Service
A tennis court that has gone pale, chalky or smooth underfoot may still have a sound base under it. In that case only the acrylic on top is worn out, and resurfacing rebuilds it layer by layer, lines included.
Before / after photos coming
Signs it’s time
Acrylic court surfaces wear from the top down. Sun fades the color and leaves it powdery, play wears down the sand texture that sets the pace, and the lines go dull. Resurfacing cleans the court down to firm, well-bonded coating and rebuilds the layers above it: patches and crack filler, acrylic resurfacer, textured color coats to the coating maker’s spec, and new lines. It works on asphalt or concrete, as long as the base underneath is solid.
Resurfacing has a limit, and you should know it before any color goes down. Acrylic coatings can level small low spots, fill light cracks and smooth rough pavement, but they can’t solve a cracked or failing base, and coating makers write their specs for sound ones. If your court has wide or lifting cracks, or depressions half an inch deep or more, start with our tennis court repair page. If it’s only tired on top, this is the job. Not sure which one you have? Call Bill, here in Bucks County, at 215-251-2984 and describe the cracks and low spots you see.
The court looks washed out, and the color has gone pale under years of sun. Sunlight fades painted surfaces over time, and on a court, new color coats are how the color comes back.
Rub a hand or a dark cloth across the court. A dusty film means the coating is chalking: its binder has broken down and loose pigment sits on top. That residue has to be washed off before new coats can bond.
Check the areas that see the most footwork. Spots that feel smooth instead of sandy have lost their texture, and one coating maker warns that texture loss can leave a court playing inconsistent, too fast and slippery.
In a typical resurfacing, thin cracks are cleaned, filled with acrylic crack filler and coated over. Coatings won’t stop structural cracks from coming back, so cracks that keep reopening point to movement in the base below.
The American Sports Builders Association calls it a birdbath when water over 1/16 inch deep, about a nickel’s thickness, still stands after an hour of drying in sunlight at 70°F. Birdbaths hold up play after rain and can stain or peel the surface.
When the baseline has worn gray and players argue over close calls, the lines aren’t doing their job anymore. Lines are normally the last layer of a resurfacing, taped, primed and painted once the color coats have dried.
The process
Every court is different, but the order of an acrylic job isn’t. Here’s the usual sequence, start to finish.
Before any color is mixed, the whole tennis court gets mapped: cracks located, loose or lifting coating marked, shaded corners checked for mildew, and the base judged. A base that needs repair before color is better found at this stage than after the first coat.
The court is washed to strip dirt, chalky residue and any coating that has lost its grip, and mildew in shady corners is treated and rinsed. Acrylic needs a clean, dry, sound surface to bond to, so every later layer depends on this one.
Next comes a flood test: the clean court is flooded and left to drain. Any spot still holding more than 1/16 inch of water is outlined, filled with acrylic patch mix and ground flush. Patch mix can shrink as it dries, so some low spots need a second pass.
Cracks are cleaned out, left to dry and filled with acrylic crack filler pressed in flush. One coating maker’s guide says never to use asphalt-based fillers, hot or cold, on an acrylic court. The goal is a sealed, level line under the new color.
Coating makers specify one or two coats of sand-filled acrylic resurfacer, squeegeed on, depending on how porous the pavement is. It fills surface voids and evens the texture so the color lays down uniformly. On bare concrete, the makers call for roughening and priming before this coat.
Acrylic color mixed with silica sand goes down in the colors you picked, in as many coats as the coating maker’s spec calls for, each drying completely before the next. The size and shape of that sand set the texture and the pace: how quickly the ball comes off the bounce.
Lines are laid out fresh to ITF dimensions, measured to their outside edges: 78 feet long, 36 feet wide for doubles, service lines 21 feet from the net. The usual check for square is each half court’s 53-foot-1-inch diagonal, measured before taping, priming and painting.
The details
01Residential
If your backyard court sits under or beside trees, shade keeps that surface cooler, so coatings cure slower there and mildew settles into the corners; both shape when and how the work gets done. On a home court the choices are all yours: court and surround colors, a faster or slower finish, even pickleball lines alongside the tennis lines. Call Bill at 215-251-2984 to weigh each option for your backyard court.
02Commercial
When a club, school, HOA or township resurfaces a bank of courts at once, every court should play at the same pace. Matching the sand grade and coat count on each court is how that happens. League and school matches need lines laid out to ITF dimensions. Plan the work around your season and the coatings’ 50°F minimum.
FAQ
Some will, in time. Filling a crack seals it and levels it under the new color, but it doesn’t remove whatever opened it. One coating maker’s own guide says its crack filler won’t prevent cracks from reappearing, and USTA guidance says cracking can be slowed, not stopped. If yours are wide, lifting or multiplying, our crack repair page explains what filling can and can’t do for them.
Within limits, yes. Pace comes mostly from the sand in the color coats. One manufacturer’s spec uses coarser sand for its medium-slow surface and adds a sand-free finish coat to make a medium-fast one. The ITF places most acrylic courts in its medium-slow and medium categories. Tell Bill how your players like the ball to come through; the sand grade in the color coats is where that choice gets made.
Yes, and resurfacing is the time to do it, since the color coats go on fresh anyway. You choose from the coating manufacturer’s color chart: one color for the whole court, or one inside the lines and a second for the surround. On color, the ITF’s rule is simple: every line the same color, clearly contrasting with the court.
Dry days in the right temperature band. Coating makers call for air and surface temperatures of at least 50°F and rising, with no rain falling or on the way. Very hot pavement is a limit too: one manufacturer stops at a 130°F surface, another at 140°F. Shaded courts dry slower. USTA Middle States calls April through October the ideal window, weather permitting. Call Bill at 215-251-2984 to talk timing.
Give it a quiet start: during the cure period the coating maker specifies, keep chairs, ball baskets and sprinkler spray off the court. After that, aim irrigation away for good, push standing water off so its dirt doesn’t stain, clear leaves and pine needles before they stain or grow mildew, and scrub with a soft nylon broom. Skip black-soled shoes and bikes; those scuffs don’t come out.