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Shale Court Refurbishment
at Sutton Churches Tennis Club
Research
Before the refurbishment, I researched all the options I could find for our four shale courts. As we were particularly interested in keeping the shale but improving it, I made contact with quite a few clubs with shale courts. I found that, without exception, everyone I spoke to about shale tennis courts was keen to talk about them, keen to help and keen for me to keep them informed on our progress. It was a pleasant experience and there are obviously some real shale-lovers out there!
Clubs with Shale that Helped with our Research
Shale Suppliers that we Researched
Refurbishment Project
Due to the closure of the main shale manufacturers in Britain, clubs with traditional shale courts are finding it harder to get supplies. We decided to refurbish our four shale courts in winter 2003-2004. We eventually sourced our shale from the Italian company Terre Davis through a British supplier, Mr Merrick Howse. If any shale court clubs out there are looking for advice and contacts we would be very happy to help.
After extensive research (contacts below) we decided to undertake the work ourselves. (Contractors with any expertise in the area are a dying breed and extremely expensive - in fact we didn't find any willing to take on the job. Mostly they wanted to replace the courts with a synthetic surface). We would like to express particular thanks to Mark, a groundsman at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, Wimbledon, who was extremely helpful. He visited our club and gave us advice on our courts. We were also lucky enough to be invited to look around the AELTC at their shale courts and maintenance equipment. This help has been invaluable. Photos of the shale court equipment seen from the visit can be seen on our Shale Court Equipment page. The advice from Mark was that the courts were not in a bad condition and certainly would not need to be completely dug-up and relaid.
The Process
On Mark's advice we carried out the following jobs to refurbish the courts:
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Brushed off all the top level shale which contained impurities and stones. Shale was also far too thick in places. We did not need to brush off as far down as the clinker.
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Removed any clinker which had worked its way to the surface (attempting to roll it back in is not recommended).
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Levelled the surface as much as possible. A lute leveller or back of a metal rake are good tools for this job. Due to many years of play, some areas of our courts have become naturally compacted. In some cases we deemed it wiser to ensure the surface was smooth rather than bringing up to the level. Filling particularly large dips could take a lot of work to bed-down and may cause drainage problems.
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Spread new shale (sourced from Mr Merrick Howse) over the entire surface. We found the back of a plastic fan rake good for this job. -
Brushed the new shale in all directions until it was even.
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Made good any dips and divets.
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Rolled the courts until the shale was well bedded in, working particularly carefully on the areas that had been brought up to the level.
All four courts were refurbished in Spring 2004 we undertook the work ourselves as contractors with any expertise in the traditional shale area are a dying breed and very expensive.
Weed Control
We employ the services of Complete Weed Control to take care of all moss and weeds on all 7 of our courts (hard and shale). Although expensive, we feel it is well worth it because it is 100% effective and courts are guaranteed moss and weed-free for 6 months. This saves an awful lot of maintenance time.
Irrigation
Irrigation plays a very important role in making a shale court great to play on. For years we have struggled with portable sprinklers which water in a circular range which only covers half a court at once. These sprinklers also suffereed badly from leaks at the joints so one had to be very careful to avoid puddles. In a hot, dry summer the rate of water deposit just could not keep up with the rate at which it evaporated from our courts ... well all that has changed!
All four of our shale courts now boast a fully-automatic, high-pressure, sprinkler system. This sprinkler system was installed by B.O.I.L. Irrigation Ltd in July 2004. Each pair of courts has 5 sprinklers with pop-up heads, one in each corner and one in the centre corridor between the net posts. We have a water tank and pipework runs under the court surface (but only around the edge, we did not have to dig up the playing surface). There is an electronic control panel in the club house which can be used to water the courts on a timer or on request. It takes about 20 minutes to water all four courts but sprinklers can be switched on individually if required.
Working Party Pictures
Click for full-size image ...
       
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