Acrlay Court Check
Every worn court looks much the same from the gate. Up close it is one of two very different jobs: a coating that has done its work, or a base that is moving. Ten things you can check yourself, standing on the court, with nothing but your hand and a bucket of water.
Answer what you see, not what you hope. One answer per question; leave a question blank only if it cannot apply to your court.
The court is in good order. Nothing here says it needs rebuilding.
Wash it down once or twice a year, keep the edges clear, and plan a fresh top coat when the colour starts to dull. Re-marking is a small job on a sound surface.
The coating has done its work and is wearing out, but the answers do not point at the base.
Clean and repair, fill the cracks, then a resurfacer followed by fresh colour coats and new lines. This is the ordinary mid-life job on an acrylic court: the surface is renewed, the court is not rebuilt.
Some answers point below the coating. Colour laid over a base that is still moving will crack again in the same places.
The base and the drainage get sorted out first: cracks cut and filled, low spots levelled, water given somewhere to go. Only then does the acrylic go on. A site visit decides how much of it is needed.
More than one answer points at the base or at safety, and a surface coating cannot fix either.
This needs someone on the court. Depending on what is found it can be an overlay on the existing slab, or a new base. Do not let anyone quote you a coating job on these answers without seeing it.
Three of the ten questions override the score. Water standing after rain, crack edges at different heights, and edges washing away are all faults below the coating: any one of them on its own means the court cannot be put right with colour, whatever the other nine answers say. A post that rocks or a rusted-through base is a safety job before it is a surfacing job.
This is a self-check, not a survey. It cannot see the thickness of the slab, the ground under it, or how the court was built, and it does not replace someone standing on the court. Where the answers point at the base, that is exactly what the next step should be.
The court is cleaned, the cracks are cut out and filled, and the surface is brought back with a resurfacer before fresh colour coats and new lines go on. The base is left alone because there is nothing wrong with it.
Our own four layers are described in the court guide, layer by layer and what each one is for.
Colour over a moving base buys a season. What has to happen first is the dull work: cracks opened and filled properly, low spots levelled so water runs off, edges rebuilt where they have washed away.
Only then is it worth putting acrylic on it. If someone quotes you a coating job on a court with standing water and stepped cracks, ask them what they are doing about the water.
Look at what the faults tell you. Worn texture, faded colour, chalking and tired lines are coating faults, and a resurfacing job fixes them. Cracks whose edges sit at different heights, water that stands after rain, and edges washing away are base faults: new colour laid over them will crack again in the same places. The ten-point check on this page separates the two.
There is no single interval. It depends on how much play the court gets, how much sun and rain it takes, and how well the base was built in the first place. Rather than go by years, go by what you can see: when the texture has polished smooth in the play areas, the colour chalks on your hand and the lines have worn thin, the coating has done its work.
A crack can be cut out and filled on its own, but the repair will be a visible line across the court, and the surface around it will not match. That is why crack repair is normally done as the first step of a resurfacing, not as a job by itself.
No. It is ten things you can see standing on the court. It cannot see the thickness of the slab, the ground under it, or how the court was built. Where the answers point at the base, the next step is someone on site, not a number on a web page.
Building a new court instead? Every court size, drawn and dimensioned, or read the court guide. Funding a school or district facility? What the scheme covers.
Last reviewed 8 November 2026.
