Play football come rain or shine

With the entire site built on an extremely steep gradient, rainwater drainage at the Play Football centre in Nottingham is a major consideration.  In order to protect its state-of-the-art 3G Rubber Crumb pitches, the centre required an effective high capacity solution that could be installed quickly and easily – and Marley Plumbing and Drainage’s Waterloc 250 attenuation cells perfectly fit the bill.

Andy Forshaw, Construction Director of Lexa Developments Ltd, who led the project, faced a number of challenges during construction. Firstly, Lexa Developments required a system that could be easily installed by its own team, rather than having to subcontract to a groundworks specialist – therefore the chosen products needed to be straightforward and easy to fit.  

Secondly, as Play Football Nottingham shares its facilities with a local high school, the team were up against a tight schedule, as work had to be completed before the start of the new term.  The simplicity of Marley Plumbing and Drainage’s Waterloc 250 system neatly solved these issues, enabling the team to create a high capacity rainwater storage system with minimum fuss.  

Andy commented: “The Marley drainage system delivered exactly what we were looking for – it provided an effective solution that was easy and straightforward to use, helping us to cut down on installation time.  There were no problems with the product on site and I would definitely use it again, in fact we already have plans to use it on a number of other projects.”

Waterloc 250 is a modular storage cell for infiltration and attenuation purposes.Designed to store storm-water temporarily below ground and release it at a pre-determined rate, the system is quickly assembled by alternately rotating the interlocking cells 180°.  This limits the peak flow of water, reducing the likelihood of flooding downstream.

Following the success of the Waterloc 250 cells, when Andy was let down by another manufacturer, he turned to Marley again to supply the essential vortex flow control unit, which controls the release rate of water contained within the attenuation system.  Marley’s Flowloc is a heavy-duty aluminium flow controller and coupling system that is available to suit a wide range of flow rates.  Supplied within a chamber base with an integrated filter providing protection against controller blockage, Flowloc is suitable for use with tank depths of up to 4m.  

David Holloway, Commercial Projects Manager at Play Football commented: “For a sports facility such as ours, efficient rainwater drainage is essential to ensure the playing surfaces remain in top condition.  We are very happy with the performance of the Marley products that have been installed at our site.”