Ground Protection Mats - The Show Must Go On

Last time out, we looked at how important a role ground protection mats might play for the humble, local car boot sale looking to combat the great British weather in tandem with protecting a piece of land that might not be owned by the organisers of the sale. It’s a double responsibility of ensuring everyone at the event remains as safe as possible and ensuring that the grounds or premises are respected and looked after.

A car boot sale may be a low key example but it does help us to see just how important ground protection can be. During the summer months, there are likely to be many thousands of events and shows taking place around the country, all of which will involve masses of people congregating in areas where people are usually few and far between in areas such as farm land, parkland or even just open countryside.

Perhaps, the biggest modern summer events are the huge music festivals that take place, with a whole collection of pop and rock stars trawling the country, performing at festival after festival. Each of these festivals involves massive amounts preparation and planning and most organisers now factor in ground protection into their overall calculations. As much as they must hope for glorious sunshine and ground that is dry, they know that the heavens may open at any time and soak the very ground that thousands of people will be walking and dancing upon. There have of course, in the past, been occasions where events have had to be cancelled because the ground is no longer safe but most properly planned modern events, tend to go ahead.

However, without ground protection mats, many more summer events and shows would be in danger of cancellation. There are probably also some land owners that simply won’t rent their land out unless they have the guarantee from organisers that the ground will indeed be protected.

As well as pop and rock concerts, there are lots of air shows, agricultural shows, car shows and a whole range of smaller village fetes and festivals all hoping to provide fun for the masses during the summer months. As organisers, it’s likely you already have ground protection issues in hand, but if you don’t please feel free to get in touch with the team at Ground Access Hire, who can not only hire out the relevant equipment but also provide plenty of advice about the best way to tackle the issue at your event.

Start Planning for Car Boot Sale Season with Ground Protection

At the time of writing, we might still be in the depths of the winter months but it will only be a few weeks before people all around the country will start looking forward to spring and the summer beyond. Springtime not only delivers the promise of warmer weather to come but we also see the first sprinkling of the events that have become a British institution – the car boot sale.

Across the British Isles and perhaps even beyond, people in villages, towns and cities will be rifling through their belongings wondering what they can take to the next car boot sale. All of those unwanted Christmas presents will probably be first on the list (if they didn't already end up in the charity shops during the first week of January), as we hope to recover some of the cash that we really shouldn't have spent over the festive period. Perhaps there are things around the house we have been meaning to throw out for years but have since seen on one of those many antique, bargain TV programmes might actually be worth something, so we kept hold of them and plan on trying to get a few pennies for them at the boot sale.

With a bit of careful planning, a boot sale can provide some much needed extra income, especially during difficult economic times – every penny counts.

The sales themselves are usually held on fields or car parks, perhaps on a piece of land next to a pub or village hall. However, despite the improving weather, the potential for a torrential downpour is always a possibility in the UK and longer spells of wet weather is also a possibility. If you are the organiser of a car boot sale, then you may want to beat the weather and hopefully avoid a cancellation or postponement by planning some protection for the ground and venue of the event.

With cars (obviously) and people (also obviously) likely to be moving across the ground, it doesn't take long for the ground to become a quagmire in wet weather. Ground protection mats are the ideal solution as they can not only serve as a temporary car park but also as walkways for the buyers and sellers to move about on.

Over on the main Ground Access Hire website, you can find much more information about how to protect your ground by using these special mats to ensure your event is a complete success.

Heavy Duty Ground Protection with Tuff Trak

If you are expecting lots of heavy machinery and in general lots of traffic and plant across the area that needs ground protection, then Tuff Track is an ideal solution. It’s been designed specifically to handle plenty of weight and can take up to 100 tonnes across its surface and still perform admirably.

In days gone by, building sites became unbearable and often unsafe places to be and this was in part due to the state of the access points that led into the site. Without any sort of ground protection, these sites quickly became mud baths as soon as any adverse weather set in. With dump trucks, Lorries, forklifts, diggers, vans and other vehicles all using the same access points, these areas quickly became impassable and certainly slowed the whole job down, which in turn cost more and more money.

Using heavy duty ground protection mats, such as Tuff Trak helps to ensure that many, if not all of these problems don’t occur. The surface allows for excellent grip and helps to prevent vehicles from moving sideways once on the mats. There are a host of other benefits to the system too and it’s also an eco-friendly product. If you want to learn more, please visit our main website over at www.groundaccesshire.co.uk  

Planning 2014 Outdoor Summer Events

With 2013 rapidly drawing to a close, most big event organisers will already be rubbing their hands at the prospect of a bumper summer in 2014, when the music festival season once again comes around. The elite events are probably already organised to the minutest detail, with perhaps the exception of finalising the line-up. However, plenty of other events (apart from actual dates set in stone) will still be very much in the planning process.

That means there is still plenty of time to make sure you have your ground protection plan in place. Many of the modern outdoor events take place on hired pieces of land that owners expect to get back in the best condition possible. If you have witnessed some of the previous big summer festivals, a mud bath is not an entirely uncommon occurrence. However, where possible, the implementation of ground protection mats, these kinds of situations can be minimised.

The mats themselves can be used as walkways, they can also be used as temporary roads and even temporary car parks, which can make the transport situation a much smoother process in an area that is not used to lots of traffic and vehicles.

Check out the main website at Ground Access Hire for lots more details.

Keeping Your Winter Wonderland Safe with Anti Slip Ground Protection

Over the coming weeks, many of the major towns and cities up and down the UK, will be staging their own versions of a winter wonderland. In addition to Christmas markets, there will be all kinds of other festive delights, with fun fairs, Santa’s grotto areas, ice skating rinks, outdoor music concerts and other various forms of entertainment to keep the family entertained in between bouts of shopping during the schools out period.

As punters or shoppers, we very often don’t see the time and hard work that goes into preparing these events to ensure that they run smoothly and more importantly keep people safe while they are having a good time.

The elements are perhaps an organiser’s biggest nightmare as it’s something there is simply no control over – so the weather has to be taken into account. You might be lucky and have a prolonged spell of dry and relatively mild weather but not preparing for rain, snow and ice would be foolish in the months of December and January. You certainly don’t want parents and children slip sliding their way to see Santa because he is there to hand out gifts rather than first aid! Despite the weather conditions, people have that little bit extra resilience at this time of year and will be determined to get into the festive spirit – so even when the weather is bad, you must prepare your venue or area for the impending arrival of human feet.

Ground protection should be high on the list of any organisers’ “things to do” as not only is it likely to keep people safer but it’s also likely to make the event a much more pleasant experience for everyone involved.

Companies like Ground Access Hire are an ideal place to turn to for all your big events and special outdoor occasions. The ground protection mats themselves can be hired and usually installed and removed (post event) by the company staff. The mats are strong and durable enough to take plenty of weight in all kinds of weather and the anti-slip surface means that all of the people attending the event will be able to walk confidently on the artificial surface. If the heavens do open, a quagmire can usually be avoided with the mats in place so there is no need for the event to be spoiled in any way.

For more information about ground protection for your upcoming events, visit our main website now.

Ensure Your Christmas Market isn’t a Washout with Ground Protection

The Christmas decorations have already been in the shops for quite some time and some of you may have already finished your seasonal shopping but the festivities are only just getting going in our villages, towns and cities. In the coming days and weeks, the Christmas markets will be in full swing, with many of them being touring markets and in different towns for a few days at a time.

Often these markets are set up along streets in the town centre but they can also feature on fields and other areas of the town that may require a bit more preparation. December is notoriously unpredictable in terms of the weather and for those hosting markets it may well be worth your while to hire the relevant number of ground protection mats. This can not only ensure the event can go ahead regardless of the weather but will protect the ground at the same time. The many pedestrians and visitors to the market will also have a much more pleasant experience if the ground they are walking on is stable and secure as opposed to an unpleasant concoction of squelching mud!

Please visit the Ground Access Hire website to learn all about ground protection mats and how they can make sure your Christmas market is a merry one!

Avoiding a Mud Bath with Specially Designed Ground Protection Mats

We have reached the letter “M” in our alphabetic series of blogs about Ground Access Hire and Protection mats, so let’s focus on the “mats” themselves for this episode.

The main aims of the mats or Trakmats are to deliver an artificial surface that will temporarily protect the ground, whilst being strong and stable enough to be effective in a whole range of environments and for various different uses.

Some of the most common places to see these mats in action is at events such as summer music festivals or local fetes as well as for things like temporary road works or building work, where access might be across difficult terrain. If you think about the heavy machinery, including vehicles that may need to gain access to a particular site, then you can perhaps understand how important the protection mats are in not only protecting the ground underneath but also providing that stable platform for the vehicles to cross back and forth safely.

Avoiding a mud bath is just one of the many benefits associated with ground protection mats. Some of the others include things like their easy assembly. It really doesn’t take long to get the mats laid into position and ready for use. In most cases, the company you are hiring the mats from will lay them for you, but it’s certainly straightforward enough to lay them yourselves if you prefer. They are extremely light, being made from HD Polyethylene, but are really robust when in position and feature a non-slip surface that give any passing vehicles and pedestrians extra grip.

So, whatever time of year, whatever the event or need, these Trakmats can prove invaluable. Whether it’s an outdoor concert in a park or field, a wedding ceremony and reception in a garden or a new construction project – you may not be able to stop the rain from falling but you can do your utmost to avoid what would otherwise be a certain mud bath. The mats will also make all of these suggested environments safer not only to work in, but for the general public (if it’s an event of some kind) to move around in.

Long term or short term, Trakmats provide a genuine solution to many of the problems that can occur on ground that is at risk from the elements. They can be hired all across the UK and you can find much more information over on out main website – www.groundaccesshire.co.uk