When we moved into our home in 2023, the first home improvement item on my list was building a pickleball court. Even if we did nothing else to improve our home, there was going to be a pickleball court.
Luckily, there was no objection from my partner nor did we have an HOA or any covenants and restrictions that would’ve prevented us from building our pickleball court.
I spent the next 6 months obsessively reading about the best concrete, paint, specs, construction methods, etc. for a pickleball court.
Despite all my research and experience playing on a variety of pickleball courts all across the country at different parks, venues, and tournaments, I still made some costly mistakes when it came to constructing our own court (i.e. we ended up having to surface our court twice).
Nonetheless, for the most part, I’m super happy with how our pickleball court turned out and it was one of the best investments for our home that we still use daily.
Given that building a pickleball court is not a cheap endeavor, you want to get it right the first time you do it. So for those interested in constructing a residential pickleball court, now that I have 20/20 hindsight, here is everything I learned building my court and hopefully you’ll avoid the same mistakes I made.
Our court construction specs:
- Court Size: 36’ x 60’ (Allows 8’ on all sides), but we poured a 36’x64’ concrete pad to allow for a seating ledge and steps from our detached garage/game room directly to the court
- 4000 PSI Concrete
- 4” Thick
- Medium Broom Finish
- Water Vapor Barrier
- #4 Rebar
- Crushed rock underneath
- Two colors (one for the court, one for outside the court)
- Sportmaster (first time we surfaced) and Acrytech (second time we resurfaced)
- No cushion system
Breakdown of our total costs:
- Tree removal, stump grinding : $5465
- Grading & Concrete Pad (36x64): $19,550
- Surfacing (the first time): $4,556.54
- Fixing bird baths: +$500
- Surfacing (the second time): $5400
- Fencing: $2600
- Lighting: $3,750
- Net: $1500
- Drainage around the court: $2,700
- Total Costs: $46,021.54
Final Photos:
This was the first time everything was completed and surfaced. We went with a light gray and black Sportmaster colors.
First Time Surfacing (Black & Light Gray Sportmaster):
The second time the court was resurfaced (a year later) and additional bird baths were fixed. This time we learned from our first experience (i.e. light colors stain super easily with South Carolina red clay dirt) and went with dark gray and black Acrytech colors.
Second Time Surfacing (Black & Dark Gray Acrytech):
Our Mistakes:
1. Our first mistake was that I was too impatient to wait for landscaping to be done before painting/surfacing our court and that was a big costly mistake when you live in an area known for red clay dirt. So the combination of having red clay dirt exposed near our court every time it rained and having a light gray color for the outer court area, we ended up getting visible red dirt stains all over our court that we couldn’t get rid of no matter how much pressure washing we did (and the chemicals/special soaps we tried using ended removing some of the paint and staining the court).
But we were still able to use the court everyday and we did! So ultimately, it was still beneficial to have had it done sooner rather than later and we just lived with the ugly stains for a year.
But once our landscaping was done, we ended up resurfacing our whole court (typically, you shouldn’t have to resurface your court for 5-10 years after it’s done the first time).
2. Our second mistake was putting saw cut joints onto the playing area as opposed to outside the court lines. We didn’t have the option of post tension concrete where you don’t need saw cut joints and at the recommendation of our surfacing contractor and our concrete contractor, we put saw cut joints down the middle of the court, center line and in the non volley zone areas towards the baselines.
Concrete will always crack over time, no matter what. Saw cut joints help manage and reduce cracking. So the tradeoff here was to have these permanent straight cut lines (so the concrete can "crack" naturally onto these cleanly, pre-cut saw joints) as opposed to creating random cracks on the court. On the other hand, saw cut joints also allow more water and debris to get under the paint in general and acrylic paint hates water.
In retrospect, despite having saw cut joints, we still ended up getting a few hairline cracks and I personally feel like the saw cut joints leave the court more exposed to water and debris.
The saw cut joints don't affect our play too much which was something I was worried about initially, but it will occasionally make the ball bounce funny if you hit it perfectly on the lines. So if we were to do it all over again, I’d make one saw cut joint across the middle of the net and then saw cut joints outside the perimeter of the court only.
3. Our third mistake was hiring a concrete contractor who didn’t have any experience in making large sports courts. They say you get what you pay for and while we still paid A LOT, we did choose someone who offered one of the cheaper quotes for pouring the concrete. Long story short, there were quite a few large bird baths on the concrete pad that our first surfacing contractor had to patch up (it would’ve taken longer to wait for our concrete contractor to come back and fix it and as you already know, I'm impatient 😅).
The patch ups weren’t perfect (it’s hard to fix large bird baths once they’re there) so you just have to live with an imperfect concrete pad unless you replace the entire concrete section.
Here was our court after it rained and you can see larger bird baths towards the back right quadrant and around the kitchen areas.
Absolute must-haves for your court:
- 3500 or higher PSI for concrete
- Water vapor barrier
- 4" thick, medium broom finish
- Heavy duty net (if you're spending $$$ on a court, might as well get a proper net)
- 30' x 60' minimum court size
- Some type of barrier to keep balls from rolling too far off
- Drainage around your court to keep water away
Nice to haves (if money and space allows):
- Permanent fencing
- 36' x 60' or 40' x 60' size court
- 2-4 lights though I highly recommend 4 lights (1 on each side of the transition zone)
Things We’d Do Differently:
- Post tension concrete if possible
- No saw cut joints within the court lines. If you need to have saw cut joints, do it at the net and outside the court lines.
- Do the court painting after landscaping is done to avoid getting dirt and mud on it
- Make it an indoor/outdoor court (roof top and sides can open for sunlight but close on raining days)
Total Timeline (9 months beginning in September to completing in June):
- We probably got 10-15 quotes for tree removal, concrete, and 2-3 quotes for surfacing (we didn’t have many options in our areas for surfacing experts).
- It took close to a year from initial research conversations, finding the right contractor for everything, doing the various steps chronologically to finally being able to surface the court in the summer with warmer temperatures. We also had the holidays in between which extended the timeline as well.
- Tree removal took one whole day and tree stump grinding took another day.
- Grading the compacting the dirt before concrete pouring took 1-2 days.
- Concrete takes 2-3 days to prep and pour, but afterwards it needs to cure 30-45 days. We allowed ours to cure for 45 days.
- The first time surfacing a new court takes around a week due to the need to do the acid etching step before the painting occurs (assuming no weather delays).
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Resurfacing a court only takes 2-3 days.
- If you did everything in the summer and assuming you don’t have much land clearing and grading to do beforehand, the quickest would be around 2 months from pouring concrete to surfacing the court.
Court Maintenance:
- Court roller to dry the court after it rains
- Soft pressure washer/strong hose
- Leaf blower
Color Choices & Difference Between Sportmaster and Acrytech Paint:
We went with a modern color palette of black and gray that matched our exterior home colors. I personally prefer modern, neutral colors that either blend in with your home or your surroundings instead of bold, bright colors, but it really depends on your preference.
We haven’t had any issues with seeing the ball on our black surface although the typical blue and green colors you’ve seen on tennis and common pickleball courts are the preferred colors for viewing. But blue and green just didn’t go with anything else in our home and for the most part, I care more about aesthetics for my home than optimizing for seeing the ball perfectly. 😅
This is also a personal preference but I wanted the kitchen to be the same color as the court (black) instead of it being gray. I haven't noticed any difference when it comes to playing on a court with the same kitchen color as the court.
Since we've tried both Sportmaster acrylic paint and Acrytech (what the PPA uses), I can say that they are both really good products and I didn't notice any major differences between the two. The only slight difference I noticed was that the black Acrytech paint tends to show a few more scuff marks than the Sportmaster paint (perhaps because the Acrytech paint is a lighter shade of black). Otherwise, the performance for both products are similar.
Ways to Save Money:
- Lower PSI concrete (3000-3500)
- Just 1 or 2 paint colors instead of 3. One is cheapest.
- 2 lights instead of 4
- Temporary or no fencing around court
- DIY the paint/surfacing yourself
- Plan during slower months when contractors are less busy and more willing to offer a lower price
- Smaller court size (30x60)
- Find nets on sale (we found ours for a good deal on FB marketplace)
- Financing: While we didn’t pursue any financing for our court, there are many contractors who offer financing options and this might be a reason to go with one over another. There are also contractors who offer discounts for paying in cash so it all just depends on your situation but it’s definitely worth looking into for a large investment like this.
All in all, designing and building our own private pickleball court was a really fun experience and one of the best investments we made to our home. We use it daily to get exercise and vitamin D and it seamlessly integrates with the rest of our home. It’s definitely a wow factor when we drive up our driveway and see our awesome court.
There’s obviously routine maintenance involved once you have the court, but it’s honestly not that bad (much easier than cleaning a pool or even mowing your lawn). So if you’re on the fence about building one, I’d say just do it! You definitely won’t regret it.