Court Line Marking Decision Checklist

Write down every game that would realistically be played here, keeping the ones people already play separate from the ones somebody hopes might happen.

Aspirational sports add lines that are then never used, and separating the two lists early is what keeps the finished surface readable.

Record the standard of play for each game, from casual family use through club training to league fixtures, and note who told you that.

What markings a particular standard of play calls for is set by the relevant governing body, and only they can confirm what applies to your court.

Decide and record which single game the court is primarily for, and note who made that decision and on whose behalf they made it.

A court that is equally for everything usually serves nobody well, and the priority question is answered better now than by whoever paints first.

Note roughly how often each game is played here compared with the others, drawing on your booking notes or your own memory rather than on hopes.

Relative use is the argument that settles most marking disputes, and it is far more persuasive when it was written down before the disagreement.

Write down whether coaching, group sessions or organised practice happen here, since these often want markings that casual play never needs.

Coaching use drives requests for practice lines and target areas, and it is easier to allow for them now than to add them to a finished surface.

Ask the people who use the court now what they would want marked, and record their answers before the layout is drawn up.

Regular users typically discover marking decisions when they arrive to play, and a short conversation beforehand prevents most of the complaints.

Ask the surfacing specialist and the relevant governing body whether the games you have listed can share this area at the standard you have described.

Whether a court area suits a given game at a given standard is confirmed by the relevant governing body and a qualified specialist, never assumed.

Ask how many sets of markings can sit on one surface before it becomes hard to read, and treat the answer as advice from people who see the result often.

Specialists watch players struggle with crowded layouts, so their view on how much a surface can carry is worth more than a drawing that fits everything.

Decide which game keeps the clearest and strongest markings if a compromise has to be made, and record that decision in writing.

Somebody has to lose something in a shared layout, and deciding who in advance turns an argument on the day into a documented choice.

Ask whether any line could serve more than one game, and whether doing so carries any consequence for either of them during play.

Shared lines reduce clutter but can cause disputes mid-game, so the trade is worth understanding before anything is applied.

Note that players regularly call the wrong line in a crowded layout, and ask what the specialist does to make the priority sport unmistakable.

Making one sport obviously dominant is a design technique rather than an accident, and it has to be requested while the layout is still on paper.

Consider asking whether the proposed layout could be set out temporarily with tape or chalk and played on before anything permanent is applied to the surface.

A temporary set-out answers questions that no drawing settles, and it is far easier to alter than a finished surface.

Note the colour of the surface being marked, since the same line colour reads quite differently against different backgrounds.

Contrast is between line and surface, so the surface decision usually has to be settled before markings can be discussed sensibly at all.

Visit a court finished in the same way and look at its markings from the baseline, in bright sun and in poor light if you can manage both.

Seeing a finished surface in use answers more than any sample, and it is the only way to judge how a layout reads at playing speed.

Ask which line colours the specialist would keep well apart in a multi-sport layout, and record what they say rather than choosing by taste.

Colour pairings that look confident on a plan can be hard to separate in play, and specialists know which combinations cause trouble.

Ask the relevant governing body whether it has anything to say about marking colours for the standard of play you have described.

Marking colours and layouts for competitive play are matters for the relevant governing body, which should be asked directly about your court.

Note how the court is lit and whether it faces low sun or reflected glare, and ask how markings behave in those conditions when the surface is wet.

Wet surfaces and low sun are when lines disappear, and those are exactly the conditions nobody looks at before choosing colours.

Ask whether any proposed colour combination would be difficult for players who see colour differently, and record the reply you are given.

Colour vision differences are common enough that a court used by many people benefits from the question being raised at design stage.

Write down whether children play here, roughly what ages, and whether any club or coach runs organised sessions for them on this court.

Junior formats often use markings of their own, and the request for them tends to arrive only once sessions actually begin.

Ask the relevant governing body and your coaching staff what smaller-format markings exist for the games you listed, and whether they would be used here.

Which junior or small-format markings apply is confirmed by the relevant governing body, and is never chosen from what looks reasonable.

Ask whether junior formats could be set out with portable equipment or temporary markings instead of permanent lines, and what that involves in practice.

Temporary set-outs keep a surface uncluttered, but somebody has to put them out and take them in, which is the part that decides whether it works.

Note whether coaches want target areas, practice boxes or drill markings, and ask the specialist what adding them would do to the overall layout.

Coaching marks are small individually and crowded collectively, so they are worth weighing as a group rather than one request at a time.

Decide who speaks to the coaching staff or the club before the layout is fixed, and record what was asked for and what was agreed.

Coaches are usually asked after the decision rather than before it, which is how a court ends up unsuited to the sessions it hosts most often.

Ask whether any user group has particular needs the layout should take account of, and route that question to a qualified professional and the governing body.

Provision for players with particular needs is a matter for qualified professionals and the relevant governing body, and must not be settled by assumption.

Ask how the markings would be applied to the surface you are choosing, and whether they sit within the surface or on top of it.

The method governs how markings wear, how they are renewed and whether they can ever be removed, so it is worth understanding in plain terms.

Find out which lines wear first on this kind of surface and why, then note the answer against the way your own court is actually used.

Wear follows footfall, so the lines that go first are predictable, and knowing which they are makes renewal something you plan rather than react to.

Ask whether marked areas feel different underfoot from the rest of the surface, particularly when wet, and how that varies with the method used.

Whether a surface and its markings are suitable for play in given conditions is for the surfacing specialist and a qualified professional to advise on.

Note that markings need renewing, and establish what that involves on this surface and what has to happen to the court while the work is carried out.

Renewal takes a court out of use, and knowing what it involves lets you plan around fixtures instead of being caught out by them.

Ask what weather conditions the marking work needs and what notice you would have if it had to be postponed at short notice.

Marking is weather-dependent work, and a postponed visit matters far more when a court has already been booked for an event.

Request whatever the specialist who applies the markings puts in writing about them, and keep that document with the rest of your court records.

Any statement about how markings will perform belongs to the specialist who supplies them and should be obtained in writing rather than verbally.

Ask what removing or moving a line would involve on the surface you are choosing, and whether any trace of the old line would remain visible.

Removed lines often leave a ghost that shows for a long time, and knowing that changes how carefully the first layout is agreed.

Consider whether another sport might be added later, and ask what that would mean once the surface has already been marked and played on.

Adding a sport later is a different job from including it at the start, and the difference is worth knowing while the first decision is still open.

Note that a resurfacing is usually the natural moment to change a layout, and ask what would be involved if you waited for that instead.

Timing a marking change to coincide with resurfacing avoids doing similar work twice, and it is a question worth asking at the outset.

Ask for a drawing of the layout as it was actually set out, and keep it with your court records for whoever handles the next renewal.

The set-out drawing is what a future contractor needs, and it is nearly always lost somewhere between one committee and the next.

Ask the specialist to write down the marking materials and colours used, so that a repair or a renewal can match rather than approximate.

Patch repairs that do not match are permanent reminders of a missing record, and the information is easy to obtain while the crew is still on site.

Decide and record who is entitled to agree a change to the markings, so that a single user request cannot quietly repaint the court.

Marking changes are easy to request and hard to reverse, so naming the person who decides protects the layout everyone else agreed to.

Ask the relevant governing body to confirm in writing what applies to your court for the games and the standard of play you have described.

Only the relevant governing body can state what its own requirements are, and its answer should be in hand before markings are set out.

Decide and record whether this court is ever intended to host organised fixtures, since that single answer changes who has to be asked what.

Competitive use is the trigger for governing body involvement, so an honest answer here determines how much confirming the project needs.

Ask the specialist to confirm on site that the games you listed can be set out in the area available, before any surfacing is ordered.

Whether the area available suits the games listed is established on site by the surfacing specialist and the relevant governing body.

Note which way the court faces and ask whether the intended layout is affected by that, since orientation and markings are too often discussed separately.

Layout and orientation interact, and the two conversations usually happen with different people at different times without anyone joining them up.

Ask how net posts, sockets and any goal positions relate to the markings, and who is coordinating the two so that they agree on the ground.

Markings and equipment positions are frequently handled by different trades, which is exactly how a net ends up out of line with the paint.

Agree who looks over the marking drawing before work starts, and record their comments in writing rather than letting silence stand as agreement.

A drawing nobody was asked to read is a drawing nobody checked, and the errors it contains are discovered on a surface that is already finished.