Can I Renovate My Brickdust Infield? - YES!

I get this question all the time, the short answer is YES.

Now, for more detail. I have included two photos below of two different fields in Noblesville, IN. The first photo shows an infield that was renovated by J&D Turf at Noblesville HS. The field was 4 inches of brickdust. We added on truckload of FieldSaver 50 from the Natural Sand Company, blecavated the FS 50 into the brickdust, rolled and laser graded the infield. Finally the field was conditioned with two tons of Diamond Pro Professional Calcined Clay and one ton of Diamond Pro Red Infield Conditioner. The picture is from last week. The field is playing great. I call it a "hybrid infield". Not what I would do in the consulting/construction phase, but it gets the customer to a more typical infield surface for a third of the cost. The photo below the renovated field is a straight brickdust surface that has not been renovated. We have performed this process to in excess of 20 fields, and the all are doing really well.

Why are coaches wanting to eliminate their brickdust? A few reasons:

1.When added to a field in excess of 1/2 inch brickdust becomes VERY loose when dry
2.Brickdust breaks down into a powder, calcined clays and vitrified clays will not
3.Brickdust stains uniforms
4.In Indiana, brickdust costs in excess of $100 a ton delivered. The FS 50 amendment alone was less than $100 a ton and it fixed the field!

Some facilities wanted to maintain a dark red topdressing. For those customers, we used a straight 1/4 inch of Diamond Pro Red Infield Conditioner.

The cost for a “hybrid infield” - approx $8,000-$10,000
The cost for removing the brickdust and replacing it with 4 inches of a good balanced infield mix - approx $25,000-$30,000

To learn more about renovating infields and adding new material into existing material click HERE and HERE

To learn more about Natural Sand, click HERE

To learn more about Diamond Pro, click HERE

Go to j-dturf.com to learn more about J&D Turf.

Play on!
--Jamie