Community Facility Surface Questions Checklist

Write down every group and activity the surface takes, from lessons and clubs through to hired sessions, and mark which one has the strongest claim on it.

A surface asked to serve several activities equally usually serves the most important one badly, and that is a decision worth making openly.

Note what happens on the surface at break times and between bookings, since informal use is often heavier and rougher than anything timetabled.

Informal use is what wears a surface, and it is the use least likely to appear anywhere in a written brief.

Record what the area is used for when the site is open but unbooked, including evening use by people who belong to no group at all.

Unbooked use continues whatever is laid, and describing it honestly changes which options a specialist will put forward.

Note whether the area is ever used for fairs, gatherings, marquees or parking, and write down what gets put on it and what gets driven across it.

Event use is remembered only after a surface is damaged, and it is one of the few things a specialist contractor cannot guess at.

Separate the activities that happen now from the ones the group hopes to attract, and mark clearly which is which on the list.

Hoped-for use is legitimate to plan around, but only when it is labelled as a hope rather than presented as existing demand.

Note whether any group intends organised or competitive play here, and carry the requirements for that forward as a question rather than an answer.

What a surface must provide for organised play is confirmed with the relevant governing body rather than assumed from general use.

Decide and record who has the final say on markings, since a school, a committee and a hiring club will each hold a view and rarely the same one.

Marking disputes are governance questions rather than surfacing questions, and they are far easier to settle before anything is laid.

List every sport and age group wanting lines, and note which of them already brings its own temporary marking or portable equipment.

Groups that already mark out their own area are often content to carry on, which reduces what has to be made permanent.

Note where different age groups need differently sized areas, and take the sizes themselves to the relevant body rather than settling them locally.

The dimensions of a marked area for any sport or age group are confirmed with the relevant governing body, not decided by a committee.

Note how many sets of lines the surface would carry and ask the specialist contractor how each set reads once the others are applied around it.

A surface carrying several sets of lines becomes harder to play on and harder to teach on, particularly for younger users.

Decide who is responsible for renewing markings as they wear, and whether that sits with the site owner, the school or a hiring club.

Marking renewal falls between organisations more reliably than any other upkeep task on a shared site.

Note whether temporary marking equipment is used, where it is kept and who moves it out before each session and back afterwards.

Temporary marking works only while the equipment is reachable, and storage for it is settled too late in most projects.

Note what is genuinely worn on the surface, including school shoes during lessons, studded footwear brought by clubs and whatever people arrive in for casual use.

Footwear varies far more on a shared site than at a members club, and it is among the first things a specialist contractor will ask about.

Record whether scooters, bicycles, wheelchairs, buggies or equipment trolleys cross or use the area, and whether that is welcomed, tolerated or discouraged.

Wheeled use is common on community sites and is rarely mentioned until a surface starts showing the marks of it.

Note whether mowers, tractors or maintenance machinery cross the surface to reach another part of the site, and mark that route on a plan.

Machinery crossing a surface to reach a field is a routine arrangement that quietly determines what the surface must withstand.

Note whether deliveries, refuse vehicles or contractors drive across or park on the area, including during building works elsewhere on the site.

Whether any surface can take vehicle loading is for a qualified professional to establish and must never be assumed by the group.

Note what gets dragged rather than carried across the area, such as goals, benches, staging, bins or line marking equipment.

Dragged equipment marks surfaces more than play does, and the habit is easier to change than the damage is to put right.

Note whether people cross the area as a shortcut between two other parts of the site, and where the worn line actually runs.

A worn shortcut shows where people will keep walking whatever is laid, which is worth knowing before any layout is fixed.

Note where water sits on or beside the area after heavy rain, how it compares with the ground around it, and photograph it while the water is still there.

Photographs taken while water is standing are worth more than any later description, and nobody has them when they are needed.

Note which parts of the area sit in shade for most of the day, particularly beside buildings, walls and boundary planting.

Persistent damp follows shade, and the green film that comes with it becomes the main upkeep task on many community surfaces.

Note which trees overhang or stand close to the area, whether they drop leaves, berries, needles or sap, and who owns each of them.

Work affecting trees beside the area may be restricted, and an arboricultural professional and the local authority should both be asked first.

Note where gullies, channels or outlets around the area are, whether they are clear and who clears them at present.

Blocked outlets are the usual reason a surface floods, and responsibility for clearing them is often held by nobody in particular.

Note whether water arrives onto the area from a roof, a slope, a parking area or neighbouring land, and mark on a plan where it comes from.

How water should be managed on and around the area is for a qualified drainage professional to determine.

Photograph cracks, sinking, lifting and worn patches in any existing surface, note where they are and whether they have changed over time.

A record of how faults have moved matters more than the faults themselves, and only the people using the site can build it.

Write down who is on site and able to do anything to the surface, whether that is a caretaker, a grounds team, a rota of volunteers or nobody at all.

Upkeep capability is the most useful thing a committee can describe to a specialist contractor, and it is usually described optimistically.

List the equipment already available for brushing, clearing and cleaning, note where it is stored and who is permitted to use it.

Equipment kept in a locked store that only one person can open is not available in any practical sense.

Note what happens to upkeep during school holidays and closure periods, when the site may be unattended but still in use.

The periods when nobody is on site are the periods when leaves, algae and damage accumulate without anybody noticing.

Note whether any grounds contractor already works at this site, who instructs them and whether the surface falls inside or outside that arrangement.

Surfaces regularly fall outside an existing grounds arrangement because nobody thought to mention them when it was set up.

Be honest in writing about how well volunteer rotas have worked at this site before, and note what happened once a rota lapsed.

An honest account of past rotas is more useful than a stated intention, and specialist contractors can work with the truth.

Record who currently decides that the area should not be used after heavy rain, frost or damage, and whether that person has any standing to make the call.

Whether an area is fit for use in any condition is a judgement for qualified professionals and the responsible body, not for a committee.

Photograph and describe damage that has already happened, including scorching, broken glass, graffiti and gouging, and note when each was first seen.

A dated record of what has already happened is the most reliable guide there is to what will happen again.

Note what is routinely left on the area, such as gum, glass, food waste and tape, and who removes it at present.

Whatever is left on a surface has to be removed by somebody, and that task tends to appear only after the surface is laid.

Write down how a user would report damage to somebody able to act, and check that route does not depend on one individual being available.

A route that leans on one willing person collapses quietly, and damage then accumulates until somebody complains about it.

Note how goals, posts and equipment currently stand on or beside the area, how they are moved and where they go between sessions.

How any equipment should be anchored, moved or stored is determined by a qualified professional and the relevant governing body.

Note who is permitted to arrange a repair to the surface, particularly where a school, a landowner and a committee are all involved.

Permission to arrange a repair is the step that stalls, and it is far easier to establish before anything needs repairing.

Note what records exist of any previous surfacing work, including who carried it out and what was said about looking after it afterwards.

Old records shape what a specialist contractor can offer, and they are usually in somebody loft rather than the group papers.

Write down who owns the land, who holds any lease or licence and which body would have to agree before a surface was altered.

Ownership on community sites is frequently misremembered, and the agreement in the file rarely says what people assume it says.

Check whether any grant or funding agreement attached to the facility carries conditions about public access, hours or the kind of use permitted.

Conditions written into a grant agreement are settled with the awarding body before resurfacing is planned around them.

Confirm locally what applies before this area is resurfaced or altered, and note who was asked, what came back and on what date.

Consents for works on a shared or school site differ from place to place and are settled with the local authority.

Note whether any play equipment stands on or beside the area, and treat what is required beneath and around it as a question for others.

What surfacing is required around play equipment is determined by qualified professionals and the relevant authority.

Write the use, site and upkeep notes into one short brief, and give exactly the same brief to everybody the group speaks to.

Identical briefs make different professional opinions comparable, which is the only way a committee can weigh them properly.

Ask each specialist contractor why a particular option is being put forward for this site rather than accepting a list, and write the reasoning down.

The reasoning is what a committee needs in order to explain a decision later, and it disappears unless it is written at the time.