David's Best Tips:

• Planning permission may not be required for building a grass court 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 the court saves money and is visually less intrusive.
• Cutting the corners off 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 behind the baseline.

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How much does a tennis court cost to lay, and how much does it cost to maintain over the years?

Well... things are continually changing. You have to get a quote, etc,etc for this type of thing. So, the best thing to do is to carry out a good business principle, which is to find three people prepared to lay a court and ask them to quote, but you won't get much change nowadays out of 16, 18, 20 thousand pound for a good type tarmacadam court.

And that should last you between 5 and 10 years? Or is that the resurfacing period?

The 5 to 10 is according to how much it is used. And how it's treated and that would require... so if you aren't very careful and you play a lot... you can't be careful and play on any surface a lot without it wearing, and therefore you're looking at resurfacing it after about 5 years. If you look after it you're, looking at resurfacing it after 10 years. And there's only one way to look after a court and that's to tend it but not use it.

Right.

Like they do at Wimbledon. They take a whole year to prepare the court. As soon as the championships finish, they're on it... almost immediately, and start preparing it for the next year. So, the hard courts obviously don't require that sort of attention, but you're looking for... in that 10 years you'd probably have to have the lines painted again once or twice. That type of thing. You'd probably have to have two nets shall we say. You might even have to have three nets. So, there is... they call them non-maintenance courts! Rubbish! They've got to be maintained.

But it's no hardship if you have your own court. It's well worth it; it's a lovely, lovely thing to own your own court. If it's set properly you've got little corners that people can sit in, around it and you know there's like a Pims on a nice summer evening. And somebody playing tennis and waiting your turn. It' lovely.

Absolutely.

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