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Flooring Professionals To The Leisure Industry
Courtship Flooring is a commercial sports flooring contractor working in Cheshire and across the UK. A substantial share of our work is for independent schools and private clubs where the finish is part of the offering.
Since 1987 we have worked on indoor sports floors the length of the country and internationally. We remain family-run and deliberately specialist, covering installation through to long-term aftercare with our own team and machinery. We take no domestic work; Ryan’s Restorations covers that.
Overnight/Weekend Installations
Professional Cleaning Demonstrations
Squash Court Maintenance
Recommended Cleaning Products
Professional Pendulum Slip Testing
Deep Clean & Reseal Service
The visible quality of a finished floor is decided almost entirely before any seal is applied. Sanding taken to a genuinely even surface, repairs matched properly, dust fully removed between stages and the correct abrasive sequence followed.
Cutting time from preparation is invisible on the quotation and highly visible in the result, usually within a year as the finish wears unevenly. We would rather quote honestly for the preparation the floor needs than win work and disappoint.
Independent schools and clubs run calendars that are fixed a year ahead: fixtures, open days, examinations and events that cannot move for a contractor.
We plan into the gaps rather than asking for exceptions, and fix the handover date in writing before starting so nothing collides with something already advertised. Overnight, weekend and holiday working is routine rather than a premium extra.
A premium finish is only premium until it is cleaned badly. The most common cause of a dull, slippery floor within a year of refurbishment is over-strength cleaning product leaving a residue that reduces grip.
We demonstrate the correct routine to whoever maintains the building, recommend products suited to the finish and the local water, and provide written guidance. It is the cheapest protection available on the investment.
The sports hall floor at Treguib had given years of service and looked it. Our team took it back to clean timber, repaired the wear, then resealed and re-marked the full hall.
The result is a floor that plays and looks like new for a fraction of replacement cost, delivered a long way from our base and still on the date we promised.
~ Matthew Evans
An outstanding company to deal with and they couldn’t have been better to work with. St George’s Ascot now has a stunning new sports hall floor and we are delighted. From quote, support, delivery and after sales, the Team has been brilliant. Thank you. 
~ James Anderson
Most sports floors are replaced later and more expensively than they needed to be, because nobody was watching them.
An inspection is a short, structured visit that produces a written report on the state of the floor: the finish, the markings, the boards, the structure beneath, moisture readings, the remaining wear layer and anything that needs attention now rather than later. It comes with photographs and a rough cost against each recommendation.
That document does two useful things. It tells a business manager or an operations lead what is coming, so a floor appears in a budget rather than as an emergency. And it creates a record over time, so you can see whether a problem is stable or getting worse.
For organisations with several floors it is the single most valuable thing we do, because it converts an unpredictable estate risk into a plannable one. Discovering in July that a hall cannot open in September is the situation everybody wants to avoid, and it is entirely avoidable.
Markings are the part of a floor everybody looks at, and the part most often got wrong.
We set out from current governing body dimensions using laser and tape, not by copying what is already on the floor. Courts that have been remarked by tracing the previous set drift over the years, and a surprising number of halls turn out to have netball thirds that are not equal or three point arcs that are not true.
On timber the lines go down between coats of seal so the paint finishes under the final lacquer. That single detail is why our markings last as long as the finish, while lines applied on top of a completed floor start lifting within a season.
We will also ask what is actually played. Most halls carry markings for at least one sport nobody has taught in years, and removing redundant sets does more for clarity than any amount of clever colour choice. Fewer lines, correctly dimensioned, in colours that separate properly under your own lighting.
A great deal of what we do happens when the building is empty, because for most facilities that is the only way the work can happen at all.
Leisure centres in particular rarely have a fortnight to give up. Booking income stops, members notice, and some of them do not come back. So we work overnight, sealing at the end of a shift so the floor is walkable by opening time, with heavy equipment going back once the finish has hardened properly.
Weekend working suits buildings that are busy on weekdays: offices with sports facilities, universities in term, and community halls with a weekday programme. Bank holiday weekends are particularly useful because they give an extra day of cure time.
Out of hours working costs a little more in labour and it saves considerably more in lost income and disruption. We will quote both ways so you can weigh one against the other rather than being told what your only option is.
Key holding, alarm codes and access arrangements are agreed in writing before we start.
Squash courts are small rooms with a very particular wear pattern, and they need their own specification rather than being treated as miniature sports halls.
The traffic concentrates at the T, where players return after every shot, so a court can look fine at the front and back while the centre has been polished smooth. That polished band is both unpleasant to play on and a genuine injury risk.
The finish is the critical decision. World Squash guidance calls for a light coloured, matt floor with high slip resistance, and a gloss finish on a squash court plays like ice once the first film of dust settles. We sand to the correct degree of openness and use matt high grip systems, because sanding too fine polishes the timber before the seal even goes on.
Court markings are red, 50 millimetres wide, and applied between coats so they survive. Because each court is a separate room we can work through a block one or two at a time, keeping the rest of the club playable.
Cheshire brings us a broad mix, with independent and grammar school sport, academy trust estates and a substantial number of club and community facilities.
Independent school halls, gymnasia and squash courts are a significant strand. These tend to be well maintained buildings where the work is planned ahead into fixed holiday windows and the expectation of finish quality is high. Much of it is preventative screen and recoat work rather than full refinishing, which is the cheapest way to run a sports floor.
Academy and state school halls are the larger group by number, and they more often arrive overdue: seal worn through in the traffic lanes, markings faded, and a hall that has become slippery enough to be an insurance concern.
Sports clubs and community buildings make up the rest, including a good number of squash courts, which need a matt high grip specification rather than a general sports lacquer.
We have completed work at Hornbury Academy in the wider region, and the pattern there is typical: survey properly, plan to the holiday window, and hand back on the agreed date.
Enquiries from Cheshire tend to arrive in three recognisable forms.
The first is an independent school hall where the finish is still sound but the appearance has gone, usually scuffing and dulling rather than genuine wear. That is a screen and recoat rather than a full sand, and telling the difference honestly saves a great deal of money and preserves the boards.
The second is squash courts. The county has a good number, and the recurring complaint is a court that has become slippery at the T. A matt high grip system restores it, and we would always rather do that than have somebody go over during a game.
The third is halls that have become slippery generally, and the cause is almost always polish. Products that promise shine build up, reduce slip resistance and eventually have to be stripped chemically. If your cleaning contractor is using something that makes the floor gleam, that is worth checking before anything else.
Court relining is one of the cheapest interventions available to a facility and often the one that makes the most visible difference for the money.
Price is driven by the number of courts, whether the line marking is going down inside a reseal or as a standalone visit, and how much redundant marking has to be dealt with first. Removing three sets of lines nobody uses makes the job cheaper, not dearer.
On timing, a standalone reline of a multi sport hall is typically two to three days including cure time. A full recolour of a synthetic floor takes four to six days depending on coats and drying conditions.
The hall has to be empty throughout and stay empty while coatings cure. Foot traffic is normally possible around twenty four hours after the final coat and full use at seventy two. Walking on a floor too early is the single most common cause of a marking job needing touching up, and it is entirely avoidable.
We work holidays, weekends and overnight as a matter of routine.
There is no standard rate, because no two floors arrive in the same condition. What we can promise is that we will identify the cheapest option that genuinely solves the problem and quote it alongside the fuller alternatives, with firm figures rather than ranges.
Yes, throughout. Distance is a logistics question rather than a quality one, and we resolve it by planning the whole programme in advance rather than working in stages.
Yes, using the pendulum method to BS 7976-2 with a written report recording values across multiple positions. It either reassures you or gives you documented evidence that the floor needs attention.
We carry the insurance and documentation institutional clients require, work to CDM where applicable, and provide method statements and risk assessments as standard.
We stop, tell you, and price the options before proceeding. Nothing gets sealed over and no additional work happens without your agreement in writing.
Yes. We deep clean, reseal, remark and fully recoat synthetic sports surfaces, and a PU floor recoated in a fresh colour with new markings looks like a new installation for a fraction of the cost.
Yes. Scheduled deep cleaning, screen and recoat visits, minor repairs, remarking and an annual written condition inspection. It is considerably cheaper than reacting when a floor has already failed.
Constantly. Summer holidays and half terms are when most of our school work happens, and summer slots book up early. If you are planning for next year it is worth speaking to us in January rather than June.
Yes, and for organisations with several floors it is where we usually start. You get a written report per site with photographs, moisture readings, remaining wear layer and a costed priority order.
Dust mop daily to lift grit, damp mop with a neutral cleaner made for sealed sports timber, and never use polish, wax or anything promising shine. We hand over written guidance with every job.
Regularly. We tender for frameworks, price on schedules of rates, and provide the full procurement documentation set including insurances, quality procedures and safeguarding arrangements.
Book a free survey of your floor in Cheshire and we will tell you honestly what it needs, what it will cost and how quickly it can happen. Call 01823 674562 or send us a message.