Padel Court Construction: Base, Structure, Surface and Timeline

Building a padel court means laying a flat, well drained base, erecting a steel and glass enclosure to the International Padel Federation’s published dimensions, and finishing with sand infilled artificial turf. The court itself is a manufactured kit that an experienced crew installs in three to seven days; the groundworks underneath it take longer and decide whether the finished court plays correctly.

• The playing area is fixed at 20 by 10 meters (65.6 by 32.8 ft) with a minimum free height of 6 meters (19.7 ft), and the enclosure reaches 4 meters (13.1 ft) at the ends.
• The base carries the whole build, and the surface has to sit within 3 mm of flat over any 3 meter (9.8 ft) straightedge.
• In the United States the structure is an engineered element subject to local wind loading codes, not a fence.

What Does It Take to Build a Padel Court?

A padel court is built in four stages: groundworks and base, structure, glazing and fencing, then surface and infill. The court structure arrives as a manufactured kit of steel posts, tempered glass panels and welded mesh, so the construction work that decides quality happens before any of that is unloaded. Site preparation, drainage and a level base account for most of the program and most of the risk, and a court erected on a base that has settled unevenly cannot be corrected afterward by adjusting the structure above it.

The Federation fixes the geometry the build has to hit. The court is a rectangle 10 meters wide by 20 meters long (32.8 by 65.6 ft) measured on the interior, with a 0.5 percent tolerance, and the service lines sit 6.95 meters (22.8 ft) either side of and parallel to the net. Free height above the playing area must be at least 6 meters (19.7 ft) across the whole court with nothing, spotlights included, intruding into that volume, and the rulebook suggests 8 meters (26.2 ft) for new facilities. Court markings are 5 cm (2 in) wide, preferably white or black. Those numbers are set out in full on the padel court dimensions page, and they are the ones a builder works to, because a court that misses them is not a padel court in any competitive sense.

Space around the court is a planning constraint that catches new operators. The rulebook requires a clear area of no less than 3 meters (9.8 ft) wide, with 4 meters (13.1 ft) recommended, and 4 meters long on either side, free of obstacles to a minimum height of 3 meters. Added to the 20 by 10 meter playing area, a compliant single court needs a footprint closer to 28 by 16 meters (91.9 by 52.5 ft) once run-off is included, and this is the figure that decides whether a site fits two courts or one.

What Base Does a Padel Court Need?

The base is a compacted aggregate sub-base with a bound surface layer on top, or a reinforced concrete slab, and both are laid to a controlled fall so water leaves the court. The Lawn Tennis Association’s padel court construction guidance specifies an aggregate sub-base averaging 250 mm (9.8 in) in depth with 65 mm (2.6 in) of porous asphalt above it in two separate layers, laid to a maximum single or dual plane gradient of 1:100. The Sports and Play Construction Association code of practice breaks that asphalt into a 40 mm (1.6 in) compacted binder course and a 25 mm (1 in) compacted surface course. Those are British documents, and no equivalent national build standard existed in the United States until 2025, which is why builders on both sides of the Atlantic still work to them.

Concrete is the alternative, and it is common where a slab suits the site or the climate. Build Padel publishes a foundation specification of C25/30 concrete to Eurocode 2 with A142 or A193 welded mesh as primary reinforcement, additional 12 mm rebar at column positions, and a surface slope of 0.5 to 1 percent. The choice between asphalt and concrete turns on ground conditions, frost, budget and local trade availability rather than on any performance difference the player notices, since the turf and its infill sit between the base and the ball.

Flatness is where a base passes or fails. The Federation requires that differences in interior levels stay under 3 mm measured against a 3 meter (9.8 ft) rule, a tolerance of one in a thousand, and it accepts a maximum transverse drainage slope of 1 percent from the center toward the outer edges on surfaces built without drainage. A base outside that tolerance produces dead spots and inconsistent bounce that no amount of turf quality compensates for, and relaying it means removing the structure first.

What Are Padel Courts Made Of?

The enclosure is a galvanized steel frame carrying tempered glass panels at the back and lower sides, completed by welded metal mesh above and along the center of the side walls. The end walls run to a total height of 4 meters (13.1 ft), the first 3 meters (9.8 ft) of which is wall in any transparent or solid material and the last meter metallic fence. Two side wall configurations are permitted. The stepped variant uses wall areas 3 meters high by 2 meters long at each end followed by a second step 2 meters high by 2 meters long, with fencing completing the enclosure to 3 meters across the central 6 meters and to 4 meters at both ends. The crystal variant runs a single unstepped wall 3 meters high by 4 meters long at each end zone, with mesh completing the enclosure to 4 meters over the outer 2 meters. These are structurally different courts, not the same court described two ways, and the choice affects both the rebound behavior in the corners and the cost of the glass package.

The mesh has its own specification. It is made up of welded rhomboids with a diagonal hole size no smaller than 5 cm (2 in) and no larger than 7.08 cm (2.8 in), with a recommended wire thickness of 2 to 3 mm and 4 mm as the maximum. Glass panels must meet the standards for tempered or plate glass set out in the Federation’s court homologation annex, which the rulebook references without restating; the 10 mm and 12 mm panels quoted by manufacturers are industry practice rather than a published Federation minimum, and it is worth asking a supplier which standard their glass is certified to rather than reading a thickness figure as compliance.

Structures are sold as classic, panoramic or full panoramic. A classic court carries steel posts at the corners and along the back; a panoramic court removes most of the rear steelwork for uninterrupted sightlines; a full panoramic court joins glass to glass at the corners with no posts at all. The difference is genuinely structural rather than cosmetic, since removing posts transfers load into the glass and its fixings, and it is one reason a panoramic court is not simply a classic court with a different price tag.

What Surface Goes on a Padel Court?

The playing surface is short pile artificial turf dressed with silica sand, and the Federation permits cement, synthetic material or artificial grass provided the ball bounces regularly on it. Permitted and preferred colors are green, blue or terracotta. Turf is the near universal choice at club level: Mondo’s Supercourt XN specification lists a 10 mm pile height with sand infill and a 10,000 dtex yarn on a two layer backing, which is representative of what a padel specific product looks like against the taller piles used for other sports.

Infill quantity depends on the yarn. MejorSet, which manufactures and supplies court systems, states that textured turf takes 7 to 8 kg per square meter, which comes to 1.4 to 1.6 tonnes per court, while monofilament straight yarn takes 17 to 18 kg per square meter, or 3.3 to 3.4 tonnes. The sand is what the shoe grips and slides on, which is why padel and clay court soles use a herringbone tread, and why a court that has lost infill through the corners plays faster and harder underfoot long before it looks worn. Redistribution and topping up are maintenance items to budget for from day one rather than a repair.

Lighting is part of the build, not an afterthought, because the poles have to clear the playing volume. The Federation requires the underside of the projectors to sit at least 6 meters (19.7 ft) above the ground, and suggests 8 meters (26.2 ft) for new facilities where lights are installed inside the court. The only lux figure the rulebook states is 1,000 lux of vertical illumination for television broadcast and film recording; it sets no general figure for standard competitive play, so any lower number quoted by a supplier comes from somewhere other than the rules. For outdoor courts the recommended longitudinal orientation is north to south, with variation between north-northeast and north-northwest accepted, which limits low sun down the length of the court.

How Long Does a Padel Court Take to Build?

Installing the court itself takes roughly three to seven days once the base has cured. PanoCourt states that an experienced crew of four completes a court in three to five days after foundation curing, and allows five to seven for a first time local crew working with remote support; Migo Court Glass gives three to seven days depending on site conditions and weather. Those figures cover erection of the structure, glazing, turf and infill, and they are the part of the program a supplier controls.

Everything before that stage is site specific and usually longer. Excavation, drainage, sub-base and the bound layers, plus the curing time concrete needs, run to weeks rather than days, and permitting, groundworks approval and shipping the court kit sit outside the installer’s timeline entirely. An operator planning a facility should treat the quoted installation window as one line in a longer program, and the padel court guide covers the finished specification that program has to deliver.

What Do US Builders Need to Know?

A padel enclosure in the United States is an engineered structure that has to satisfy local wind loading requirements. USA Padel describes the RC MAX as engineered in accordance with ASCE 7 criteria and as the only fully panoramic court certified in the country to resist wind speeds up to 120 mph, which establishes both that the code applies and that certification against it is still uncommon. Buying a court kit engineered to a European standard and installing it without a US structural review is the failure mode this addresses.

Formal guidance arrived in 2025. The American Sports Builders Association and USA Padel published the first Padel Courts: Installation and Maintenance Manual, covering court dimensions, planning and design, base construction, maintenance, court kit installation, and indoor and outdoor facilities, aimed at builders, architects, engineers, facility owners and park and recreation professionals. It is a paid publication rather than a free download, and it is the closest thing the American market has to the British code of practice that builders have been borrowing from. USA Padel also recommends working only with a court builder that is bonded, licensed, insured and legally able to work in the United States as a licensed contractor, which reads as a plain response to what has been going wrong. Padel arrived in the United States faster than its building standards did, and the sport’s growth is exactly why the gap opened.

Indoor and covered builds add their own constraints. The 6 meter (19.7 ft) minimum free height applies inside a building the same way it applies outdoors, so a warehouse conversion has to clear that height under any structure, ducting or lighting rather than at the apex. The British code of practice requires structural calculations for outdoor courts and canopy structures to be produced by a competent structural engineer because of wind loading on the enclosure and the cover, and the Lawn Tennis Association guidance asks for a minimum design life of 15 years on canopy roof and wall membranes with 20 years on the frame.

Padel Court Construction FAQs

Sources

International Padel Federation, Rules of Padel

Lawn Tennis Association, Padel Court Construction Guidance Note 2025

SAPCA, Code of Practice for the Construction of Padel Courts

USA Padel, ASBA and USPA publish the first ever USA padel court installation manual

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