The Science of Performance

Specify for the decade,
not the handover

Evidence, guidance and specification support for wetpour and sports surfaces that still perform years after installation — from the team that has manufactured Rosehill TPV® in Yorkshire since 1988.

30+ Years Experience
21 Standard Colours
100% UK Manufactured
17+ Years in Service

Day One tells you almost nothing

A surface can look perfect at handover and still be the wrong specification.

Most specifications describe what a surface must be on the day it is installed. But playgrounds, sports courts and splash parks are used — and judged — for a decade or more. Colour stability, retained elasticity, granule security and impact performance only reveal themselves after years of UV, heat, weather and footfall.

This hub collects the evidence and guidance behind that argument: what long-life surfaces have in common, what a specification should ask for, and how to assess the answers you get back.

Three questions every specification should answer

Explored in depth through our articles, guides and CPD sessions — all built on the full technical presentation.

Chapter 01

The hidden cost of getting wetpour wrong

What should the surface still be doing years after installation?

Day One versus Year Five: why appearance isn’t performance, why surfaces fail, and why replacement costs dwarf material savings.

Chapter 02

TPV isn’t a product

Whose material is actually being supplied?

TPV, EPDM and SBR are material categories, not products. What “or equivalent” should really mean — and the questions that reveal the difference.

Chapter 03

A great granule can still produce a poor surface

How will granule, binder and application perform together?

The client walks on the finished composite. Binder, thickness, installation and environment decide whether a good material becomes a good surface.

Same view, three Chilean summers apart

Iquique, Chile — coastal desert sun, among the harshest UV environments on earth.

Rosehill TPV® playground surface in Iquique, Chile, at installation in 2023
Iquique · 2023 · at installation
The same Rosehill TPV® surface in Iquique in 2025, colour unchanged after three Chilean summers
Iquique · 2025 · three summers later

The same surface, photographed from the same spot. This is what a specification should protect — not how the surface looked at handover, but what it is still doing years later.

Day One shows…Time reveals…
Colour looks correctHas the colour materially changed?
Surface feels elasticHas it hardened or become brittle?
Granules appear secureIs granule loss beginning?
Joints appear intactAre cracks or shrinkage visible?
Impact performance passesHas the system retained impact performance?
The client accepts the installationIs the surface still meeting expectations?

Articles & Guides

Published throughout the campaign, each developed with our technical team. Draft previews are available now; final versions publish to schedule.

View the Proposed Content Timetable

CPD · Specification Support

Book a CPD or specification review

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.

  • The full technical narrative, with the test evidence and comparisons behind it
  • Ageing, UV and colour-stability data from real installations worldwide
  • Practical guidance on specifying for your applications and climate
  • Delivered at your practice or online, with time for questions

Working on a live project? Choose “specification review” and tell us about it — we’ll review the surfacing specification with you, project-specifically.

Your details are used only to respond to this request.