Court Surface Types | A General but Definite Overview

SUBGRADES

Post-Tension Reinforced Concrete Courts

The main feature/benefit of post-tension reinforced concrete is that it uses high-strength steel cables (tendons) that are tensioned once the concrete has cured to a certain strength. This keeps the concrete structure under compression (in this case, the athletic court slab), which helps reduce crack development and enhances surface strength.

Characteristics:

• Bounce: Uniform. Creates a big bounce.
• Speed: Fast. Strong ball bounce.
• Maintenance: Low. Can be blown off when debris is present.
• Pros: Minimizes cracking, delivers a smooth and tough playing surface, ensures long term stability, and provides a nice predictable ball bounce.
• Cons: Higher up-front cost.

Rebar/Wire-Mesh Reinforced Concrete Courts

Steel rebar and/or wire mesh is commonly used as a concrete reinforcement. For a long time, this has been a cheaper alternative as a concrete reinforcement when compared to post-tension cables. However, over time, the price differences between traditional inactive concrete reinforcements such as rebar and active concrete reinforcements such as post-tension cables have decreased. This is due to a cost reduction in the post-tension concrete industry as technology and adoption of post-tension cables has increased due to its effectiveness. This has led the post-tension cable industry to make post-tension concrete reinforcement more affordable. Even though traditional concrete reinforcements such as rebar/wire-mesh are better than asphalt, the ultimate solution for a high-quality and long-lasting athletic court is with a post-tension cable athletic court slab.

Characteristics:

• Bounce: Hard. Generally, a consistent bounce unless cracks are present. Cracks can lead to an inconsistent and unpredictable bounce.
• Speed: Fast (comparable to post-tensioned concrete)
• Maintenance: Low unless there are cracks present. Needs to be patched and repaired if cracks form over time.
• Pros: Stronger than asphalt courts.
• Cons: May need control joints which require patching before resurfacing, may crack over time, and ongoing patching can re-open leading to continuous repatching and resurfacing needs

Fiber Mesh Reinforced Concrete

Concrete reinforced with fiber mesh should not be painted with acrylic sports paint. Fiber mesh tends to stick out on the surface of concrete surfaces. These fibers are extremely strong and cannot be properly “ripped” from the surface of such concrete. This means that when attempting to resurface a concrete court that is reinforced with fiber mesh, the fibers tend to stick out over the sports paint, and you end up with a court with thousands of little fibers sticking out of the sports surface like “small hairs”. This leads to an undesirable, low-performance, and an unstable sports surface.

Note for all non-post-tension reinforced concrete athletic court slabs: If a sports concrete slab has rebar, wire-mesh, and/or fiber mesh reinforcement, it is likely that this court will be saw-cut with control joints for crack control. These control joints will have to be patched and repaired before an acrylic surface coating. Patched saw-cuts/control joints can develop cracks along the patched areas over time caused by expansion and contraction in concrete. Cracks that were previously patched may also appear, affecting both the aesthetics and functionality of the athletic court.

Asphalt Courts

Asphalt is a softer material than concrete, which during the last 40 years was commonly used on outdoor athletic courts. The longevity of asphalt is significantly lower than that of concrete, even when compared to non-post-tension reinforced concrete. Asphalt tends to become very brittle over time as it loses its oils and may lead to many “un-repairable” cracks. Some asphalt courts may be patched and resurfaced, only for these cracks to reappear within 2 weeks! With the current cost reductions in post-tension concrete, an asphalt court versus a post-tension court do not have a significant price difference, however the quality of post-tension reinforced concrete is exponentially higher than that of an asphalt court. Therefore, it is highly recommended to go with a post-tension concrete slab that will be crack free for many years to come.

Characteristics:

• Bounce: Medium. Softer than concrete.
• Speed: Medium-Fast
• Maintenance: Likely requires crack patching every few years. The older the asphalt is, the more frequently it will develop cracks and require patching.
• Pros: Inexpensive option that has a slight shock absorbing characteristic

Cons: Short lifespan, unstable, prone to crack, requires ongoing repairs.

SPORTS SURFACES

Cushioned Surfaces

Cushioned surfaces generally contain rubber and/or other kind of semi-rubber delivering cushion characteristics. This is done to reduce stress on the joints of players and provide an overall more “forgiving” playing surface. If your main goal is to reduce wear on your body, then a cushioned surface is the way to go. Cushioned surfaces also aid in reducing the appearance and negative factors of cracks. Because of the cushion thickness and optional subgrade membrane (recommended for subgrades with cracks), cushioned courts reduce crack effects and may leave a cracked court virtually crack free for years to come. Depending on the sport, cushioned surfaces tend to provide a good ball bounce. For example, Tennis and Pickleball use a rather small and lightweight ball, where cushioned surfaces have little effect on the bounce of such balls. Instead, cushioned surfaces reduce bounce/shock on heavier objects, such as a person jumping and stomping on the cushioned surface. If a basketball court uses a cushioned surface, the bounce reduction increases significantly more than for a Tennis ball or Pickleball because of the significant mass and force a basketball exerts on a surface as compared to a Tennis ball or Pickleball.

Characteristics:

• Bounce: Medium. Possible bounce reduction, depending on sport.
• Speed: Medium-Slow. Cushioned surface may de-accelerate ball due to absorbing energy on each bounce.
• Maintenance: Low. Can be blown off when debris is present.
• Pros: Great shock absorption and player comfort. Mitigates crack appearance and negative performance factors due to cracks.
• Cons: Slower court speed (some players however prefer a slower court) and is generally more costly than a traditional acrylic sports surface.

Sports Tiles

Sport tiles are a type of modular, interlocking, polymer/plastic sports surface. The strength of sports tiles is that the material itself is long lasting and can be placed over certain damaged/cracked surfaces. Sports tiles also offer a slight degree of shock absorption characteristics for players. However, sport tiles tend to provide an extremely inconsistent and unpredictable ball bounce. This is due to the anatomy of the sports tile itself and the subgrade it is on. The center of a sports tile will tend to provide a more “dead” spot in terms of bounce, especially for Pickleball. The edges of a sports tile tend to lead to highly inconsistent ball bounce vectors. This means that when a ball bounces near or on the edge of a sports tile, the direction for which such ball will bounce is highly unpredictable. This is due to the edges of sports tile being stiff and sharp. Where two sports tiles meet, a max elevation ridge is formed which slopes to the left of one tile edge, and to the right of the other tile edges. Now consider that there are hundreds or thousands of tiles on your court interlocked, the probabilities of what edge your ball will land on and bounce off is highly unpredictable, leading to unpredictable ball behavior.

Characteristics:

• Bounce: Unpredictable ball bounce. May have dead spots.
• Speed: Medium, depending on tile material and texture, ball speed may vary.
• Maintenance: Low
• Pros: Easy to install and replace. Decent shock absorption
• Cons: May be more expensive upfront. Unpredictable bounce behavior and dead spots.

Acrylic Coated Surfaces

Concrete and asphalt can both be resurfaced using acrylic sport coatings. These coatings are made to enhance player performance for the specific sport being resurfaced. We at Precision Courts Construction provide our customers with different options of sports surfaces based on sport type, player accommodation, and overall court application.

Characteristics:

• Bounce: Medium-Fast, very consistent bounce
• Speed: Generally fast, depending on the subgrade underneath
• Maintenance: Low. Blow off debris when necessary.
• Pros: Sturdy, low maintenance, and is generally the standard for professional play.
• Cons: May need to be resurfaced if player wants to “revive” color or make the court “slower”