Why surfaces fail
What actually happens to a wetpour surface between handover and year five?
Ageing, colour loss, shrinkage, crumbing and the crust effect — the mechanisms behind the failures you see on site, with field evidence.
The Science of Performance · CPD
The full technical presentation behind our Science of Performance hub, delivered privately for your team — the evidence, the test data and the specification guidance, with time for your questions.
Not a product pitch. A structured look at why wetpour and sports surfaces fail, and what a specification should ask for so they don’t.
The Science of Performance is the technical presentation behind everything on our hub. It follows a wetpour surface from handover through the years that follow — what sunlight, heat, rain and use actually do to the material, why the same surface can look identical on Day One and completely different by year five, and how the wording of the specification decides which of those outcomes a client gets.
It draws on more than twenty-five years of Rosehill TPV® installations in every climate zone, independent test evidence on the finished composite, and the failure patterns our technical team sees on site. The comparisons and full data are shared in the session; they aren’t published online.
45–60 minutes, plus time for questions. A shorter lunchtime format is available.
Delivered in person across the UK, or as a live online session for distributed teams.
Architects, landscape architects, consultants, local authorities and play companies.
No obligation. Bring a live project if you have one and we’ll use it as a worked example.
The session is built in parts. Each one answers a question you can take straight back to a specification.
What actually happens to a wetpour surface between handover and year five?
Ageing, colour loss, shrinkage, crumbing and the crust effect — the mechanisms behind the failures you see on site, with field evidence.
What does “EPDM”, “TPV” or “wet pour” on a spec line really commit anyone to?
Material categories versus controlled products, and how the “or equivalent” clause lets an engineered surface be swapped for the cheapest granule available.
Which test results describe the surface your client will actually walk on?
Why evidence measured on the finished mix — to EN 12230, BS 7188 and EN 14836 — is what a specification should ask for.
What does a surface look like after eight, nine or seventeen years outdoors?
Installed surfaces photographed against factory swatches years later, from Australian sun to Hong Kong’s subtropical climate.
Can one clause cover a toddler park, a MUGA and a splashpad?
How material, granule geometry and thickness should change with the application — and how to write that into the specification.
What does the cheapest surface cost over fifteen years?
Replacement cycles, maintenance and downtime — the case for specifying for the decade rather than the delivery.
Book your session
The complete Science of Performance presentation — the evidence base behind everything on this page — is delivered privately as a CPD session for architects, landscape architects, consultants, local authorities and play companies.
Working on a live project instead? Choose “specification review” from the list — we review live surfacing specifications with project teams at no charge.