Acrylic or cushioned: choosing a court surface for Northeast Ohio

A facility manager asked me whether the cushioned system was "worth it", and I asked who played on the court. That is the whole question. A cushioned acrylic court is a better court to stand on for three hours and a worse deal for a park where it will be used by whoever walks in. Here is what cushioning is, what it costs, and who should pay for it.

What a standard acrylic court is

An acrylic resurfacer over the slab, two color coats with sand, lines. The court is as hard as the asphalt or concrete under it; the sand sets the speed. It is what nearly every public and school court in Northeast Ohio is, it costs the least, and it is resurfaced every four to eight years. Every photograph on this site is of one.

What a cushioned court is

The same system with cushion layers under the color: several coats of acrylic filled with rubber granules, built up over the resurfacer, then the color coats on top. SportMaster's version is ProCushion; other makers have equivalents under their own names. The rubber layers give a little under a foot and a little under a ball, so the court is softer to stand on, kinder to knees and backs, and plays a fraction slower and lower. The professional tour's hard courts are cushioned; the US Open's surface is a cushioned acrylic system.

How it plays

Slower and softer, by an amount a club player feels after a set and notices in their legs the next morning. The ITF classifies court pace from slow to fast, and a cushioned court sits a category or so slower than the same color coats on bare asphalt. The bounce is true; the surface is not spongy, just forgiving. Players who play daily, players over fifty, and players with joint complaints are the ones who ask for it by name.

What it costs

The cushion layers are several extra coats of a material with rubber in it, so a cushioned system runs materially more than a standard one for the same court, in our proposals a premium of roughly a third to a half on the surfacing, though the slab under it is the same. At resurfacing time the cushion layers stay and only the color is renewed, so the premium is paid once per cushion life, which is two or three color cycles.

Ohio winters

Cushioned systems are more sensitive to moisture in the slab and to cold during application: they need a dry slab, warm days and warm nights for each of the extra coats, which means a narrower window in our season and a job that takes longer. On a slab that holds water or has working cracks, the cushion layers can blister or lift; crack repair and drainage have to be right first, even more than for a standard court. Once cured they winter well, and the rubber layers tolerate freeze-thaw.

Who should have it

• Clubs with members who play every day, especially older members: yes, and they will say so after the first week.
• High school and college courts used by teams for hours a day: often yes, because it is the players' knees for four years.
• A private court for one family: yes if the budget allows; it is the court they will use for twenty years.
• Park courts and open public banks: usually no; the money does more good on drainage, lights and one more court.
• Pickleball: the sport is shorter and quicker on the feet than tennis and the courts are small, so the premium per court is modest and the players, many of them retired, appreciate it; dedicated club banks are increasingly cushioned, public ones rarely.

What we do

We install both. On a site walk we tell you which the court and the players warrant, we quote both where it is close, and we tell you that the cushion is the one thing on the proposal you can leave out without hurting the court, which is also why, when the people who will play on it are standing beside you, they often tell you not to.