A lot of people fantasize about having their tennis court. So, of course, you want it to be perfect and jaw-dropping for everyone who comes over. But what do you need to do to make your tennis court perfect? Let’s find out.
The Planning Phase
Usually, the hardest part of planning to construct a tennis court is the space required to make the plan a reality. As you might have guessed, tennis courts are enormous and as such require a vast amount of space to be built upon. Thankfully, tennis court sizes are standardized. So, a regular tennis court will be 23.77m in length. Courts that are primarily used for singles matches are 8.23m wide and doubles courts are 10.97m wide. The service line of the court is 6.4m (starting from the net). Although, you still have to account for running space for your court. So, you would need about an extra 3.65m for this.
A vital factor that you need to take into account is the environment the court is being built on. If you build a court where there is no shade or any cover for the sun, you will be able to only play tennis at night. But then you just get the same problem from a different angle. You still can’t see the ball, only not because of the sun, but because it’s the night.
The ideal place to build a court is somewhere where it is surrounded by different objects that can lower the winds as much as possible so it doesn’t stay a relevant factor to the game enjoyment. Of course, it is extremely reasonable to have buildings or walls surround you, so the second-best thing would be to build it somewhere surrounded by trees and bushes.
Be Aware of the Costs and Specifics for a Perfect Tennis Court
There are 4 types of tennis courts, asphalt courts, clay courts, hard courts, and grass courts. Each has its specifics, own weaknesses, and strengths. So, you need to figure out what characteristics you prefer to plan out the perfect court ahead of time.
1) An Asphalt Court
To build an asphalt court, you need a lot of specialized knowledge. The knowledge that most of us do not possess. This means that you will need to hire a specialist to build the court for you. Taking this into account as well as the necessary equipment to build the court and it can end up being quite costly. Building an asphalt court would cost anywhere from $30,000 – $ 45,000. While doing it yourself would cost around $5,000 – $ 9,000. Asphalt provides the best consistent bounce with slightly better shock absorption than concrete. The main drawback of asphalt is that it gets extremely hot during summer and when exposed to the sun, resulting in less comfortable matches. The bright side is that asphalt is easy to maintain. The only problem down the line could be that in extreme conditions the asphalt expands and leads to cracks in the field.
2) A Clay Court
Making a clay court is easy to do since you can buy the materials in the form of bricks. When you would factor in all of the bricks needed for a court intended for singles matches, you would end up paying around $4,000 for the whole court. Clay courts are known for being slow due to the material slowing down the ball. Since clay slows down the ball, it also results in the players needing less strain to play due to the softer surface. This is the most recommendable option for casual matches for leisure. However, clay courts require daily maintenance to preserve court integrity. You will need to water and brush the court daily and, from time to time, add new layers of clay due to it eroding over time.
3) A Hard Court
This one is way more practical to build, as you can get the materials yourself quite easily. You will only need to pour in some hard hours of physical labour to make the court. The price would be anywhere from $5,500 – $9,000. If you opt for a professional to make it, you will end up paying around 7x the amount. A hard court offers great bounce and it requires almost no maintenance. Like with an asphalt court, the state of the court will worsen a lot faster if it is exposed to extreme weather conditions.
4) A Grass Court
Considering you are planning on building the court probably near your house, you won’t have any issues with the material. Making a grass court doesn’t have a starting price tag (unless you need to level out the field). Bouncing on grass practically doesn’t exist. Due to the high shock absorption of the dirt, the ball offers no real bouncing potential and leads to extremely inconsistent bounces throughout the match. Maintenance is another less desirable factor. You will need to maintain the field daily by watering the grass and periodically mowing it to maintain the optimal grass height for matches.
Adequate Lighting
A lot of people are too busy during the day to effectively coordinate tennis matches, and as a result, people will sometimes play during the night hours. If you opt for the option of playing tennis during the night as well, you will need adequate lighting to allow you to do so (or you can just randomly swing the racket and be happy if you even hit the ball). Thankfully, Legacy Lighting understands how to optimally spread the lighting to get the optimal efficiency of cost and area covered.
