roots are, in fact, visible and travel a long way from the tree on one side, with a steep hill down to a river on the other. The tree over-compensates to get all its energy.

Darlington Council took action by calling on the services of Terrain Aeration’s Tree Division to provide specialist deep aeration of the area using their Terralift machines. The key to successful treatment is usually to work along the dripline, one metre inside and one metre outside, where the rainwater drips from the canopy. Working either side of the dripline reaches beyond the growing roots, increases the percentage of oxygen intake and allows maximum drainage. Rainwater can penetrate deeper, resulting in a stronger root growth and a healthier canopy spread with an aerated soil structure and relief of compaction panning. Once the trees receive significant rainfall, they pick up as they receive more water and nutrients.

With the South Park trees, all the lawn was aerated as well with mycorrhizal funghi. These attach themselves to the tips of the roots and help them break through hard soil, leaving the tree more energy to grow leaves and in size. The soil was very hard and dry around the base, so some fractures were done near to the tree. Water storing polymer was injected into the area to help retain available water from rainfall for the tree roots. Unlike normal aeration, the Terralift is designed to penetrate as deep as one metre using a probe, which releases compressed air at a maximum of 20Bar (280psi). The effect this creates is to fracture the soil, resulting in fissures that interlink as the Terralift repeats the process on a grid system of two-metre spacings. The network of fissures allows maximum penetration of air and water.

Terrain Aeration 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.com

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Corvus partners Godstone All Terrain

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Corvus partners Godstone All Terrain: Boss ORV, the UK distributor of Corvus Off-Road Vehicles has announced a new partnership with Godstone All Terrain Ltd. Established in 2020 Godstone has already built a wide customer base in the South East of England covering the broad area of Surrey, Sussex and Kent with a showroom in South Godstone, Surrey, just 15 minutes from Junction 6 of the M25.

They offer an extensive range of 2wd and 4wd quad bikes and utility vehicles for farm and off-road use, and now, with the Corvus Terrain UTVs, road legal 2wd and 4×4 utility vehicles. These are approved to EU T1a standards and equipped with automotive safety windshield glass, three-point belts, indicators, headlamps and brake lights, horn, mirrors and windshield wipers. The latest model in the range is the new 100% electric Terrain EX4 which includes these features.

Corvus partners Godstone All Terrain

Corvus partners Godstone All Terrain

In addition to offering expert sales advice, Godstone has fully equipped onsite workshop facilities with a team of trained and experienced technicians able to undertake servicing and repairs at, they say, competitive rates. The workshop is equipped with the latest technology and specialist tools to service and repair any UTV and ATV, old and new. They also offer a Major Fault Diagnostic where they look at any faults on any quad, ATVs or UTV and advise what will be needed for repair to the vehicle.

“We now have Corvus coverage and expert support in the Surrey and Sussex areas,” says Boss Managing Director, Phil Everett, “and extend a big welcome to Graham, Karen, Nikki, David and all the team at Godstone All Terrain Limited. We all look forward to a long and mutually beneficial partnership.”

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Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders

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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 relief for housebuilders

Terrain Aeration relief for housebuilders

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 01449 673783 www.terrainaeration.co.uk

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