How to Set-up an Outdoor Pickleball Court

Pickleball’s popularity has been gaining in intensity over the past few years, especially in Canada and the US. Many people have developed a new found love for the sport that has been around since the 1960s and recent research has shown that people are looking to build more pickleball courts to accommodate the game’s growth. The good news is, that it is not extremely difficult to do so! 

As long as you follow the following guidelines, you can set up a pickleball court in your community, sporting complex, and maybe even in your backyard. 

Tips for Building an Outdoor Pickleball Court

• Use suitable materials: The first thing to keep in mind when setting up an outdoor court is that it has to be durable and remain flat. You shouldn’t use materials that will cause the court to become sticky or melt under the hot summer sun, porous enough to soak up moisture and melted snow, or buckle and become uneven. Using concrete or asphalt for the court's surface will guarantee durability for all kinds of weather. 
  
  Concrete is relatively cheaper to maintain than asphalt, but they are both affordable to build/install, and are both excellent choices for an outdoor pickleball court. Regardless of the material you are buying, it is essential to consider the conditions that it will experience before choosing it. 

• Use the appropriate dimensions: If you’re building the court strictly for recreational games, you don’t necessarily have to follow the standard dimensions, but if it's for serious and competitive matches, you must. A standard pickleball court must be 20 feet wide and 44 feet long. The non-volley zone has to be 14 feet in the middle of the court (7 feet on each side of the net). 
  
  You must also mark the service areas and quartet lines with a two-inch wide white paint line. The area outside the lines needs to be at least 30 by 60 feet wide, to provide adequate room for serving and chasing down balls at the back and sides.
  
  If you don’t have quite enough room for a full-size pickleball court, there is a Half Court Pickleball (also known as Skinny Singles) version of the game. The game is basically the same, but you can only play singles, and the required court width is 10 feet instead of 20.

• Get the necessary equipment: It goes without saying, but you need a net. Some additional nice-to-have pieces of equipment, include things like perimeter fencing that helps keep balls from wandering too far from the court, lighting to help with visibility when playing in the evening, benches, outposts, curtains, windscreens, and more (though none of those are really must-haves). 

In Conclusion 

Thinking about building your own pickleball court? Let us help you out with a new net! Check out our selection of pickleball nets here: pickleball nets.

And check out our “Team Pickleball” page for more tips, gear, promos, and more - all related to pickleball!