Sports Court Project Preparation Checklist

Write down which sport the court is mainly for, and whether the play would be casual, coached, club level or organised competition.

The standard of play changes what the governing body expects, what a specialist contractor proposes and which questions matter, so it belongs at the very front of the brief.

Note whether matches played here would ever form part of a league, tournament or affiliated fixture, since that usually brings the governing body into the conversation early.

What an affiliated or sanctioned court involves is for the relevant governing body to state and should never be assumed from general description.

Record whether the court is intended as a permanent feature of the site or as something to be reviewed as the group changes, and note who made that call.

A court expected to last is specified and looked after quite differently from one treated as provisional, and the two intentions pull in opposite directions.

Decide and write down who the court is genuinely for: one household, a named club, an invited group, members of a site, or anyone who arrives.

Who may use the court shapes access, keys, supervision and insurance questions, and it is much easier to state now than to restrict once people are used to playing.

Note where these players currently play and what about that arrangement started the project, whether travel, availability, condition or the standard of the surface.

The problem being solved is the clearest test of any proposal, and stating it plainly stops a project drifting into something nobody actually needed.

List any other sport somebody has already suggested might use the same court, even if you do not intend to allow it.

Additional sports arrive after a court is built rather than before, and knowing which ones are likely lets you raise them while everything is still a question.

Walk the area and write down everything on it now, including trees, hedges, made-up ground, old bases or foundations, stored materials and spoil left from earlier work.

Buried remains of previous structures are one of the most common surprises on court projects, and anything visible above ground is a hint worth recording.

Photograph the area from each corner, from any window that overlooks it and from the approach, and note the date each set of photographs was taken.

Dated photographs let a professional see the site in the condition you described it, and they become the only record once ground is stripped.

Note roughly which way the ground appears to fall, and mark any part that stays soft or wet long after rain has stopped.

Levels, falls and what they mean for a court are for a qualified professional to establish on site and must not be judged from appearance alone.

Record what sits immediately beyond each edge of the area: a boundary, hedge, ditch, road, watercourse, neighbouring building, car park or open land.

What surrounds a court decides most of the containment, drainage and neighbour questions, and it is routinely left out of an owner description.

Mark on your sketch any drain cover, access chamber, overhead cable, pole, marker post, hydrant or manhole on or crossing the area.

Buried and overhead services must be traced and confirmed by the relevant utility and a qualified professional before any excavation is planned.

Write down what the land was used for before, if you know, including whether it was ever filled, farmed, quarried, built on or used to store material.

Previous use often explains what a contractor finds when digging starts, and telling them early is far better than discovering it together.

Record the hours of the day the court would most often be in use, and note which of those fall outside daylight in the darker part of the year.

The gap between wanted playing hours and available daylight is what makes lighting a live question, and it can be described precisely without any technical knowledge.

Note the largest number of players and companions you would expect on and around the court at one time, without drawing any conclusion about what the site can hold.

How many people a court and its surroundings can safely take is for qualified professionals and the relevant authority to consider, never for an owner to decide.

Write down whether people would wait, warm up, coach or watch beside the court while others play, and mark where you imagine them standing.

Space beside a court is almost always underestimated, and the strip where people gather is the part that gets worn, muddy or congested first.

Consider whether coaching sessions, junior groups or school use would run on the court, and note who would supervise and who arranges it.

Organised sessions change the questions about equipment, storage, access and supervision, and they are easier to plan for than to retrofit.

Record how players would arrive, on foot, by bicycle or by car, and where vehicles, bags and equipment would be left while play is going on.

Arrival and parking are the parts of a court project most often left until last, and they are frequently what neighbours notice before anything else.

Note whether anyone from outside the household or club would use the court, and how that would be arranged, supervised and unlocked.

Deciding early who holds keys and who books time avoids an awkward conversation once a court exists and everyone assumes it is available.

List the surface types you have seen elsewhere and want to ask about, and record each as a question about suitability here rather than as a preference already settled.

Which surface suits a given sport, standard of play and site is for a specialist contractor and the relevant governing body to advise on.

Ask a specialist contractor what they need to know about the ground before they will comment on any surface at all, and gather exactly that.

Arriving with the information the specialist actually uses shortens the conversation considerably and stops the discussion running on assumptions.

Note how water leaves the area now, then ask where it is expected to go once a large firm surface sits where soft ground used to be.

Drainage design for a court, and where water may be discharged, are matters for qualified professionals and must be confirmed with your local authority.

Write down which parts of the area are shaded, by what, and for how much of the day, since shaded surfaces dry slowly and behave differently underfoot.

Shade and slow drying drive both playability and upkeep, and a professional can only allow for it if somebody has recorded where it falls.

Ask what each surface option would be like here in heavy rain, in frost and in strong sun, and write the answers down in the words you were given.

Court surfaces are usually compared on appearance and rarely on how they behave in the conditions a site actually gets, which is where regret comes from.

Ask what preparation of the existing ground each option assumes, and whether anything you have described about this site would change that assumption.

Excavation, sub-base and construction below a court are engineering matters for qualified professionals and specialist contractors only.

Note where the sun rises and sets relative to the area and at which hours low sun would fall along the length of a court.

Low sun in a player line of sight is one of the few faults that cannot be fixed afterwards, and an owner can record the sun path without any instrument.

Ask a specialist contractor and the relevant governing body what orientation guidance applies to your sport and standard of play on a site shaped like yours.

Orientation guidance comes from the relevant governing body and specialist designers, and varies by sport, latitude, level of play and site constraints.

Decide and record whether play after dark is essential to the project or merely desirable, and note who in the group holds each view.

Lighting changes what has to be confirmed locally and what a court involves, so it is worth knowing early whether the project survives without it.

Put anything to do with how a court would be lit, and how power would reach it, on the list for a qualified electrical engineer rather than settling it within the group.

Nothing about how a court is lit should be settled from a checklist; that work belongs to suitably qualified professionals and is confirmed locally.

Note every window, garden, road, footpath and open field from which the court would be visible, and photograph the view back towards the site from each.

The view towards a court is what neighbours and the local authority will react to, and photographs from their side of the boundary make that conversation concrete.

Consider how surface colour, fencing and surrounding planting might affect glare and visibility, and raise it as a question rather than settling it yourself.

Colour and background matter more on a court than on most surfaces because players track a moving ball against them all session.

Write down every party with a possible interest: the relevant governing body, the local authority, a landlord or freeholder, a site owner, a lender and your insurer.

Listing the parties early shows which conversations must happen before others, which is usually the difference between a smooth project and a stalled one.

Ask the relevant governing body what it expects for the sport and standard of play you have described, and record the answer in the words they give you.

Governing body expectations vary by sport, level of play and country, and only that body itself can state what applies to the court you have in mind.

Confirm with your local authority what consent or notification, if any, applies to a court, its enclosure and any lighting in your particular setting.

Whether consent is needed for a court, a fence or lighting depends entirely on local rules and must be confirmed with your local authority.

Note whether the land carries any covenant, tenancy, lease, shared ownership arrangement or grant condition, and gather the paperwork that would say so.

The meaning of a covenant, lease or grant condition is a legal question for a suitably qualified adviser, not something to interpret from the wording alone.

Ask your insurer what they would need to know about a court being built and then used on this site, and keep their reply with the project notes.

Insurance implications of a court and its use are for your insurer and a qualified adviser to set out for your specific arrangement.

Record who in the household, club or committee may agree things, and who has to be consulted first, so nobody commits to a decision they cannot make.

Clubs in particular lose time when a professional is briefed by somebody without authority, and the correction usually damages goodwill as well as progress.

Walk the route from the public road to the area and note the narrowest point, along with gates, arches, bollards, steps, soft verges and low branches.

Access governs what plant can reach a site and is one of the first things a specialist contractor asks about, so having it described saves a wasted visit.

Write down whether machinery would have to cross lawn, a drive, a pitch, a car park or land belonging to somebody else, and who would have to agree to that.

Permission to cross land you do not control is a legal matter to settle in writing with the owner before any work is arranged.

Note where excavated material could be placed on site or whether all of it would have to leave, since a court usually generates far more than owners expect.

Spoil handling changes the shape of the work and the state of the site, and an early answer prevents an unwelcome heap appearing beside a finished court.

Record where materials and plant could be stored, whether that area can be kept secure, and what would be visible or reachable from outside the site.

Storage and security are practical constraints on a shared or open site, and they are easier to arrange before a contractor arrives than during the work.

Consider what else uses the site while work is going on, including pitches, parking, a garden, a school day or deliveries, and note what would have to pause.

Disruption to existing use is the complaint that most often reaches a committee, and naming it in advance turns it into a planned inconvenience.

Ask what water and power a contractor expects to find on site, and note what is actually available and who would need to arrange the rest.

Assumed services are a routine source of friction, and confirming what exists is a simple owner task that removes it entirely.

Record who would sweep, clear leaves, check the enclosure and deal with growth around the edges, and how willing that person honestly is to keep doing it.

Named upkeep gets done and unnamed upkeep does not, which should influence which surface and enclosure options are even worth discussing.

Ask each specialist what routine attention their surface expects, what it needs seasonally, and what is likely to shorten its playable life on this site.

Upkeep requirements come from the surface manufacturer and the installing contractor, and should be obtained in writing for the surface actually proposed.

Consider what players would do when the court is out of use for repair or weather, and note whether that is acceptable to the group.

Courts spend some part of the year unavailable, and a group that has thought about it beforehand tends to accept it far better.

Decide who looks at the surface, fixings and enclosure regularly and who they report concerns to, so problems are noticed rather than discussed later.

Any concern about a fixing, post, fence or surface defect should be referred to a qualified professional rather than acted on by an owner or volunteer.

Note where the surface information, equipment details and contractor contacts would be kept, and who would still know where they are after the committee changes.

Court paperwork disappears with the person who ran the project, and the loss is only noticed when the surface first needs attention.