Court Maintenance Planning Preparation Checklist

Ask the specialist contractor to describe in writing what routine care this particular surface expects, rather than relying on what was said in passing on site.

Care routines differ between surface families and even between products within one family, so a written description tied to what was actually laid is the only version worth keeping.

What a specific surface needs is described by the specialist contractor or the surface supplier; upkeep advice found elsewhere may not apply to yours at all.

Write down what you are told about cleaning, and ask separately what should never be used on this surface or near it.

The list of things to avoid usually matters more than the list of things to do, and it is rarely offered unless somebody asks for it directly.

Which cleaning methods and materials suit a court surface is confirmed with the surface supplier, never carried across from another court.

Ask whether care differs in the early life of a new surface, and note anything described as being different at the start from what follows later.

Several surfaces behave differently when they are new, and instructions given at handover are often the only time this is mentioned.

Ask which parts of the routine need specialist equipment or a specialist visit, and which parts an owner or a club member can reasonably carry out.

Splitting the routine this way early stops a club assuming it can do everything itself, and stops an owner paying attention only to the visible tasks.

Record what the contractor says would happen if a given task were skipped, since that answer tells you which parts of the routine genuinely matter.

Routines get shortened over time, and knowing which task carries a consequence lets the right one survive when effort is short.

Ask what this surface needs that owners commonly do not expect, and write the answer down in the words it was given to you in.

An experienced contractor knows exactly where owners of a given surface come unstuck, and the question invites that knowledge out.

Write a person's name against each upkeep task rather than assigning it to the club, the family or the committee as a whole.

A task owned by an organisation is a task owned by nobody, and this is the single most common reason court upkeep quietly stops.

Decide what happens to the routine when that person is away, moves on or steps down from the committee, and record the arrangement now.

Court upkeep usually collapses at a handover between people rather than through neglect, and naming a successor prevents that gap.

Note which tasks depend on somebody holding a key, a fob or access to a store, and check that the person named actually has them.

A routine that assumes access nobody has been given is a routine that will not happen, however carefully it is written.

Consider whether players are expected to do anything themselves after a session, such as brushing or clearing, and whether that has ever been said out loud.

Expectations of players are usually assumed rather than stated, and an unstated expectation is not one anybody follows.

Record whether an outside contractor is expected to carry out any part of the routine, and who would arrange that and look at the result.

What a maintenance contractor is engaged to do is agreed directly with them in writing; nothing here defines a scope of work or a standard to be met.

Agree in writing how anybody using the court reports a problem, and to whom, so faults do not travel only by word of mouth.

Players notice changes long before anybody responsible does, and most of what they notice is lost because there is nowhere to put it.

Note which trees, hedges and shrubs overhang the court area or sit upwind of it, and what each of them sheds at different points in the season.

Leaf fall is only part of it; blossom, seed, needles, sap and berries all reach a court and each behaves differently on a surface.

Record where leaves and debris come to rest once they land, since they gather in the same corners and against the same fence panels every time.

Knowing the collecting points turns a vague clearing task into a short and specific one that somebody will actually do.

Note whether the court area sits in shade for much of the time, and whether green growth already appears on paved areas nearby.

Damp and shaded surfaces elsewhere on the site are a fair indication of what a court in the same position may do.

Whether growth on a court surface can be treated, and with what, is for the surface supplier or a specialist contractor to advise rather than for trial.

Record any bird roosting, nesting or perching above or beside the court area, including along the fence line and on any lighting columns.

Birds create a persistent and unpleasant upkeep task that is entirely predictable from where they already sit.

Note whether soil, sand, grass clippings or gravel get walked or blown onto the surface, and identify where each is coming in from.

Loose material on a court is a nuisance underfoot and can affect the surface itself, and the source is usually a short distance away.

Consider whether anything nearby drips, sprays or discharges onto the court area, such as an overflow, a downpipe or an irrigation head.

Where water and discharge from the rest of the site end up is a question for a qualified drainage professional before it becomes a surface problem.

Record where the surface wears first, such as the service areas, the ground behind a baseline or the spot everyone stands on to serve.

Wear follows the pattern of play, so the worn places tell a specialist how the court is really used as well as what state it is in.

Note any place where the surface has lifted, cracked, opened at a joint or feels different underfoot, and photograph it from the same position each time.

A dated photograph from a fixed position shows whether something is moving or spreading far more convincingly than a description, and the record builds up on its own.

Record how the surface behaves after heavy rain, including anywhere water now sits that did not sit there before.

A change in how water behaves is one of the earliest signals that something below or around the court has altered.

A change in how a court sheds water is reported to the installing contractor and a qualified drainage professional rather than diagnosed from what you can see.

Note whether the playing characteristics have changed, such as the bounce, the grip underfoot or the sound the surface makes.

Players usually register these changes long before anything is visible, which makes their comments a genuine early warning.

Write down when you first noticed each of these things, so the sequence is available to whoever looks at the court later.

The order in which problems appeared often matters more than their present state when somebody is trying to work out a cause.

Ask the contractor which early signs are worth reporting straight away rather than watching, and keep that short list with your upkeep record.

Some changes are cosmetic and some are not, and only the people who laid the surface can tell you which is which.

Record any repair already carried out on the court by anybody, including who did it and what was used, even if the work looks minor.

Earlier repairs affect what can be done next, and an undocumented patch is a genuine obstacle for whoever works on the court afterwards.

List the equipment the routine assumes, such as a brush, a drag, a blower or a powered machine, and note what already exists on the site.

Writing this list before agreeing a routine exposes the tasks that quietly depend on something nobody has.

Decide where upkeep equipment would be stored, and whether it can be brought onto the court without crossing anything that would be damaged on the way.

Equipment kept somewhere awkward stops being used, and the store position is easier to settle before everything else is fixed.

Note whether there is water at or near the court area, how far a hose would have to reach and whether anybody has tried it.

Whether a water supply may be extended to a court area, and how, is confirmed with a qualified professional and the relevant supply provider.

Record whether power is available near the court for any equipment that needs it, and where the nearest point actually is.

Any electrical supply at or near a court is designed and installed by a suitably qualified electrical professional and confirmed locally.

Ask what sort of machine this surface and this entrance can take, and treat the answer as the contractor's rather than something to judge yourself.

What may be driven, dragged or parked on a court surface is confirmed with the specialist contractor, since the wrong machine can mark a surface quickly.

Note whether the gate, the path or a step between the store and the court would stop a machine reaching the surface at all.

A single step or a narrow gate can make a whole method of upkeep impossible, and it is trivial to check by walking the route.

List the parts around the court that will need attention, such as the fence, gates, posts, nets, seating, storage and any signage.

Naming them turns a vague sense of upkeep into a list somebody can be given responsibility for.

Note who takes nets down and puts them back up, and where nets are kept while they are off the court.

Nets left out when they should not be, or bundled somewhere damp, deteriorate faster than anything else on a court site.

Record where drainage channels, gullies and grates sit around the court, and name who is expected to clear each of them.

Blocked channels are a common cause of water appearing on a court that drained perfectly well before.

Blocked or damaged channels are looked at by a qualified drainage professional; nothing here says what clearing a court drainage system involves.

Ask who is expected to clean, check or replace anything on a lighting installation, and how access to it would be gained.

Work on or near lighting columns and fittings is carried out by suitably qualified professionals, and access arrangements are agreed with them beforehand.

Note whether gates, latches and hinges are already stiff, dropping or catching, since these tend to fail long before anything else does.

A gate that no longer closes undoes the purpose of an enclosure, and the early signs are obvious to anybody using it.

Record whether the paths and the ground immediately around the court are part of the same routine or have simply been left out of it.

The edges are where weeds, silt and loose material start, and they reach the playing surface from there.

Decide where the upkeep record is kept and who can reach it, so it does not live only in one person's notebook or on a single phone.

A record nobody else can find is lost the moment the person keeping it stops being involved.

Note in the record what was actually done and by whom on each occasion, rather than only what the routine says should have happened.

The gap between the planned routine and the real one is exactly what a specialist needs to see when something goes wrong.

Keep the contact details of the original contractor, the surface supplier and anybody who has worked on the court since it was laid.

Tracing who laid a surface becomes surprisingly hard once a committee or a household has changed.

Store the aftercare instructions with the record, and note whether they were given verbally or in writing and by whom.

Instructions given on site and never written down are the most commonly lost part of a court project.

Note which tasks keep slipping, since a routine nobody follows is better redesigned honestly than repeated in the hope it improves.

Recording what does not happen is more useful than recording what should, and it points at where help is genuinely needed.

Note where somebody new to the court would look first for this record, and put a short summary at the front of it saying what it contains.

A record with no summary is read by nobody new, and the people who most need it are the ones who were not there while it was being written.