Court cost

DANMAN

Professional
Does anyone know ballpark cost of a home claytech court? Has anyone played on one recently?

I am contemplating installing one but haven’t seen much in the way of threads here in a while with the search function.
 
It's one of those things where if you have to ask, you can't afford it...

Seriously though, it's gonna be expensive. I have no idea what a claytech would fetch, but I do know that my local club is about to get 4 new clay courts, and the budget for that is in the millions...

Best bet is to hook yourself up with a manufacturer/distributor; In fact, a quick google search reveals a couple makers that do not show prices but have inquiry forms. Maybe start from there.
 

esgee48

G.O.A.T.
Clay courts require that the substrates be properly installed. It is not as simple as digging - flattening an area of dirt, then dumping clay bases to have a court. The costs will depend on where the court will be located, drainage, and what types of soil will be there. With HCs, these same issues exist, but once the base is prepared, they only need a concrete pad and base costs of paint.
 

hadoken

Professional
I have an older hardcourt and I looked into Claytech when I needed to resurface it...it was probably $50-$100K to Claytech. Claytech itself is pretty simple...you just need a hardcourt to start with which means building a court. I have heard about $100K for a good court so all in I would say $150K-$200K for a Claytech court from scratch.
 

gbgTennis

New User
I'm not sure if there is a substantial difference between prices for claycourts in the US and Europe, but numbers you give are miles off, at least in Europe.
The price for tennis courts differs greatly ofcourse, because a big part of it is digging and ground work. But if you have decent soil, and don't have to dig into the bedrock, then prices here in europe are around 40k € for a new court. Getting a claycourt redone, which you should do every 10-15 years, usually is ~15-20k €.

Those were the prices when I was involved in my clubs effort to build new courts, and renew the old ones. That was around 10 years ago, so prices may have changed a little since then - but NOWHERE near the hundred thousands.

edit:
I've just looked up ClayTech, and from what I can see it's build similarly to a regular hardcourt. So that should make things a lot cheaper still.
Hardcourts usually cost between 20-30k €, if you don't have to do some extensive landscaping.


Take all that with a grain of salt however. Prices between EU and US may actually vary quite a bit
 

Jack the Hack

Hall of Fame
I'm not sure if there is a substantial difference between prices for claycourts in the US and Europe, but numbers you give are miles off, at least in Europe.
The price for tennis courts differs greatly ofcourse, because a big part of it is digging and ground work. But if you have decent soil, and don't have to dig into the bedrock, then prices here in europe are around 40k € for a new court. Getting a claycourt redone, which you should do every 10-15 years, usually is ~15-20k €.

Those were the prices when I was involved in my clubs effort to build new courts, and renew the old ones. That was around 10 years ago, so prices may have changed a little since then - but NOWHERE near the hundred thousands.

edit:
I've just looked up ClayTech, and from what I can see it's build similarly to a regular hardcourt. So that should make things a lot cheaper still.
Hardcourts usually cost between 20-30k €, if you don't have to do some extensive landscaping.


Take all that with a grain of salt however. Prices between EU and US may actually vary quite a bit

Thank you for that. I was thinking the exact same thing in terms of cost. No way a single outdoor court (clay or otherwise) costs $100k. That club that is spending "millions" for 4 clay courts is getting ripped off (unless that includes purchasing more land, unusually extensive site preparation, or a fancy indoor structure).

It's not Claytech, but I know a local player who had a single indoor hard court built on his property. It's a regular sized court inside of an insulated metal structure with lighting and a small reception area that has a bathroom. I believe he said the total cost was around $125k to build. (He owned the land already and it was relatively flat.)
 
Thank you for that. I was thinking the exact same thing in terms of cost. No way a single outdoor court (clay or otherwise) costs $100k. That club that is spending "millions" for 4 clay courts is getting ripped off (unless that includes purchasing more land, unusually extensive site preparation, or a fancy indoor structure).

It's not Claytech, but I know a local player who had a single indoor hard court built on his property. It's a regular sized court inside of an insulated metal structure with lighting and a small reception area that has a bathroom. I believe he said the total cost was around $125k to build. (He owned the land already and it was relatively flat.)

labor is very expensive here, but the budget of roughly 1.8 millions is indeed not solely spent on the courts. and seeing that local politics are involved I'm guessing that indeed a bunch of people are getting ripped off...
 

gbgTennis

New User
Oh and one more thing:
Building a tennis court is not rocket science. Where I live, there's a guy who runs his tennis "club" as his business, which is very unusualy for germany, where it's usually nonprofit organizations that own the courts.
He build 6 courts in the 90s, and did everything except for excavation and the concrete work himself. As he knew people in the building industry, he said he basically got his 6 courts for pennies, as the actual clay material wasn't really expensive back then - it's getting a lot more expensive now unfortunately.

I'm sure this isn't an option for many people, but if you have the land and are somewhat crafty, everything you need to know to build a clay court, or a hard court for that matter, can be learned from a book or two. And the only machinery you really need is a small excavator. That would certainly make for a neat little summer project ;)
 
D

Deleted member 369227

Guest
Coincidently, I just recently contacted a local company here in Serbia which constructs/builds tennis courts, and asked for rough costs for building a tennis court. Costs vary between ~12.000 EUR to about 30.000 EUR for court surface only (i.e. without lighting, fences, tennis net, benches etc.).

The most affordable and practically maintenance-free surface is the Swedish "Bergo Tennis" court (puzzle-like court made of plastic):

https://www.bergoflooring.com/en/products/bergo-tennis

It is ITF certified, requires absolutely no maintenance, provides great drainage and comes with 15-year warranty. The cost to build it is about ~22-23 EUR per square meter of Bergo plastic "puzzles", plus costs for base surfacing (asphalt or concrete, whatever). If you already have a convenient flat surface, it is practically a do-it-yourself court.

POD%C4%9ABRADY%202008.jpg
 
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2ndServe

Hall of Fame
Coincidently, I just recently contacted a local company here in Serbia which constructs/builds tennis courts, and asked for rough costs for building a tennis court. Costs vary between ~12.000 EUR to about 30.000 EUR for court surface only (i.e. without lighting, fences, tennis net, benches etc.).

The most affordable and practically maintenance-free surface is the Swedish "Bergo Tennis" court (puzzle-like court made of plastic):

https://www.bergoflooring.com/en/products/bergo-tennis

It is ITF certified, requires absolutely no maintenance, provides great drainage and comes with 15-year warranty. The cost to build it is about ~22-23 EUR per square meter of Bergo plastic "puzzles", plus costs for base surfacing (asphalt or concrete, whatever). If you already have a convenient flat surface, it is practically a do-it-yourself court.

POD%C4%9ABRADY%202008.jpg
if you have a flat surface is it basically interlocking pieces you can lay down yourself?
 

Kalin

Legend
Coincidently, I just recently contacted a local company here in Serbia which constructs/builds tennis courts, and asked for rough costs for building a tennis court. Costs vary between ~12.000 EUR to about 30.000 EUR for court surface only (i.e. without lighting, fences, tennis net, benches etc.).

The most affordable and practically maintenance-free surface is the Swedish "Bergo Tennis" court (puzzle-like court made of plastic):

https://www.bergoflooring.com/en/products/bergo-tennis

It is ITF certified, requires absolutely no maintenance, provides great drainage and comes with 15-year warranty. The cost to build it is about ~22-23 EUR per square meter of Bergo plastic "puzzles", plus costs for base surfacing (asphalt or concrete, whatever). If you already have a convenient flat surface, it is practically a do-it-yourself court.

POD%C4%9ABRADY%202008.jpg

Uh, I have played on these and even though I am not religious I'm convinced these are the work of Satan himself. Not a fun surface to play on. And, you still need to have the flat concrete structure.

Otherwise, 12K Euro for a full concrete court doesn't sound too bad. You still need to have the land though and a tennis court needs a surprising amount of land. If you live next to a big city the land will cost you more than the court itself.
 
Uh, I have played on these and even though I am not religious I'm convinced these are the work of Satan himself. Not a fun surface to play on. And, you still need to have the flat concrete structure.

Otherwise, 12K Euro for a full concrete court doesn't sound too bad. You still need to have the land though and a tennis court needs a surprising amount of land. If you live next to a big city the land will cost you more than the court itself.

Yeah after looking at some pictures on bergo tennis, the surface doesn't look too appealing tbh. but I really dig the concept.
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
Coincidently, I just recently contacted a local company here in Serbia which constructs/builds tennis courts, and asked for rough costs for building a tennis court. Costs vary between ~12.000 EUR to about 30.000 EUR for court surface only (i.e. without lighting, fences, tennis net, benches etc.).

The most affordable and practically maintenance-free surface is the Swedish "Bergo Tennis" court (puzzle-like court made of plastic):

https://www.bergoflooring.com/en/products/bergo-tennis

It is ITF certified, requires absolutely no maintenance, provides great drainage and comes with 15-year warranty. The cost to build it is about ~22-23 EUR per square meter of Bergo plastic "puzzles", plus costs for base surfacing (asphalt or concrete, whatever). If you already have a convenient flat surface, it is practically a do-it-yourself court.

POD%C4%9ABRADY%202008.jpg
Unaware water can still be under this surface. One false move, be prepared to hydroplane
 

kimboslice

New User
I've played twice on the Bergo courts before (local park in NJ) and I got to say they are god awful. The plastic is a bit slippery sometimes, but worse, the ball doesn't bounce up high enough, even with new balls. So the trajectory of the game completely changes compared to ANY other surface. I think we hit for about 10 minutes before we decided we were better off walking a bit further to the other courts.
 

Ronaldo

Bionic Poster
I've played twice on the Bergo courts before (local park in NJ) and I got to say they are god awful. The plastic is a bit slippery sometimes, but worse, the ball doesn't bounce up high enough, even with new balls. So the trajectory of the game completely changes compared to ANY other surface. I think we hit for about 10 minutes before we decided we were better off walking a bit further to the other courts.
Not only does the ball not bounce up but the pace increases exponentially with each shot. Like a kill shot that stays low.
 

DANMAN

Professional
Well lots of replies.

I can afford it which is why I’m asking. Don’t want the maintenance of rubico. There are zero cost analyses of claytech and looking back at old searched threads the cost seemed to be 60-80K total.
I am going to reach out to har tru myself. Was interested if anyone had played on them. I do not want artificial turf or tiles. If claytech isn’t cost effective I will go with a post tensioned concrete hard court.
The truth is that there is NO way the membrane costs that much to manufacture and the amount of clay is overall minuscule and the cost for bags is not all that high since that is a price that can be found.
 
D

Deleted member 369227

Guest
if you have a flat surface is it basically interlocking pieces you can lay down yourself?

Yes, interlocking pieces of different colors, including the white lines. I found videos on YouTube - laying it down looks very easy.

However, I see from other posters that they have a bad experience playing on plastic courts. I never played tennis on Bergo Tennis floor, but I played basketball on a similar court and it was absolutely amazing experience, it was NOT slippery - just right amount of traction and predictable ball bounce (but tennis ball is much smaller and faster than basketball ball, though so again - cannot share first hand experience).
 
D

Deleted member 369227

Guest
Not only does the ball not bounce up but the pace increases exponentially with each shot. Like a kill shot that stays low.

Thanks for sharing the experience! I would certainly not invest my money before trying it first hand somewhere. However, are you guys sure that you played precisely on a Bergo produced court? They are not the only producer of such plastic tiles for sport courts, and being European company chances are they have a strong competition in the US.

In other words, having a bad experience with driving a cheap Chinese electric car, doesn't necessarily mean that every electric vehicle sucks :)
 
D

Deleted member 369227

Guest
Otherwise, 12K Euro for a full concrete court doesn't sound too bad. You still need to have the land though and a tennis court needs a surprising amount of land. If you live next to a big city the land will cost you more than the court itself.

12K EUR is for plastic tiles only if you already have a perfectly flat surface underneath. Here in Serbia, only hard court surfacing ("paint") costs pretty much the same and it is possible to choose the court speed (my understanding was that it is even possible to configure the court speed by adding different amounts of quartz-dust in the har-tru "paint").

If you are building a green-field tennis court (clay or hard court), then the price may rise to ~30K EUR (without the price of the land itself, of course).

Hard court paint has a warranty of only two years, and clay requires a very intensive surfacing, drainage and regular maintenance - for private use it is a very demanding surface.
 
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