Court construction: What are the options?

Published: 10 Feb 2007 - 17:50 by SuperSage666

Updated: 13 Mar 2010 - 07:54

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I've been looking around at various court construction options. As we lost our local courts to religion and I have been trying to look at starting up another centre, but conventional brick construction as was the lost centre appears to be too expensive to construct.

Walls?

I know of one person who is constructing a court in their back yard by simply standing up concrete walls and rendering them. Though I'd like to know what type of render is best for a squash wall. I've seen some courts where the walls appear to be panels, but not glass, they seem to be able to handle the impact of the ball quite well.

Floors?

I've often had people ask me what should the floors be made of. The conventional sprung wood flooring is also very expensive and with many buildings having a cement slab base, there should be many alternatives. some think "Rebound Ace" should work alright as flooring. One centre has wood over carpet.

Temporary Structure: I've even considered using conventional domestic walls in a temporary structure with the use of junior (soft) balls, so as to not damage the walls. This could be an idea for some people wanting to practice at home or get their children to have a bit of fun. I've found that 'stress balls' make very good kids balls, as they are a little dead and bounce close to that of a warm squash ball, but having a greater diameter, spin makes a larger difference than a squash ball.

Any ideas welcome!!!

Sagey

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From rippa rit - 13 Mar 2010 - 07:49 - Updated: 13 Mar 2010 - 07:54

Well, there are 5 posts listed under the "Relevant Content" tab as a result of the "key word entry" I make after each post is made, and I try to keep an eye on the discussion every day, but sometimes I get a bit slack.....and it is to help people track other discussions on the same sort of topics, eg court construction, strings, stringing, rackets, grip, swing, etc.. As well previous posts can be tracked through the "search" feature, as well as going to the Forum Archives (see the tab above) listed under Members Forum.

Checking the "squashgame search" this info was brought up as a result of key word entry

http://www.squashgame.info/search.php?domains=www.squashgame.info&q=squash court construction&sitesearch=www.squashgame.info&sa=Search&client=pub-2604235745167907&forid=1&ie=ISO-8859-1&oe=ISO-8859-1&safe=active&cof=GALT:#ffff66;GL:1;DIV:#22a8d8;VLC:2AA8D8;AH:center;BGC:22222b;LBGC:FFFF66;ALC:2aa8d8;LC:2aa8d8;T:eeeeff;GFNT:2aa8d8;GIMP:2aa8d8;FORID:11&hl=en

From sandy - 11 Mar 2010 - 09:39

To rippa rit. You say :"the relevant content tab should show previous posts on the topic....if you had been doing your job" Not sure what is meant here. Are you responsible for updating this page, and if so have you seen or heard of any relevant postings these last three years (other than what i have seen this morning) Thanks

From rippa rit - 10 Mar 2010 - 20:55 - Updated: 10 Mar 2010 - 21:08

Relevant Content tab should show previous posts on the topic, well, that is if I have been doing my job.

PS - You know you can build a court out of whatever suitable material you have, providing you are not going to use it as a championship court. Besser blocks are probably the cheaper option but bricks are recommended because they do not suck all the moisture out of the plaster/render. If you are not fussy and are not going to make the court as per the WSF spec the render could just be a pain as it does get holes and chip off over time with the hard hitting, especially around the cutline. and front corners. Some have put the thick fibro (like you can fix floor tiles to), forget the name, over the bricks but it does make a hollow sound when the hard shots hit it. .

From sandy - 10 Mar 2010 - 16:55

Three years ago adam_pberes asked the question whether anyone knew how much it would cost to build a squash court in Australia, and asked for suitable company names for those who build courts. I have not seen any replies on this. Can someone please update me on this; has there been any constructive feedback since 2007?

From sebrose - 27 Feb 2008 - 16:01

Has anyone got a recipe for DIY wall render?

I've just acquired a floor & glass wall from a centre that's closing down and the render seems to be the most tricky bit.

Cheers

Seb

From SuperSage666 - 10 Mar 2007 - 21:23 - Updated: 10 Mar 2007 - 21:29

Hi Adam,

So far I've met two people here in Australia who have private squash courts.

One had his built many years ago, red brick construction with standard rendering on the inside It has a glass back and it is inside his house and you can watch the matches from his lounge room. I played there in a competition once (nice court) and he claims that the court cost him $20,000 back about twenty years ago. He said it would have cost him the same to put a swimming pool in. He and his wife both think it was a much better investment than the pool option they considered at the time.

Another aquaintance has just recently built an erected concrete slab style court, also with a glass back. This is a solo constructio in his back yard. He said it cost him around $36,000 to build, though I haven't seen it yet, he reckons it is a great court to play on. His children are both zooming up the junior rankings. He hired most of the equipment and did most of the work himself. They used 18 tonne cranes to lift the slabs into place. He rendered the walls himself.

Let us know if you find a company that does it, as I haven't found one yet. Those that built the local courts had retired many years ago.

Cheers,

Sagey

From adam_pberes - 10 Mar 2007 - 18:19

I know that adz said before the price, But I just don't get pounds, So does anyone know how much it would cost to build a single squash court in australia, oand what companies will builld it... I've Only found One and they don't want to respond.

From SuperSage666 - 24 Feb 2007 - 20:56 - Updated: 24 Feb 2007 - 21:00

Thanks Rippa,

Back in 1971, I was about the first player to have a hit at the opening of the Wodonga courts (6 of them at the time), they had extremely rough walls, like very course sandpaper that would throw the ball in all sort of strange directions and would take the skin off the arm if brushed against them.

I went back there to play recently and the walls are still bumpy, but smoother than back then, thank goodness. I was playing at Albury (David Street centre (13 courts) that are now art studios) and these were extremely well made. Perfect courts like Albury had don't seem to stay around either these days.

As far as high ceilings go, Beechworth courts were very high, dark and sloped up, away from the front wall to peek above the back of the gallery. This allowed me to win matches with extremely high lob serves that disappeared past the lights and came down almost vertically into the rear corner. My opponents found these almost impossible to return and got extremely angry with me when I continually served this way.

But the courts I hated most were Wodonga's as I lost a lot of skin that day and refused to play when it was their turn to host the interclub competition.

Ouch,

Sagey

From rippa rit - 20 Feb 2007 - 07:28 - Updated: 20 Feb 2007 - 07:29

Sagey - if you build a court it has to be done properly or you will waste your bickies.
You know how much we complain when:

the front wall makes a banging sound (hollow, fibrocement over plaster walls)
the walls are slippery (and we did have an Engineer who built court walls using laminex once and they would not approve it for night comp 'cos the ball skidded off the walls for boasts. Good idea saved the dirty walls and cleaning/painting problem
the wall has to be smooth/not lumpy so the ball bounces true.
the walls have to not break up leaving patched holes especially around the center of the front wall area that get alot of punishment from power serves.
the floor has to be right and not slippery etc and not on concrete or it kills the feet
the ceiling has to be high so the lob serves etc don't hit the roof

what else ??

Make sure it is viable first I guess I mean, and it could be worth it if you can use it for other indoor sport....heaps of players have had these dreams and not too many actually built them. Then one family in Toowoomba built two and now they are two flats.

Decisions

From SuperSage666 - 19 Feb 2007 - 21:53

Hi Adam,

Yes, these courts exist.

The Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre (Albert Park, South Melbourne) has such a court with a motorised moving wall that widens the court for doubles. But I don't think I would build such a court here. Maybe if doubles gained a huge popularity, but at present, it is only an amusement.

Cheers,

Sagey

From adam_pberes - 17 Feb 2007 - 09:07

I've Heard Of Some Squash Courts That can actually change from singles to doubles... Dunno if this is true though... The side walls can actually move in and out for various training exercises...

Wonder how they do it and what those walls are made of?

From hamburglar - 15 Feb 2007 - 02:48 - Updated: 15 Feb 2007 - 02:48

Those panels you have are hung like sheetrock i think. Some courts fill the area behind the panel with some filler so that it doesn't give that hollow sound when the ball hits.

As for plaster, some sort of plaster/cement mixture should be quite strong and adhesive but you should get the mix ratio from what works.

From aprice1985 - 14 Feb 2007 - 21:07

Try to make sure the floor is sprung correctly if you get what i mean, remember that solid concrete or similar will jar people's knees and potentially give long term problems, although i suspect most courts dont really have good floors.

From SuperSage666 - 14 Feb 2007 - 20:45

Hi Adz n jbs,

The panels appear to be of some hard material like thick cement sheeting or hardi-panel over the top of a standard plasterboard wall. It had a hollow sound when struck with the ball and it looked like plasterboard extending above the walls out line. I'll have to wait untill I go back there and have a closer look.

The bloke who has a court in his back yard. Which was made from erected cement walls and standard wood flooring, with glass back, said that the entire court cost him $38,000 (Australian). It is apparently a very nice court and the rendering he did himself. He used some adhesive mix in the 2cm of render that is so strong that when he tried to hammer it off the cement trial block, it wouldnt crack and when chiselled, it would take a large amount of cement with it.

When I see him at a tourny next, I'll get the name of the adhesive from him. As it sounds like strong stuff. I'll probably trial it myself.

Thanks,

Sagey

From hamburglar - 12 Feb 2007 - 10:41 - Updated: 12 Feb 2007 - 10:41

There's an outdoor court in Burlington, VT which I believe is concrete floor, slightly angled to allow drainage. A contractor built it, so he absorbed much of the cost, but I think it was cinder block and would have been around $50k to have built. description at squashclub.org.

I bet one of the outdoor sport pads would do the trick for the flooring, as it's waterproof and you can play basketball, tennis, volleball, etc. on them. Plaster might work well for the walls, but if water gets into the court, I don't know how it would hold up.

From Adz - 12 Feb 2007 - 01:43

Sagey,

When you say "appear to be panels" are you talking about the professional show courts? They're made of perspex if memory serves correctly. They sound a little strange if you're only used to playing on traditional brick and breeze-block construction.

I once priced up the costs to building a court for myself and ended up around £15000(GBP) each with professional finishing (floor and walls cost £10000! with £5000 for electrics and base structure).

You're right that it's the walls and floors that cost the most. Floors need to be slightly sprung to prevent from impact injuries (look at how many footballers broke bones in their feet during the dry spell in England last year!), and the walls are finished with a high-impact plaster which can take a beating from the ball (and players Sparty!).

As much as cheap might be appealing, for endurance purposes I'd have to say pay the extra for a professional finish. Who knows you might even get a company that provides a 10 year guarantee on the materials which is certainly longer than a budget court will last!

Adz
p.s. The £15000 was not including any base structure labour costs as I knew builders and an electrician who were prepared to help out as a favour.

From nickhitter - 11 Feb 2007 - 05:44

"I've seen some courts where the walls appear to be panels, but not glass, they seem to be able to handle the impact of the ball quite well"

Don't forget they have to handle the impact of a player aswell! When he is diving for a backwall boast and crashes into the wall!

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