Specifications: New Court Construction
Concrete Slab Construction Process
The preparation of building a Sport Court is involves creating a proper foundation and for the post-tension concrete slab of the court. The “foundation” of the court’s slab is made up of three main components, the subgrade, subbase, and vapor barrier. The subgrade is the “earth” or area where the court will be built on. It is the existing soil/land where the area will sit. This area is first “graded” to level give the future concrete slab a proper slope, starting with the subgrade itself.
After the subgrade has been measured, leveled, and graded, the subbase is added. The subbase is a foundational base of support for the concrete slab that goes on top of the subgrade. The existing subgrade soil may be to weak, rocky, unstable, and maybe just not a proper foundation to support a concrete slab. This is where a different, proper subbase can be used to support the slab. For example, if the subgrade contains a lot substantially large rocks that do not allow for proper ground compaction or the slab will be used for the support of heavy loads, then it is necessary to use a subbase that is stronger then regular earth to support the load. Generally, the proper subbase material for a general purpose concrete slab is Aggregate Base Course (Commonly known as ABC). The subgrade should be compacted is possible and applicable. The subbase must be compacted.
The last foundational component necessary for the construction of a post-tension sport court concrete slab is a vapor barrier. A vapor barrier is a type of layer that goes between the subbase and concrete slab. Its purpose is to prevent vapor from the subgrade and subbase to travel up to the concrete slab. This is vital for sport courts because moisture that comes from the bottom of the slab, up and through the surface of the slab can cause the paint surface of the slab to “peel” and become unadhered from the court’s surface. The typical vapor barrier used for a concrete slab is a 10 mils polyethylene tarp. The tarp goes over the compacted subbase and should cover the entire subbase area.
The next step in the court construction process is the forming of the court itself. Before the concrete is poured, it needs a mold where it can be held together when it is in it’s fluid form. This concrete molding process is called forming. Special wood boards are used to build the container where the concrete will be poured in. The court is measured and precisely squared to create an accurate shape of the dimensions of the court being built. The wooden forms/boards are then framed around the full perimeter of the court’s measurements. The court is now ready to be poured.
After forms have been set, the court area is ready to have the post-tension cables installed. Post-tension cables are a form of concrete reinforcement. Decades ago post-tension reinforcement systems for concrete were on the high-end of the pricing scale, but during the last two decades, post-tension cable concrete reinforcement systems have became fairly affordable. Post-tension cable reinforcement systems are a huge advancement in structural steel reinforcement material for concrete reinforcement. Unlike rebar which is a sedentary steel bar that is used to fight tension forces against concrete by holding the concrete together through a “grip” force, post-tension cables hold concrete together through live potential kinetic energy forces.
The way post tension cables work is that they are installed inside the slab area after the court has been formed an dis ready to be poured. The court is then poured with the post-tension cables about halfway between the bottom and top of the slabs bottom and top surface. After the concrete has cured for about one to two weeks, the post tension cables are pulled and tightened from one end of the court to “squeeze” the concrete slab together. Every single post-tension cable installed in the court is tensioned. If there is ever a concrete crack that occurs within concrete slab, the tensioned cables pull the court inwards towards its center, making the crack more or less disappear and never allowing it to grow.
Back to the post-tension cable installation, the cables are installed in a grid-like pattern from north-to-south and east-to-west sides of the court respectively.
The concrete pour is the placement of the fluid concrete inside the formed slab area. Before the concrete trucks and concrete pump truck arrive, the forms are sprayed with forming oil on the inside face of the forms so that the forms do not stick to the surface of the wood forms when the concrete has cured enough to remove the concrete forms. It is similar to adding Pam cooking spray to a pan so that the food will not stick to the surface of the pan. The first big machinery/truck to arrive for the concrete truck is the concrete pump truck. This truck connects to the concrete mixer trucks, takes in the concrete from the concrete mixer trucks, and pumps the concrete all the way to the court through a hose that can be manually or remote controlled to move around in the inside area of the court to pour the concrete.
The concrete mixer trucks are the next trucks to arrive which as sated above, hook up to the concrete pump trucks and begin to feed into the concrete pump truck. The concrete is then poured in the court, and all the foremen and concrete workers begin pouring, leveling, screeding, and bull floating the concrete as it is poured.
Once the concrete is poured, the concrete finishing process becomes the main focus.
The concrete finishing process assures that the concrete is properly leveled and has the proper texture for the sport court resurfacing tasks. The concrete is finished multiple times with different tools and equipment as the texture and curation process of the concrete changes and advances. After court has been properly finished, given a proper surface texture, and cured out enough to hold the load of a person, the court is covered with another polyethylene tarp to allow for a proper hydration process within the concrete. They hydration process of concrete is what commonly known as “curing”. However, hydration of concrete is the proper name for the chemical reaction that concrete undergoes as its chemical properties use water to harden the concrete material. Industry standard for concrete to cure has been 28 days for many years and continues to be the industry standard for a “maximum” concrete strengthening time duration. However, with new advancements in concrete mixtures, this concrete “strengthening” (also known as curation, hydration) happens a lot faster. The polyethylene tarp allows the concrete to go through the hydration process more efficiently because it keeps the water and moisture in the concrete within the slab without letting it quickly escape and evaporate. It is important for the concrete slab to keep its own moisture with the help of a vapor barrier on top of the finished concrete slab for the first 3 to 28 days so that quick moisture loss does not occur, and the hydration process of the concrete can be supplied proper water moisture contents.
After about 2-3 days after the concrete has been poured, the post-tension cables are given a slight pull to tension them. The pre-stress is a minor concrete compression force in case there is any early cracking that occurs during the hydration/curing process, to not allow such cracks to grow any bigger and stop them as soon as they begin.
The concrete forms can be removed after 7-10 days of the day when the court was poured. After the concrete forms are removed, if it has been enough time for the concrete surface cover to support the hydration process of the concrete slab, then the concrete surface cover can also be removed.
The final post-tension cable pull/stress/tension is performed after about 7-10 days after the court has been poured. By this time the concrete forms must have already been removed to allow for the final post-tension cable stress. The concrete slab is now fully tensioned with many post-tension cables, each tensioned at 2500 PSI, all fighting tension forces that can be affecting the concrete slab. Any crack that comes up on the court is most of the times reduced to a hairline crack throughout the lifetime of the slab thanks to the live compressive forces of the post-tension cables.
Chainlink Fencing Construction Process
After the post-tension concrete slab has been built, the chain-link fence is the next process in the construction of a full Tennis court. Firstly fence post locations are measured following industry standards for chain-link fence construction. The court designer also has to decide on whether the light posts should be used as part of the chain-link fence framework itself (using light posts as fence posts in combination with the rest of the chain-link fence posts). After the fence post positions have been identified and marked, the holes for the posts footers must be dug. The fence posts holes should be dug with a slight angle towards the slab to allow the fence posts to be properly butted up against the concrete slab. Dirt removed from the digging process should be properly disposed of at a local landfill or other construction project in which the dirt material can be used.
The fence posts are usually purchased from the suppliers in longer sizes than what their installation sizes are. If this is the case, the fence posts must be measured and properly cut to the height that hey should have, including the depth at which they will be installed and the mark at which the posts are fush with the surface of the concrete slab. To reduce the possibilities of unchangeable sizing mistakes after installing the fence posts in their concrete footers, it is best to initially cut fence posts with an additional margin in measurement. It is better to have a fence posts that is a little taller than it should be, which can then later be cut to its prefect size once installed and set in its concrete footer.
After the fence posts have been cut and mark marked at the proper footer depth and the concrete slab’s surface level it is time to install the fence posts.
The fence posts are installed using concrete as footers for the posts themselves. Once the whole crew is ready to install the fence posts, the first step is to mix some concrete. For small jobs like one single court, it is ok to just mix bagged concrete in a wheelbarrow and pour it in the footers as you go for each posts. However, for bigger jobs where there are multiple courts to install the fence posts in, it is better to have a ready-mix concrete truck deliver the necessary concrete. It saves A LOT of manpower by not having to mix pallets and pallets of bagged concrete by hand.
Pour in the mixed concrete in the footer hole. Now slip a posts in the footer hole at the concrete slab mark (marked on the concrete), then push the post down until it reaches the posts mark representing the slab surface’s height level for the posts. Grab two torpedo levels and make sure that the posts are leveled straight.
Continue the process of installing the posts described above for all the fence posts. Make sure to continually go back to fence posts which have already been inserted and level off with the torpedo levels to make sure that the posts are still leveled and have not moved.
Allow the concrete footers to cure for a week, then return to the court for the chain-link fence framework installation.
The chain-link framework includes the fence posts that were previously installed, plus the top rail and/or middle & bottom rail. The fencing rail are the horizontal posts that you see on a chain-link fence. Usually, if the fence is 6′ feet tall or shorter, middle rail is not required (the horizontal posts on a chain-link fence that are installed at the center-height). A chain-link fence which is 6′ feet tall or higher can optionally have a middle rail installed. The installation depends on the wind loads that the chain-link fence will need to withstand, but is recommended for a fence that is taller than 6′ feet. The bottom rail of a chain-link fence is also optional since bottom wire can be used instead of a bottom rail, and reduces the price of the chain-link fence (not a huge savings for a sport court though). Bottom wire is mostly used on large chain-link fences because in very large quantities, the savings and installation cost savings do add up. Top rail is the top horizontal posts installed on chain-link fences. Top rail is required for chain-link fences.
Top rail is installed using chain-link bracing clamps, which also vary in their types. The specific steps to brace rail is out of the scope of this installation overview. After installing the full framework of the chain-link fence, it is time to install the chainlink fabric.
Chain-link fabric is the chain-link mesh/wire itself. It is the “little diamond” shapes you see the fence is made from. Chain-link fabric comes in rolls. The chain-link fabric should be the same height as the height that fence posts are (fence posts are actually a few inches taller to allow for capes and top rail eye-tops to be installed at the top of the fence posts. The chain-link fabric roll is unrolled at a corner of the fencing and is cut until you reach the opposite corner of the post. The chain-link fabric is installed by grabbing onto tension bars which are installed next to corner posts using clamps. The full chain-link fabric installation instructions are out of the scope of this installation overview.
This concludes the chain-link installation process.
Resurfacing a court is the painting of the court. The reason that we do not call it “painting” is because a sport court’s surface is more than just pigment. It is a surface with special acrylic-polymer paint mixed with silica sand that results in a sport surface that is made to properly grip a players shoe and playing ball. It’s not just paint, but an actual playing surface made for playing performance.
The first step to resurfacing a court is to get a proper surface on the concrete itself for proper adhesion of the sport surface on the bare concrete. To do this
Resurfacing Process
Resurfacing a court is the painting of the court. The reason that we do not call it “painting” is because a sport court’s surface is more than just pigment. It is a surface with special acrylic-polymer paint mixed with silica sand that results in a sport surface that is made to properly grip a players shoe and playing ball. It’s not just paint, but an actual playing surface made for playing performance.
The first step to resurfacing a court is to get a proper surface on the concrete itself for proper adhesion of the sport surface on the bare concrete. To do this, the concrete slab’s surface is floor sanded with a concrete 60-grit surface sander disk. After the surface is floor-sanded the court dust accumulated from the sanding is blown off.
The next step is to pressure wash the surface of the concrete slab to remove all dust that is still in the surface pours of the concrete and any other impurities that can cause poor adhesion of the playing surface with the concrete slab’s surface.
After the court has been pressured wash and has dried off, the sport surface primer can be applied to the concrete’s surface. The primer surface is typically black in color and is designed to partially seal the concrete before applying the color coats of the playing surface. The primer is mixed then applied to the surface of the concrete slab using a squeegee.
After the primer coat has been applied and have dried, the color coats are applied. The consistency of the color coat is very similar to the primer coat’s consistency and is applied in the same way the primer coat was applied. Each color coat layer is applied after the previous color coat layer has properly dried.
After the color coats have been applied, the playing stripes need to be painted. First, the playing lines outline is snapped with string-line to mark them. After the playing lines have been marked out, they are traced with tape on both sides (left and right) of the string line. This “draws” the actual paintable playing line area.
After the lines have been taped, the inside area between both pieces of tape is painted with white line using a hand brush. After going over the playing lines with the line paint, let the line paint dry. After the line paint has dried, one must go over the playing lines again with the line paint. Again, let the line paint dry again, then peel up the tape.
The court has been resurfaced. Now the court’s surface should be left to cure for a minimum of 3 days before getting on to play. This concludes the full process to build a sport court! 🙂
Sport Court Full Construction Process Summary
- Mark the area where the court will be built
- Excavate/Grade the existing terrain where court will be built (Unnecessary if court will be placed over on existing surface)
- Form the court
- Lay ABC (Aggregate Base Course) over terrain within the formed area
- Compact the ABC sub-grade
- If this is a Tennis, Pickleball, or Volleyball court, set the net sleeves in concrete footers where they should go, and any other surface mounted accessories such as net pins
- Lay vapor barrier (polyethylene tarp) over sub-grade
- Lay down concrete recinforcement: either post-tension cables or rebar
- Set screed stakes within court (Pins used to level the surface and slope of concrete for the screeding process)
- Pour, level, and finish the court (Pour refers to pouring concrete inside the formed area)
- After court has dried enough to the touch and will not sink or malform while stepping on it, place a vapor barrier over it to allow for proper curing during full hydration process
- Remove vapor barrier from the surface of the court after about 3-5 days
- Remove concrete wood forms
- Court is then left to continue to fully strengthening until it has been a minimum of 31 days since the pour
- Court is flood checked to see if there are any high/low spots on the surface, and if so, such are repaired
- Fence and light posts are installed
- Chainlink fabric is installed
- Light arms and light heads are installed onto light posts
- Court is prepped for surfacing
- Court is surfaced (painted)
- The court is complete!