Court crack repair · tennis, pickleball, basketball
Cracks repaired so they do not come back through the color.
A crack is where the slab moves. Fill it and the filler cracks along its edges by March; bridge it with a membrane and the surface above stays whole for years. We use a fabric-membrane system on every court we repair, because we have gone back to look at both.
The options
Five repairs, from an afternoon to a new court.
Matched to the crack, not to the budget. The map we make on the walk says which crack gets which.
| Repair | Lasts (our experience; nothing is permanent) | For | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| Acrylic crack filler | 1 to 2 years | Hairlines and cracks under a quarter inch | A sand-filled acrylic worked into the crack flush with the surface. Cheap, quick, and it reflects through the color after a winter or two because it has no give. |
| Fabric-membrane repair | 5 to 8 years, in our experience | Working cracks up to about an inch | The crack is filled, then bridged with a flexible fabric membrane bonded in acrylic and feathered into the surface. The slab moves under it; the membrane stretches; the color on top stays whole. What we use on every court. |
| Cut-out and patch | As the court | Wide cracks, spalls, heaves | The failed section is cut square, the base compacted, hot mix placed and rolled, the patch sealed and coated. For damage a membrane cannot bridge. |
| Overlay | 15 to 20 years | A sound base with a surface cracked everywhere | A new lift of asphalt over the old court, with a stress-relief fabric between to slow the old cracks' return, then a new coating system. A new court on an old base. |
| Rebuild or post-tension | 30 years and more (the builders' claim) | A failed base | The old court out, a new base in, asphalt or a post-tensioned concrete slab. The only honest answer to a court that heaves every winter. |
The membrane repair
How a membrane repair works.
- 01
Clean
The crack is blown and brushed out to sound edges and dried; algae and old filler come out.
- 02
Fill
The crack is filled flush with an acrylic crack filler so the membrane has a flat bed.
- 03
Bridge
A strip of flexible fabric membrane, wider than the crack, is bonded over it in acrylic binder and pressed flat.
- 04
Feather
The edges of the membrane are feathered out with patch binder so there is no ridge to see or to catch a ball.
- 05
Coat
The repair takes the acrylic resurfacer and color coats with the rest of the court and disappears.
When
October, or the first day of a resurfacing.
Cracks want repairing before the first freeze, because water in a crack through a Northeast Ohio winter is the whole mechanism of damage: it freezes, expands, pushes the edges apart, thaws, drains deeper and does it again forty times by spring. A membrane repair in October keeps the water out all winter and the court whole in April.
When a court is due for resurfacing, the repairs are the first day of that job and are included in the price. The repair methods are the same; the color that goes over them is new.
On parking lots the material is different, hot-pour rubber rather than acrylic, because lots are not color-coated; see parking-lot crack filling.
Questions
About cracks.
Why do filled cracks come back?
Because the slab moves and the filler does not. Asphalt expands in summer and shrinks in winter, and the subgrade under it heaves when it freezes; a crack is where that movement shows. A rigid filler cracks along its own edges the first winter, and the new color on top cracks with it. A membrane over the crack stretches instead. The article goes through it with pictures.
Can cracks be repaired without resurfacing?
Yes, and the repair is coated to match. On a court that is due for resurfacing the repair is the first day of that job; on a court with years of surface left it is a day on its own, best done in autumn.
What about cracks on a concrete court?
Concrete cracks are usually control joints or shrinkage cracks and they move less, but they move. They are cleaned, filled with a flexible sealant and bridged the same way before coating. Post-tensioned slabs rarely crack at all, which is the argument for them.
How much does crack repair cost?
By the linear foot, so the map we make on the site walk is the quote. A court with a few working cracks is a modest job; one with cracks every few feet is close to the price of an overlay, and we say so.
Reading
From the articles.
Why court cracks come back, and what actually stops them
A filled crack is a sealed crack, not a fixed one. Freeze-thaw, base movement, and the repairs that hold.
Read onFill the cracks before the first freeze
The cheapest hour of maintenance all year is the one spent filling cracks in October.
Read onWhat a Northeast Ohio winter does to a court
Water gets in, freezes, pushes, thaws, and does it forty more times by March. How the damage happens and how to blunt it.
Read onFree estimates
Send a photo of the crack.
A phone picture with a coin in it for scale tells us most of what we need. We come out, map the court and quote by the foot.
The yard
4000 East 86th Street, Cleveland, OH 44105
Off Broadway Avenue, south of downtown, ten minutes from I-77 and I-490.
Serving Cuyahoga, Summit, Lake, Lorain, Medina, Geauga, Portage, Stark and Ashtabula counties. Municipal, school, club, HOA and commercial work; residential courts by the job.