Pouring a new slab for your court
The slab spec to hand your concreter — thickness, mesh, level tolerance, fall, cure time and sizing — plus the questions worth agreeing on before the pour.
A new slab is the gold-standard base: dead flat, draining, and sized to your court down to the millimetre. You don't need to know concrete — you just need to hand your concreter the right numbers. Here they are.
| Element | Specification |
|---|---|
| Thickness | 100 mm |
| Reinforcement | F72 steel mesh |
| Finish | Smooth trowel finish. Not a broom or float finish — the tiles sit flat on it |
| Fall | A gentle 0.5–1% for drainage, minimum |
| Expansion cuts | Yes. They control where the slab cracks, and they help water run off rather than pool |
| Level tolerance | Within 3–5 mm |
| Cure before tiles | At least 72 hours |
| Size | Your court's design dimensions plus 5–10 mm all round |
| Recessing the court | Drop the slab 15 mm below any adjoining surface, so the finished court sits flush with it |
Two of those are worth insisting on, because they are cheap at the pour and impossible afterwards. A smooth trowel finish matters because the tiles rest on the slab rather than bonding to it, so a broom or float finish leaves them sitting on a texture instead of flat. And 15 mm is the tile height: if the court runs up to a path, a deck or an existing slab, dropping the pour by that much is the difference between a court that finishes flush and one that stands proud of everything around it.
Size it off your spec sheet
Every design generates a spec sheet PDF with the exact overall dimensions — including the edging. That document is written to be handed straight to your concreter, so neither of you is converting tile counts on the back of an envelope.
Worth agreeing before the pour
- ✓Fall direction — away from the house and towards existing drainage
- ✓Hoop footing — if a pole-mounted hoop is in the plan, pour its footing the same day, positioned behind the baseline so the backboard overhangs the court (the hoop's manual specifies the footing size)
- ✓Expansion cuts — ask for them. A slab this size will crack somewhere, and cuts decide where: in a straight line you chose rather than across the middle of your key. They also give surface water somewhere to run
- ✓Recessing — if the court meets a path, a deck or an existing slab, pouring 15 mm low means the finished court finishes flush with it instead of standing proud of it. That is a decision made at the pour and very expensive to change afterwards
- ✓Tie-ins to existing paths — your concreter's craft, but tell them the court is a floating tile surface, not a bonded one
What does a slab cost?
It varies genuinely — by region, access, site prep and size — so any number we print would be wrong for half the people reading it. Get two local quotes with the spec sheet in hand; the spec above is standard residential work for any concreter.
Design your court — see the live price
Pick your sport, size, colours and lines — the exact price updates as you build, at $49/m².
Design your court →Prefer it on paper? Download the brochure (PDF)