HOW DO YOU DO ROUTINE MAINTENANCE OF RED CLAY TENNIS COURTS?

To keep the clay tennis court in ideal condition, it is essential to carry out annual routine maintenance, and additional partial maintenance is recommended at the beginning or end of the season. In general terms, the work requires two to three days of activity and consists of four steps: stripe removal, milling, rolling, and stripe installation.

Here you can find all the products you need for maintenance and the possibility of renting or purchasing the tools we manufacture, we also offer maintenance service in toto.

RIGS REMOVAL

This first operation is not mandatory but highly recommended mainly to achieve better court leveling by avoiding plates and unevenness and to be able to replace worn or damaged rows.

There are basically three types of fasteners to tension the lines: nail with butterfly (now obsolete) and the bush with L-bracket or T-bracket; if you use the lines with nails it is necessary to pass with the cutter near them to remove them more easily. In any case you should mark the position of the bushings, perhaps with a plastic band, and avoid damaging the rows and brackets to facilitate subsequent reassembly.

Once the removal is finished check all the brackets or butterflies, these in fact tend to bend during removal, so they should be straightened using the hammer and pliers.

BRUSTING

The use of specific machines is necessary for court breaking, in particular we recommend the ARCUT 2.0, because of its maneuverability and effectiveness.

Before passing with the straightedge it is convenient to moisten the court to avoid raising dust and soften the soil, at the same time it is necessary to avoid creating puddles otherwise the turf will not be pulverized properly. During this operation it is best to avoid going over the bushings and stripes if they have not been removed.

Once the court has been milled, it is necessary to go over it with a straightedge to level it: first with the pointed side to remove dirt bumps, stones or moss, then with the flat side to finish it.

TILLING

After the court has been milled and leveled, it is time to do the first rolling: pass the roller over the dry court so that dips and hollows can be clearly seen. You proceed by adding soil: on average for a court you need between 30 and 40 25kg bags, if the court is low you will need to add more soil. It is advisable to add the soil in layers, dropping the number of bags at each step, for example: 20 bags, then 12, 10 and finally 8.

A straightedge is used to spread the new soil: the pointed side to open the bags and spread the material in a fishbone pattern and then pass in both directions, varying the angle to control the amount of material deposited and use the flat side to finish. At this stage it is better to pull rather than push, but if working on the lines with nails it is better to push to prevent the straightedge from getting caught.

It is important to keep the straightedge clean, especially on the flat side otherwise the soil will not be spread evenly. Finally wet the court well, when it is dry enough go over with the roller: if the roller is powered it will take at least 3/4 passes, if the roller is hand roller about ten.

STRAIGHTENING OF ROWS

When the court is level and firm enough not to leave a mark by pressing down with your thumb, it is time to put the rows back on. First it is necessary to reinstall the compasses. Proceed with measuring the court to find the correct position of each compass using a metric string and then insert them into the ground by sinking them about half an inch. At this point tap the ground around the compass using the wooden board and hammer to level it.

Once the bushings are mounted, you can begin to position the rows and pull; to check for proper tensioning, you can lift the row at the middle using one hand: a row stretched to the right point will lift effortlessly between 10 and 30 cm, depending on the length of the row. This operation also serves to align the scale correctly.

Once the rows are aligned, you can proceed to beat them with the roller, passing back and forth in a wave motion, being careful not to use abrupt acceleration or deceleration. Once the rows are put back on, mop the court and put the net back on, at which point the court is ready for another season.

PRACTICAL TIPS

During the maintenance of tennis courts one may be faced with several difficulties to be addressed with the right techniques, let’s look at some situations.

• Stones are a red flag when they emerge from the ground, the cause could be rain or a layer of underlayment lower than it should be. In this case for cleanup we recommend the use of the straightedge: scratching the court aggressively to extract them; in extreme cases, with very low courts, it may be convenient to roll the court to bury them.
• To group leaves more quickly, it is advisable to use a blower and then pick them up with a shovel. In case pine needles are present, this method is not effective, and it is better to clean the court by hand using a window cleaner. In any case, after cleaning, it is advisable to mop the court to bring back the displaced soil.

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• To remove grass and moss particularly found along the edges of courts that remain uncovered during the winter, first dry out the vegetation using a gas or electric blowtorch, use the shovel to remove it all making sure to remove as little soil as possible. It is important to avoid the use of herbicides and chemicals because they make red soil a special waste, with high costs in case of disposal.