The NOTL Lawn Bowling Club's carpet has mould spots, can be slippery

Members of one of the oldest lawn bowling clubs in Canada have found themselves in a difficult situation with their carpeted surface, one they are not sure how to handle. They have put their bowls away for the season, and are hoping to work out a solution with the town over the winter.

The problem is an aging carpet and an issue with mould on it that needs to be fixed.

Paul McHoull, past president of the club, recalls the move to the new community centre in 2011. The club has a long history of 133 years of bowling on grass — first on the green on the grounds of the Queen’s Royal Hotel, says McHoull, where the park is now, when people came from all over by boat or train to bowl. Its next location was on Regent Street, from 1922 to 2011.

When a members’ vote was taken and the decision made to move from Regent Street, which was town-owned property, to the community centre, “not all members were happy. Some went to other clubs,” says McHoull, but for the most part “members were pretty excited.”

He knows of only two other clubs in Ontario with carpets instead of grass, and when the town was planning the base and carpeting at the community centre, not a lot was known about how to install them, he says.

The carpet was put down in the fall of 2010, with bowlers playing on it for the first time when their season started in 2011 — the club was proud to hold the provincial pairs championship that year, “a pretty big deal,” says McHoull.

However carpets have an expected lifetime, and it was only intended to last about 12 years, so would need to be replaced soon, but there is a question with the base that could be causing the mould problem.

When large brown spots, slimy and slippery, began appearing on the carpet, McHoull says, members weren’t sure what was causing them. And neither was the town.
“When the community centre was built, the town didn’t know much about putting in an artificial surface. Nobody in Canada really knew. About a year ago, we started seeing a drainage problem, with water pooling on the carpet.”

Typically, even after a heavy rain, members would be out on the green an hour or two later, but the brown spots where rain has pooled don’t go away.

In August, they discovered an Australian lawn bowling expert with a company that installs such carpets in Australia, where most lawn bowling is done on artificial surfaces — grass dries out too quickly in its hot, dry climate — was in Etobicoke. He was there to supervise the replacement of a carpet that was installed at the James Garden Lawn Bowling Club in 2006. It was his company that had installed it, and when approached about the problem in NOTL, he agreed to come to town and have a look.

He gave them a report saying the mould is likely rooted in the base, which is made of crushed stone, and which he said should have had some powered cement added to it when it was installed.

“The problem looks like it’s on the surface, but it could be deeply rooted,” McHoull says.

He fears, after speaking to the expert, that steam-cleaning the carpet, as the town has suggested, will not prevent the mould from returning, nor would an expensive replacement — the layers underneath have to be removed and the base relaid. “This constitutes a major job,” he adds, at a ball-park cost of around $500,000. As expensive as that sounds, “are we going to put $125,000 or $150,000 into replacing the carpet?”

Whatever the solution chosen, the club will have to pay a portion of it, he says. The club pays the town $5,000 a year towards costs, and pays to have the carpet cleaned.

McHoull has passed the report along to the town to investigate, and town staff have said they will seek a second opinion.

“We can’t blame the town — there are so many other things they have to spend money on,” he says. “It all comes down to budget.”

But if the base isn’t replaced, “it will be an ongoing issue. The  underlying problem is not being solved. It’s a tough situation.”

A question from The Local to the town’s parks and recreation director Kevin Turcotte, and a request for an interview, brought this response from spokesperson Marah Minor: “Replacement of the lawn bowling carpet is in the capital budget tentatively forecasted in 2026. Staff have investigated the asset condition and are exploring options.”

The lawn bowlers have also contacted MPP Wayne Gates, who visited the club last week to understand the situation, and told members he would look for grants that could help pay for repairs.

The carpet is “still playable,” McHoull says. One side of the lawn bowling surface is fine, but members have been cautioned against putting their weight on a brown spot when they bend down to bowl.

“Some players are worried about spores in the mould, especially those with allergies,” he says.

“I’m afraid of someone slipping, that your foot could go out from under you. We had a member slip on a damp spot and hurt her knee — it made her hobble for a while. We don’t want to see that happen again. We’ll have to be careful when we begin playing again in the spring.”