Buckingham Township
Part of Buckingham Township sits on limestone and dolomite, rock that water slowly dissolves. On that ground, a low spot in your court that keeps coming back after patching deserves a closer look.
Local courts
Holicong, Mechanicsville, Forest Grove and Bridge Valley are among Buckingham Township’s villages, and the township shares Furlong with Doylestown Township and Lahaska with Solebury. Doylestown Borough and Township, Plumstead, Solebury, Upper Makefield, Wrightstown and Warwick all border its 33 or so square miles. Ace Court Surfacing serves tennis and pickleball court owners across the township with crack repair and leveling, acrylic resurfacing, color coats and line striping, and pickleball lines on tennis courts. From Holicong to Lahaska, calls go to Bill Ferguson, based here in Bucks County.
Buckingham’s stormwater ordinance names three carbonate rock formations within the township, the Allentown Dolomite, the Beekmantown Group and the Leithsville Formation, and sets extra rules for what it calls the Buckingham Carbonate Valley. It defines karst as a landscape of surface depressions, sinkholes, uneven bedrock, underground drainage and caves. Court trouble can still start in the court itself: the American Sports Builders Association (ASBA) traces birdbaths to causes such as poor compaction, improper slope and paving error, and says repair only reduces the inconvenience. A dip that keeps sinking over carbonate rock may be something else, so have a geologist weigh in before anyone opens a bucket of patch mix.
Local conditions
The USGS says sinkholes typically form so slowly that little change shows, though some open suddenly in a collapse. For karst areas, Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) lists warning signs that include a depression appearing after heavy rain or the spring thaw, or reappearing after it’s filled. If a low spot on your court does that, chalk its outline and have it assessed before more patch goes in.
An inch of rain on a 60 by 120 foot tennis court is nearly 4,500 gallons, and all of it goes somewhere. Pennsylvania DEP lists concentrated water flow, from storm drains and swales, among sinkhole triggers. Buckingham’s ordinance names the ponds that form after heavy rain in closed depressions, old sinkholes partly filled with soil: ghost lakes, which may not be regraded. Trace where your court’s runoff goes.
By 1981–2010 averages, Buckingham’s nights drop below freezing from December through March, with March lows still at 30.7°F, while afternoons climb above freezing. Pennsylvania DEP counts freeze and thaw of the ground among sinkhole causes. Once the frost is out, walk the court and its edges: new cracks, old fills that have opened again, any dip that wasn’t there in October. Mark them before coating season.
Start here
A flood test shows where water stands. In the usual repair, cracks take acrylic crack filler and low spots are leveled with acrylic patch mix. Over Buckingham’s carbonate valley, a dip that keeps coming back deserves a geologist’s look before another layer.
Blended lines bring pickleball to the tennis court you already own: usually two courts, lined in a lighter or darker shade of the court’s color, with the tennis net left up and no new pavement for Buckingham’s stormwater ordinance to count.
When the ground under your court holds steady and only the surface has worn, resurfacing rebuilds the top in the usual order: a wash, cracks filled, low spots patched, acrylic resurfacer, sand-textured color coats, then new lines.
It can be. The ASBA notes that acrylic patch binders may shrink as they dry, so even a skilled contractor may need several trips to fine-tune a repair, and that low spots from poor compaction can return as the base settles further. In a karst area, though, Pennsylvania DEP lists a depression that keeps reappearing after it’s filled among sinkhole signs. If yours keeps deepening, have a geologic or engineering professional assess it before anyone patches it again. Talk its patch history over with Bill: 215-251-2984.
Ask the township, then a geologist. Buckingham’s stormwater ordinance identifies the township’s carbonate formations from a 1985 Bucks County Planning Commission study of the Buckingham and Durham carbonate valleys, and it applies extra rules in the Buckingham Carbonate Valley. Pennsylvania’s Department of Conservation and Natural Resources advises property owners to learn their area’s geology and their property’s history, and it names geologists and local municipalities among the sources to ask. Find out before you plan new paving, drains or a pickleball pad.
Yes. Blended lines usually fit two pickleball courts on a tennis court; the tennis net stays up, and pickleball uses portable nets. A separate pad is new pavement, and Buckingham’s stormwater ordinance counts it. USA Pickleball’s recommended playing surface for new construction, 34 by 64 feet, is 2,176 square feet, and the township’s small-project worksheet sets its runoff capture at about 435 cubic feet. In the Buckingham Carbonate Valley, every regulated activity needs a stormwater site plan. Settle any pad’s paving and permits first. Call Bill at 215-251-2984.