UTAH'S #1 COURT
+ TRACK + TURF
PROFESSIONAL.

Peeling and bubbling almost always mean the surface failed to bond to the concrete underneath. There are four common causes, and one expensive fix.

• Bad concrete prep. The contractor didn't spend enough time prepping the slab and applying a high-quality sealer before surfacing. This is the #1 cause we see.
• Surfacing in cold weather. The material was applied when it wasn't warm enough to fully cure.
• Rushed coats. Second or third coats applied before the prior coat had fully cured.
• Low-grade materials. Cheap paint and cheap sealer. Also extremely common.

What it takes to fix it the right way: If a court is peeling in one spot, it's almost always peeling everywhere, even where you can't see it yet. Patching and repainting buys a year or two at most. The honest fix is to grind or pressure-wash the entire surface back to bare concrete and start over with proper prep, sealer, and a quality coating system. It costs more up front, but every future resurface is fast and clean because the foundation is finally right. This is why hiring the wrong contractor the first time is the most expensive way to build a court.

For most residential courts: portable (or semi-permanent) nets win. A good portable net plays as well as a permanent one, but it gives you the freedom to switch your court from pickleball to basketball to scooters to sidewalk chalk in under a minute. If you have kids, that flexibility is worth more than you think. It's the difference between a court that gets used every day and one that becomes a source of family arguments.

Portable systems also simplify the build, save you money, eliminate one more place for cracks to start in the slab, and keep your future options open as your family changes.

For country clubs, universities, and public facilities: permanent systems are usually right. The court is purpose-built and doesn't need to flex between uses. We install both and we'll tell you honestly which one fits your project.

Five years ago there were four real court contractors in Utah and Idaho. Today there are dozens of websites, and very little real experience behind most of them. Here are the questions that actually separate the pros from the pretenders:

• How many years have you actually been building courts in Utah? Not how long the website has existed, but how many projects have you actually completed? And, how experienced is the crew coming to do your project.
• What materials do you use, and do they come pre-pigmented or are they mixed on site? Pre-pigmented systems hold color far longer.
• What's your warranty, and will you still be in business to honor it in five years?
• Are they detailed, organized, and clearly trying to help you accomplish your goals? Or are they just trying to close a sale?
• Don't pick on price alone. The lowest bid is almost never the best value, and the most expensive isn't automatically the best either.

One more thing worth knowing. Utah has a local franchise that sells low-cost court paint to anyone who walks in the door with no qualifications, no training, no experience requirements. That's the single biggest reason Utah has so many "court contractors" now, and it's the single biggest reason we get called in to tear out failed courts and start over. If your contractor is using that paint, there's a 90% chance no one ever taught them how to do this work properly. They're figuring it out on your court. And once a bad first surface goes down, we can't just paint over it. We have to grind it off and start from bare concrete. That's the most expensive way to do your court. Ask what brand of materials your contractor uses, and ask why.