Tips to choose your padel court

Today ManzaSport wants to give you some tips and help you choose the best padel court.

The first thing we need to know is where we want to install that court and what we’re going to use it for.

When this becomes clear, we recommend that you contact a manufacturer of padel courts, but that we know for sure that it is a manufacturer. The best way to find out is to visit their factory on site and see the manufacturing process. From that visit we can draw many conclusions, usually good ones if the factory and its process convince you (I see everyday advertisers who claim to be manufacturers, but they really aren’t).

Why do we recommend you contact the manufacturers? Because by working with manufacturers you will save on middlemen and therefore money on your final purchase. Also, if they are the manufacturers, they will be able to make a special court for you according to your needs and indications. And you’ll also be able to make sure that all materials meet national standards. Demand it!

We’ve already chosen a padel court manufacturer, now all that’s left is to choose which model of court is best suited to our needs. Pillar courts, frame courts, reinforced courts, panoramic courts, etc.

It doesn’t matter if the court is indoors or outdoors, and it doesn’t matter if it is installed in Madrid, Valencia or Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

In the outdoor courts we must demand that the iron is galvanized, as well as the stainless-steel screws, and the neoprene that separates the iron from the glass must be of 6mm, but never less than 3mm.  Baked lacquered in polyester, and with zinc primer.

In the indoor courts this won’t be so necessary, but if they will be near a maritime zone, it is also recommended galvanized tube.

Always baked lacquered, I don’t recommend any other painting process for padel courts.

The tempered glass, what we recommend if it is indoors glass is 10mm and outdoors glass according to the wind map and area is 12mm, as well as in the panoramic courts we always recommend the 12mm glass.

I wouldn’t play on artificial grass. I would look for a nationally manufactured grass with all the warranties. Polyurethane base, polyethylene fiber is better than polypropylene, and Dtex 6,600 minimum. And stitches per m2 from 42,000 to 63,000. And pile height is 10 for competition, 12-13 for sports club and 15 for home use, court with rarer use.

I would recommend a monofilament grass, even if the first investment is higher, it will be more than profitable in the medium term. We recommend the MONDO 3NX triple rib turf, with greater resistance to abrasion and durability of MONDO. It is one of the first materials approved by the Spanish Padel Federation in 2013.

 

Lighting is another thing to consider, there is a debate going on right now between traditional metal halide, which is still the most popular among users, and LED, which is more beneficial in the long run, but is still being studied and developed.

I like more the metal halide, but yes, 8 lamps of 400w, I wouldn’t save by putting only 4 lamps and then have shadows on the court. If the installation is indoor and there is some light coming in, I would recommend that you install 2 phases of ignition, which means that you can turn only on 4 lamps if light enters and when it’s not, turn on 8 lamps.

Other details to look at are to see if there are protrusions on the electric welded mesh, we should hide them to avoid being dangerous for the players, and also put in strong formwork removers to prevent deformation of the mesh. When doing maintenance, we encounter courts with protruding nets, and here’s the reason why.

If we want to have space to return the balls with a safety zone and outside play, we would install open doors without a central post, if, conversely, we don’t have enough space to play from outside the court, I would install the central post.

Sometimes people ask me about padel court doors, I don’t really like them, but if it’s a facility that we can’t control access to, we need it to have doors with locks to control entry.

What color should I choose for my padel court? As for the structure we can choose the color we want from the RAL table. Depending on where they will be located, I would recommend one color or another. Indoor or outdoor, landscape, background, etc. I would always paint all the courts with the structure in the same color, both indoor and outdoor. And some of the colors that I like the most for the structures are, outdoors – blue, and indoors – red “Ferrari” or dark gray.

Color of the grass? If you follow the rules of the padel game, you can only use green, tile and blue colors, but there is also a fuchsia or black option. As a player, I like green the most, and it is the color that usually gives the best performance both indoors and outdoors. I wouldn’t recommend black or blue when installing indoors because they absorb more light, but if you still like this color most, I would make them all the same color. For example, if I have 4 courts and I want them with blue grass, I will install 4 blue courts. In this way we avoid differences in illumination between courts.

Did you know that the sand doesn’t have to be white? If the grass is blue, then the sand is blue, if black, then the sand is black, etc. This is highly recommended, especially for dark and indoor courts. Imagine a court with black grass and white sand…

These are some of the tips we can give you when choosing your padel court.

If you have any doubts, you can contact us at info@manzasport.com or visit our factory of padel courts in Valencia.