Indoor Sports Facilities,  Installation Instructions,  Strength & Conditioning

Installation Instructions for Indoor Artificial Turf Applications

How to Lay Artificial Turf for Indoor Sports Fields

Once you receive your artificial turf for your indoor sports facility, it is time to make sure it is installed correctly. On Deck Sports recommends using one of our professional installation teams or a professional carpet installation team for the best results. If you do choose to install your turf yourself, follow these steps to ensure the best application and longest life for your turf.

Floor Surface Preparation

  1. The sub-flooring surface must be fully cured and washed with successive rain or wash waters to remove all excessive chemical materials used to form or cure the surface (alkali, soaps, emulsifiers, oil substances). Proper curing time will range from 45 – 60 days after sub-flooring installation.
  2. The sub-flooring surface must be thoroughly cleaned which should include sweeping, vacuuming and mopping to insure that all dirt, paint, grease, oils or any contaminants which will prevent good adhesion are removed.

Turf Preparation and Installation

  1. The carpet should be allowed to lay out unrolled and allowed to relax at least one hour before installation. Ideal temperature for the installation to take place is 55 degrees Fahrenheit to 95 degrees Fahrenheit, and the relative humidity should fall between 10% and 65%.
  2. The carpet should be pre-cut for each area allowing some excess for proper seaming and edging or any trimming necessary.

Securing Your Turf with Adhesive

  1. The adhesives should be stored in an area that maintains a temperature between 65 degrees Fahrenheit and 85 degrees Fahrenheit. The adhesive should be spread on the sub-flooring surface that covers an area approximately one-half the actual size of the carpet strip being glued.
  2. The adhesive should be applied using 1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8 V-notched trowel for smooth backed or action-backed carpets and a 1/8 x 1/8 x 1/8 U- or Square-notched trowel for rough backed unitary carpets. The 1/8 V-notched should apply approximately 10 – 12 yards per gallon, whereas the 1/8 U- or Square-notch will apply 7 – 9 yards per gallon. Of course, the variations in the sub-floor surface will affect the final coverage rate.
  3. The adhesive should be applied and allowed to air dry for 15 – 30 minutes before laying the carpet. The opening air dry time will vary with temperature, barometric pressure and air flow (wind) around the installation area. “DO NOT COVER MORE SURFACE AREA THAN CAN BE EFFECTIVELY WORKED.”
  4. Once the carpet has been properly joined to the sub-floor, the entire area should be rolled using 50 – 75 pound roller for unitaries or action backed carpets and a 35 pound roller for urethane cellular attached form backed carpets. The floor covering should be rolled in both E-W, N-S directions to assure proper bond.
  5. All carpet seams should be sealed by placing a 1/8 inch bead of seam sealer (nonflammable) at the interface of the carpet fiber and the primary-secondary backing. The two carpet edges should be butted together to assure even placement and complete seam sealing. The seam sealer can prevent tuft lose, raveling, and even waterproof the carpet seam edges.

Long Term Maintenance

  1. In the event a bubble should develop, do not ever cut or slit open the raised area or bubble. Most bubbles are caused from solvents left in the adhesive and trapped under the carpet during lay-in. The best way to remove and correct these bubbles is to puncture the bubble with an awl, ice pick or hypodermic syringe and press the trapped solvent gas vapors out of the bubble by pressing and squeezing the area with both hands. Allow the carpet to lay back into the adhesive and either sand bag or re-roll the area to develop maximum bond strength.
  2. If, for some reason, the bubble does not re-bond adequately, the hypodermic syringe can be used with a small quantity of the seam sealer to re-bond the carpet to the floor. After the seam sealer has been injected into the bubble, spread the sealer by hand rubbing and then allow it to air dry for 5 – 10 minutes before rolling.

45 Comments

  • Melissa Doherty

    How do you know whether your turf is the action-backed vs other type backing noted in the instructions above? We bought the arena turf and I do not see that info in the description anywhere. Trying to figure out how to apply the adhesive, based on instructions above.

  • Dean

    Is it a requirement for the turf to be glued down? Looking at installing close to 5000 sqft in our new center, but know we may have to move in 5 years. Would love to be able to relicate the turf.

    • William Nelson

      We have existing turf that we are trying to repurpose for some of our indoor facility (the rest we plan to purchase from you guy as well as our custom cage system). For the stuff we have, it’s coming from a high school football field where it was used. It’s got the rubber pallets dispersed within the turf.

      We are installing it on a concrete slab that’s not level, so our plan was to lay some crushed stone to level it out before we lay the turf. Is this possible? How thick does it need to be throughout? Any help would be phenomenal.

  • Richie Jan

    Great post with images. We lay our turf over the old one and later we realized it was a big mistake. So we buy whole high-quality buffalo turf in Queensland and installed which looks better with proper care. Here I got great tips to install turf. Thanks for sharing.

    • Dennis

      Can you glue turf to rubber flooring? I have a custom rubber flooring to dampen acoustics since we are on the 4th floor of a commercial building. I am looking to put turf over all rubber flooring for our personal training facility

      • OnDeck_Sports

        Hi Dennis. Yes, you can glue turf to rubber flooring. If you have further questions, please feel free to call us at 800-365-6171, one of our strength and conditioning experts would be happy to help

  • Mark Petersen

    We purchased recycled turf and are going to use it for an indoor dog agility facility. We have been told by numerous individuals that we should have a sub-layer from anywhere of sand, decomposed gravel to 1″ padding. I am looking for any recommendations. We have an 8,000 sq ft area on concrete floor. Any advice is welcome.

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hey Matthew, thanks for reaching out! It is possible, we have seen customers do it in the past. I am going to have one of our turf experts reach out to you as there are a few other factors you should consider before making this decision. He will reach out shortly via email, best of luck!

  • Mark

    I am planing to place a small size of turf (65 ft * 6.5 ft) for sled pushes and some agility drills in my fitness studio. My flooring is tile, is it an option to use double sided tape? or do i have to glue it down?
    Don’t want to deal with fixing the flooring when I am moving out.

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hey Theresa, thanks for reaching out. You do not have to lay it on concrete, you can loose-lay your turf on a crushed rock base. Hope that helps! If you need more information feel free to call us at 800-365-6171

  • Laura

    Hi,

    We’re looking to put down about 32 sq feet of turf in our facility. It’s high traffic and will be used for multi-purpose fitness. Do we need to have some sort of edging to prevent tripping hazards? Not sure how to handle that or if it’s a non-issue. Thanks….

  • Jay

    I have 2400 sq ft of padded turf set in between rubber in my facility. Did not glue as we will need to eventually move and reposition with expansion. The turf end is rising up and I am wondering if there is a channel of some sort to ‘connect’ the rubber and turf to keep edging down?

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hey Jay, great question! You’ll want to get some transition strips! It’ll help the turf and rubber meet without rising up. We recommend Johnsonite or Flexco, and you can find them at a local Home Depot store. Hope that helps, please feel free to call us at 800-365-6171 if you have any more questions.

  • John

    Hello,

    We have some bubbling in our turf/installation (stadium turf with 5mm padding). We read your instructions on what to do with bubbling. Can you direct us to the correct (syringe, awl, ice pick or hypodermic syringe) to use and where to purchase it? Addtionally, what seam sealer to use (product/brand). If you can let us know this information asap that would be great as we’re trying to get an indoor gym opened.

    Thanks!

  • Gianni Delucchi

    Hi,
    What type of adhesive we need to use for installing a turf in a gym?
    Probably this will be installed over concret in a room and over a cork surface in another.
    Thanks for your help

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hi Gianni, thanks for reaching out! We always recommend a full glue down, but if the turf may need to be moved in the foreseeable future, then we have other options, such as double-sided tape. Please feel free to give us a call at 800-365-6171 and speak directly with one of our facility experts for more information!

  • Lori Warner

    We are creating an indoor golf simulator room. We have “sunken” the floor where the simulator bay will reside and we are planning to “carpet” the floor wall to wall with high quality putting turf. The questions we have are these and hope someone can provide insight:
    (1) We are installing on top of concrete flooring, should we use adhesive on all the surface or just the edges?
    (2) Recommended adhesive?
    (3) For the seams we have read to use adhesive and seam cloth. Would you recommend this as well and do you have a preferred brand?
    (4) Recommendations for covering steps?

    Thanks for any and all your replies!

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hey Lori thanks for reaching out! The answer to each of your questions is dependent on a few different factors. If you want a more permanent solution, we always recommend a full glue-down of your turf onto the concrete. We recommend this turf glue: https://www.ondecksports.com/Turf-Claw-Adhesive. However, we do have other options if you are not looking for a full glue-down. Please feel free to give us a call at 800-365-6171 and speak directly with one of our turf experts who can go through the different options and get a better sense as to what will work best for you!

  • Katie

    We are laying down approximately 5,000 sq ft of turf. We plan to glue carpet padding to the subfloor(cement) then use tack strips to secure the turf on top of the padding. Will this hold up?

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hey Katie, thanks for reaching out! That sounds like a good idea to provide extra cushion. However, I am not positive if it will hold up, especially if there is going to be a lot of running on it. Hope that helps a little, please feel free to call us at 800-365-6171 if you have any more questions!

  • Mike

    I bought your G34 turf, what’s the best way to install the seams together? There are the 4 inch flaps on each side with teeth on the turf itself. is it best to match the grooves of the teeth together together or just cut them off with a straight line cut then glue the 2 edges down?

    • OnDeck_Sports

      Hey Mike, thanks for reaching out! It depends – if you are doing a 100% glue-down of your turf, then you don’t need to do the seams. However, if you are not gluing all of it down, we recommend laying seaming fabric down, applying glue generously to the top of the fabric, then laying the pieces of turf together on top. Check out seaming fabric on our website: https://www.ondecksports.com/Seaming-Fabric-50-Roll
      Hope that helps, Mike! If you have any more questions throughout the process please feel free to call us at 800-365-6171 and speak directly with one of our turf experts

  • Matt

    I’m looking to lay roughly 4,000 sqft of padded turf directly onto an old basketball court in a gymnasium. Are there any concerns with the glue attaching to the hardwood flooring?

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