Cost-Saving Solution: Packaging Machine uses Stretch Wrap in Place of Cardboard Shipping Boxes
The Problem A producer of 5 lb. bags of potting soil noted that the most significant cost of his product was cardboard shipping boxes. The central challenge was to lower the delivered product cost. After consultation, Grove Teates suggested wrapping the bags in bundles of 10 with stretch wrap; however, there was no machinery [...]
Grove Teates Serves as a Multi-Faceted Consultant to Help Establish a Compost Processing and Marketing Venture
The Problem A client needed a multi-faceted consultant to help establish a compost processing and marketing venture. The client needed to know with certainty that approximately 1,000 tons of sludge compost would be removed from two compost sites daily on a long-term basis. Multi-Faceted Consultant Grove Teates was retained for a two-year period during [...]
Grove Teates Value Engineered a Revolutionary Sand-Cap Athletic Field Soil Profile that Saved 40 Percent of Cost
The Problem Athletic fields have significant demands placed on them when they are used by the National Football League or universities—they must be used during wet weather and yet they cannot have a wet surface. To keep fields dry in wet weather, they are built in layers; first a sub-base with drains and drainage [...]
Drain Pipe Unwinder was an Innovative Solution to a Common Problem
The Problem Good athletic fields have between 4,000 and 6,000 linear feet of drains under them; the drains may be perforated pipe or flat drains and both types are delivered in large rolls. Unwinding these drains (without kinking or twisting) is time-consuming and requires a minimum of two people. The installation of approximately a [...]
Artificial Turf Fields
Artificial turf fields offer solutions to issues that plague general-use, natural-grass fields —overuse, use while wet, compaction, and more. Natural-grass fields simply cannot withstand the volume of traffic that many fields are asked to endure. Thus, artificial fields have become an answer to today’s problems and consequently their use is expanding exponentially. Although artificial [...]
Turf managers have a tough job – soil compaction is the enemy
Turf managers have a tough job. They are charged with maintaining athletic fields in spite of continuous use that often leaves them depleted. The few weeks each spring between end of school and beginning of summer represent a rare opportunity to perform deferred maintenance. It’s important for managers to make the most of that [...]
Alpine’s founder, Grove Teates, selected for a synthetic turf subcommittee charged with developing new industry standards
The Synthetic Turf Council (STC) recently appointed Grove Teates, founder of Alpine Services, Inc., to its subcommittee on new standards. STC, a trade organization based in Atlanta that represents companies associated with the synthetic turf industry, strives to keep its members current on turf technology, standards and best practices. Council members meet twice each year to [...]
Good athletic fields start with good construction specifications
Many new athletic fields look old and/or do not function properly. Often the “lousy contractor” is blamed for “doing a bad job.” Contractors bid and perform work by specifications that are provided by the owner or his architect or engineer. When these specifications are inadequate or poorly written there is little chance of getting an attractive, properly draining or long lasting athletic field. [...]