David's Best Tips on Building a Tennis Court:

• Planning permission may not be required for building a grass tennis court construction in your back yard.
• Allthough the stipulated area for a tennis court is 120 feet by 60 feet, 110 by 55 is adequate for most people and can shave thousands off the cost.
• Putting fencing only around the backs of a tennis court saves money and is visually less intrusive.
• Cutting the corners off your tennis court at 45 degrees doesn't effect play but instead is visually more pleasing and it also trickles the balls to the centre of the court.

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Tennis Court Conversation

If someone had gone through the procedure, they'd got permission, they knew what kind of court they wanted and they had the space for it. Who would they go to have the court laid?

Well, there's two forms, there's the official and the unofficial.

Right.

The unofficial are in a sense road makers, or drive layers. And to supplement what they do they become court layers. So part of what they do is laying courts. Now, they're called unofficial, and that's because the people who actually are official people they are known as court makers, and they don't truthfully have any other business. And their surfaces are smoother and more porous and things like this. But there's a big difference you see. If people are making a road type surface for a tennis court it usually doesn't cost anywhere near what the official people do.

Right. I mean well I've had experience of playing on both of the different types because at our tennis club when I was growing up they had both types and difference I saw that the lines... they used probably a non tennis court paint. So paint wasn't quite the same and it was prone to a little bit of smudging here and there. But I think only in the early stages, I think after a year or two I think it was ok. And the other thing I noticed was the seams of the court were not in the right place compared to the other one, which didn't really bother me, I'm not sure if it matters too much. There were just little things. But, as far as I was concerned I preferred to play on the road makers courts because they were newer and they had better grip.

Well, what you say is absolutely true you see. The road making type layers of a tennis court aren't truthfully part of the playing system. They use any paint they can get hold of as long as it's white. Probably the white lines... centre lines of a road provides paint, and that's a very plasticised type of paint and is quite dangerous in the wet weather and they will use that type of paint. I don't say all of them are like this by the way. I just say it's a general thing to think about. You get the unofficial people, there have been some very good courts laid by people like that.

Yeah.

There's a comeback off of the companies. So directly you get a cut price job you lose a little bit of the guarantee that goes with it. Whereas the official people have to keep their standard up and work accordingly. And part of that is that the seams that bring the strips of tarmac together should run in certain positions, so that they don't become offensive to the play, or as offensive. And also there's a special way of kneading them together, you knead it and blend it, whereas the road makers they don't care so much.

So you're talking about bad bounces?

Yes, very much so. Your seams can be... if their on the court surface you can bet your boots that every time they hit the ball they will hit an uneven seam. It's... If I can use the word, it's sods law. That if there's a bad seem the ball always hits it. And it always hits it on the most important point, against you. You always get a bad bounce when you don't want it and it's very off putting.

So it might be worth seeing some of their other courts that they've built in the past before investing.

Oh, absolutely.

I mean, I never noticed any bad bounces, but you know I'm sure there's a range of people that make these courts and I'm sure that the quality varies.

Yes, I personally don't think you can get any surface... there's no such thing a surface that doesn't give you the occasional bad bounce.

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