Playing tennis is a great way to stay fit, improve your health, strengthen your body, boost your hand-eye coordination, as well as have some fun while staying physically active. Now, while it isn’t that hard to find a decent tennis court in your neighborhood, building your own tennis court (if you have the means and property space) is even better. However, there’s quite a bit of work that goes into building a tennis court. With that in mind and without further ado, here are several considerations you need to make before you start building a tennis court.
1. Indoor or outdoor
The first question you need to answer is whether the court in question is going to be an indoor or outdoor court. If you opt for an indoor court, you’ll have a much more expensive project on your hands. The surface of a tennis court (even the smallest one) is quite impressive for an indoor building. You also might want to leave some space for the locker rooms, audience seats, etc. It also depends on whether you’re building a tennis court for a wider audience or merely building a private tennis court for you and your tennis partners.
2. The lighting
When making a tennis court, you need to assume that you won’t only be playing during the day. After all, working people often have trouble finding time for recreational activities until later in the evening. This means that even if you opt for an outdoor tennis court (which is why we put that step first, to begin with), you’ll need to provide some tennis court lighting.
This is not an easy step and it requires quite a bit of math and lamination estimation. The lighting needs to be sufficient for full visibility but not too bright. It shouldn’t cause light pollution and it needs to be in sync with all the safety standards and regulations of the sport’s governing bodies. To make the long story short, both the estimate and the installation need to be handled by a professional.
3. Pick the right location
This is a bit situational but you need to understand that making a tennis court is a no small matter. You need to have enough space, and a decent approach but you may also need to fulfill some special terms and conditions. For instance, in some neighborhoods, you’ll have to build a place far from the main road and neighboring houses. The list of these requirements is quite long but it all means one thing – when you take it all into consideration, these conditions may choose in your stead. In other words, you may not have much say in the location at all.
4. The dimensions
A tennis court is supposed to be 23.77m in length and 8.23m (singles) and 10.97m (doubles) in width. The singles area is supposed to be 195.65 square meters, while the double is supposed to be 260.87 square meters of surface. Now, even those who play singles all the time should make the doubles court area. This way, you’re not sacrificing that much more space and leaving the options open. Also, keep in mind that the tennis court doesn’t end with the play area. The seating, fencing/walls, etc. go far beyond this square.
5. Pick the surface
The next thing you need to bear in mind is that the surface makes all the difference. It goes as far as that there are some players who consistently perform better on a specific type of surface (especially amongst professionals). This is one of the factors that will affect your subjective feel the most but also change the maintenance requirements of the field.
Today, nonetheless, you have numerous alternatives to these old-school surface types. For instance, instead of real grass (which would require mowing), you can always go for artificial grass instead. Acrylic courts are also incredibly popular. While some prefer clay, this is pretty hard for maintenance (work after every game) and it’s not the best of options for indoor courts.
6. Figure out your budget
Once you have the basics, you might want to start doing some math and get a rough estimate of how much this is going to cost. One of the things you can do is contact a construction company working on sports venues and ask them about what it would take. Then, when you get a rough estimate, think about the finance. Keep in mind that there are many smaller expenses and unforeseen aspects of construction, which is why the end project is likely to end up more expensive than your initial estimate.
In conclusion
Of course, the list in question is far from complete. You also need to find the right construction company for the task at hand and make numerous (additional) considerations. The construction time alone is a significant factor and it may produce dramatic changes in your lifestyle (albeit temporarily). The key thing is that you focus on the factors that you control – major decisions (size, surface, etc.), budgeting, and the choice of the crew that will perform the works. Once this is done, you can get started.
