This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website: Find out more.
Basketball court dimensions have changed more than most people realise. Three-point arcs, the shape of the key and restricted-area markings have all been revised over the years, and a court marked to an older rulebook can be challenged the moment competitive fixtures are involved.
Courtship Flooring marks and re-marks basketball courts across the UK to current specifications, as a standalone visit or as part of a refurbishment. Commercial and institutional facilities only.
A full court is twenty-eight metres by fifteen, and very few British sports halls were built to that. The practical question is almost always how to fit the best possible court into the space available while keeping safe run-off to the walls.
We set the arcs, keys, centre circle and restricted areas to current specification, and where a full court will not fit we mark a correctly proportioned reduced court rather than distorting the geometry. We will tell you plainly what that means for competitive use.
Basketball markings are bold and cover a lot of floor, which makes them the natural primary layout in most halls, but only if the hierarchy is planned. Add netball, badminton and futsal without thought and even a strong basketball court becomes hard to follow.
We plan the colour and line weight hierarchy around whichever sport leads at your facility, so the primary court reads instantly and the rest sit clearly behind it.
A club or school badge at centre court transforms how a hall photographs, and for schools it earns its cost in prospectuses and open days alone.
Logos are applied into the finish and sealed beneath the final coats, so they wear at the same rate as the floor rather than lifting like a decal. Send us the artwork and we will advise on sizing and placement against the court lines.
Where the floor is sound and only the lines have gone, we prepare the marking areas, apply the new court and seal over it, usually in a day or two including curing. It is the cheapest way to bring a court back into specification.
If the floor is also being sanded, marking is built into that programme and old lines disappear during sanding, which is the ideal moment to correct a layout entirely.
Basketball is the sport where the standard you mark to genuinely changes the layout, and getting that decision right at the start saves an expensive conversation later.
A full FIBA court is 28 metres by 15 metres, with the three point line at 6.75 metres from the centre of the basket and 6.6 metres in the corners. The NCAA and NBA use different three point distances, which is why courts copied from television look wrong in a British hall. For most schools, clubs and leisure centres in this country the answer is FIBA dimensions marked to Basketball England guidance, and that is our default unless you tell us otherwise.
The restricted area under each basket changed from a trapezoid to a rectangle some years ago, and we still find halls carrying the old trapezoid keys. If your markings look dated, that is usually the giveaway. We mark the current rectangular key with the no charge semi circle at 1.25 metres, which many older courts omit entirely.
Where a hall is smaller than full size, and plenty are, we scale the court sensibly rather than cramming a full layout into a space that cannot take it. A correctly proportioned junior court plays far better than a squeezed senior one.
Very few halls are basketball only. The usual brief is a court that works properly alongside netball, badminton, five a side and volleyball without the floor becoming unreadable.
Basketball is the sport that suffers most from clutter, because the key, the arc and the centre circle all occupy the same ground as netball thirds and five a side markings. Our approach is to give basketball a strong, distinct colour and to keep the arc unbroken, because a three point line interrupted by other markings is genuinely hard to referee.
Netball is the marking most often in conflict, since the two sports share the centre of the hall. Where both are played competitively we separate them by colour weight rather than trying to be clever with dashes, and we discuss which sport takes visual priority before anything is set out.
The other decision is whether you need cross courts. Many schools want a full senior court lengthways plus two junior courts across the hall for teaching. That is entirely achievable, but it adds a lot of paint to the floor, and it is worth being honest at the outset about whether the cross courts will actually be used.
The arc is the part of a basketball court that shows up poor workmanship, because a three point line that is even slightly off true is obvious from the sideline.
We set out with laser and tape from the centre of each basket, striking the arc as a true radius rather than approximating it in segments. Every dimension is checked twice before paint goes down, and the two ends are compared against each other so the court is symmetrical.
On timber the lines are applied between coats of seal, which puts the paint underneath the final lacquer where trainers and trolleys cannot reach it. This is the single biggest factor in how long a marking lasts, and it is why markings applied on top of a finished floor start lifting in the key within a season or two. The key takes more punishment than any other part of the court, so protecting it properly matters.
We use purpose made sports line paints that are chemically compatible with the seal above and below. On vinyl and polyurethane floors we switch to systems formulated for those surfaces, since a timber product will simply not bond.
A basketball court is the natural home for a school crest or a club badge, and a centre circle logo is one of the few things that genuinely lifts a hall for a modest cost.
We apply logos in the same way as the markings, painted between coats so they sit under the final seal and wear at the same rate as the floor around them. Anything applied over the top will scuff and peel, whatever the supplier claims. Artwork is worked up from your own file, scaled properly to the circle, and we will show you a layout before it goes down.
Colouring the key is the other common request. A filled key in a contrasting colour makes the court read instantly and looks considered rather than institutional, and it is a straightforward addition while the floor is already open.
Both are best done during a sand and seal for the obvious reason that the floor is already back to bare timber and there is no second closure. If your hall is due a refinish and you have ever thought about a crest at centre court, that is the moment to raise it.
Marking is inexpensive relative to almost anything else you can do to a hall, which is why it is often the first thing we are asked about.
The cost is driven by whether the court is going down inside a wider refinish or as a standalone visit, how many additional sports are being marked at the same time, and whether redundant markings need dealing with first. A basketball court added during a sand and seal is the best value available, because the setting out sits inside a programme already underway.
As a standalone job, a single court is typically a one to two day visit including cure time, and a full multi sport rationalisation of a four court hall is usually two to three days. Halls that need old markings removing will need a sand, which changes the job from a marking visit into a refinish.
We confirm the standard, the colours and the sports in writing before starting, and we set out and check every dimension before painting. If a hall cannot accommodate a full size court we say so at survey rather than marking something that will not play properly.
It may not be. Arc and key dimensions have been revised over the years and many halls carry superseded layouts. We check at survey and can correct it during re-marking.
Yes. Where a full-size court will not fit we mark a correctly proportioned reduced court with safe run-off, and explain what that means for competitive fixtures.
Yes. Logos are applied into the floor finish and sealed under the final coats so they wear with the surface. Send the artwork and we will advise on size and placement.
Not if the seal is sound. We can prepare the marking areas only and apply the new lines. Sanding is only necessary if the finish itself has failed or old lines must be removed completely.
A full FIBA court is 28 metres by 15 metres. The three point line sits at 6.75 metres from the centre of the basket, reducing to 6.6 metres in the corners. Most UK halls are marked to FIBA dimensions.
No. The restricted area changed to a rectangle some years ago, and a trapezoid key dates your court. We mark the current rectangular key including the no charge semi circle, which many older courts do not have.
Send us the internal dimensions and we will tell you. Where a hall is undersized we scale the court properly rather than compressing a full layout, because a correctly proportioned smaller court plays much better.
Yes, and it is a common brief. The two sports overlap in the centre of the hall, so we separate them by colour and visual weight and agree which takes priority before setting out.
Yes. Logos are painted between coats of seal from your own artwork, so they wear at the same rate as the floor. It is best done during a sand and seal while the floor is already open.
Applied under the seal on a timber floor, markings normally last the life of the finish, typically eight to ten years. The key wears fastest because of the traffic it takes.
Send us your hall dimensions and the sports you need, and we will advise on the best court layout and price the work. Call 01823 674562.