Turn The Tables -- Tennis Court Construction

rino1494

We had a customer contact us to perform work at his house. There is about 1 wks worth of excavator work building a play area for the kids, dig fence posts, take down trees and build a bridge with trees across a creek and construct a tennis court. Problem is, I know nothing about them. I don't even like tennis.


What I am thinking is, cut out the topsoil and dirt to grade, install a 8" shale base and 4" of modified.

Question is, should there be any under drains, is the court crowned, what are the regulation size of them and how thick is the asphalt normally ??

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denick

Rino,

google tennis court construction. There is probably an association of tennis court builders out there with information

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rino1494

Do these dimensions sound right to anyone ?


http://www.fast-dry.com/court-diagrams.php

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Vermaraj

There is a very slight crown in both the short axis and the long axis. In addition to the packed base you mentioned there is usually a stabilizing fabric under the base.

Never seen a drain under a court. Base extends past the court perimeter by about 36" on all sides. Maybe thats why?

From there it depends on the surface (concrete, asphalt, clay)?

Vinny

Rino, I'll try to keep this to a minimum but theres a fair amount to say here. I've built a number of courts (asphalt and har-tru) so I have the back ground. Most of what I'll say is related to an asphalt court.

To start, you want and area of 80 by 140. The finished size is 60 by 120 less the 45 degree corners. This way when you strip the top soil and set sub grade all the roots from any tree's too close will be removed and over a long time no tree's should hurt the surface.

You want to set your court long way on a north south line if you can. This way when the court is played and the sun rises in the east and sets in the west neither player gets an advantage or disadvantge.

Set the subgrade as per the finish. That is, 1 to 1 1/4 inch of pitch every 10 feet across the 60 foot run. Here again this is so niether player will have advantage or disadvatage. Crowns and split slopes are generally a no no unless it really cant be helped so you should have like 6 to 8 inches of pitch from one long side to the other (does that make sense?)

We set pins every 20 feet on a square grid and set the elevations on the pins then bucket in the aggregate base setting it mostly by hand and skid steer with string lines pulled from stake to stake. Roll it with a heavy vibratory roller and check it again. At that pitch you really cant be too carefull. BTW, if its a har tru the pith is half that. Base construction is one place where the more the better. If your thinking 12" maybe go 18" compacting in courses. Dont forget, the base is what will create a thermal barier to frost and prevent heaving in the winter. A tennis court is too expensive to skimp on foundation, just to get a crack in a year.

Install your net post sleeves and net anchor now making sure you finish the concrete below the fine grade line and cover with a little aggregate base this way the asphalt will yeild during compacton at the same rate all the way around. Same for the fence posts. Set those now, or at least set most of them leaving out just what you need to pave. This way your not doing some hokey concrete finishing along the top of the asphalt at the bottom of the fence posts except for 2 or 3 of them.

Paving in 1 heavy or 2 thinner courses is acceptable. chances are good you'll get a bird bath or 2. Its ok. Correct them while the mix is semi hot on the day you pave. Do as good as you can. Then let it cure for 6 to 8 weeks.

While the asphalt is curing install the fence mesh. Use a top and bottom rail if you can get it in the budget. If not, do a nice top rail and a heavy duty bottom tension wire. I prefer a rail though because it really helps stop ball catches in the bottom of the fence. The mesh should be a good quality plastic dipped wire rather than slipped on vynle over the wire. Green is fine but I prefer black. The 45 degree corners sre there to return balls and they look cool. Try not to do total perimeter fencing unless the client wants it. It will end up looking too institutional. Do 10 foot tall at the ends, corners, and 20 feet up the sides, then maybe a 4 foot betwen that and 2 gates for bad players, no gate for good players.

Now is also a good time to do the perimeter grading, landscape, sitting area, water and electric for a drinking fountain and ball machine. Typicly you would not put a drainage system under a court, but I have put septic systems under them when there was no place else to do it, but i would not recomend it. Any thing under that asphlat can fail and its too expensive to trash a tennis court for a piece of broken pipe.

After curing its time to apply the finishing coatings. First a trowle grade acrylic is used to feather the bird bath repairs. Then 1 coat of primer / resurfacer, then 2 coats of color and stripe per USTA. They may want to do cushion coats (I reccomend it) and you would do at least 3 coats after the primer but before the color. The finish materials are also used to further correct imperfections so leave your self a little buffer in the budget to do that.

There are temperature limitations on the finishing materails so if you want to get them playing this year you need to get going. The limits are simalar to latex paint. No rain and above 50 degrees over night. So given that criteria when you look at asphalt curing time and construction its not unreasonable to think the court will take 3 months or longer to complete.

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gregj

Check out this site for some official requirements:
http://www.novasports.com/ref/section2i.htm

It's oriented to their product but gives some size/slope requirements. A lot more info on official requirements can be found with a google search.