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Flooring Professionals To The Leisure Industry
Courtship Flooring is a commercial sports flooring contractor working in Kent and across the UK. We work across the county for schools, grammar and independent schools, leisure operators and clubs, on both installation and refurbishment.
Trading since 1987 and family-owned throughout, we handle indoor sports and commercial timber floors from first survey to long-term aftercare, with our own crew and equipment on site at every stage. Domestic and residential projects are the province of our sister company, Ryan’s Restorations.
Overnight/Weekend Installations
Professional Cleaning Demonstrations
Squash Court Maintenance
Recommended Cleaning Products
Professional Pendulum Slip Testing
Deep Clean & Reseal Service
This is the decision that determines your budget, and it should be made on evidence rather than appearance. A floor can look finished while the timber beneath is entirely sound, and it can look acceptable while moisture is quietly destroying it from below.
We measure the depth remaining above the tongue, check the sub-floor and take moisture readings, then give you a straight recommendation. In most cases restoration wins comfortably. Where it does not, we show you why rather than asking you to take our word.
The seal determines how long the work lasts and how the floor plays. We use commercial systems from manufacturers such as Bona and Junckers, selected for the workload of the room rather than applied as a standard specification, and built up in the correct number of coats with proper curing between them.
Finish also affects friction, which is a safety matter rather than a preference. Too slick is dangerous; too grippy causes its own injuries. We can verify the result with a pendulum slip test on completion.
Schools that show their facilities to prospective parents are judged on presentation as well as performance, and a grey, worn hall floor undoes a great deal of work elsewhere in the building.
We plan around term dates, fixtures, exams and open days, deliver a finish that stands close inspection, and can seal a school crest beneath the final coats at centre court. The reopening date is fixed in writing so nothing collides with an event already advertised.
Not every floor we save sits in a sports centre. St Katherine’s had the kind of well-loved, well-worn hall floor that carries badminton one evening and a community event the next, and the committee wanted it rescued rather than replaced.
We restored it completely. The hall is now set for another few decades of everything it is asked to do.
~ 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
A school crest or club badge at centre court is one of the few things that genuinely lifts a hall for a modest cost, and it is far cheaper done during a refinish than as a separate visit.
Logos are painted from your own artwork between coats of seal, so they sit under the final lacquer and wear at exactly the same rate as the floor around them. Anything applied over a finished floor will scuff and peel within a season, whatever the supplier claims about it.
We work the artwork up to the correct scale for the circle or the area it is going into, and we show you a layout before anything goes down. Colours are matched to your own brand rather than approximated.
Coloured keys and zoned areas work the same way and have the same effect. A hall with a filled key in a contrasting colour reads instantly and looks designed rather than institutional, and it costs very little on top of work already underway.
Where one organisation is responsible for several sports floors, the sensible approach is a programme rather than a series of separate decisions.
We start with a condition survey of every floor: construction, remaining wear layer, state of the finish and structure, markings, moisture, all photographed and recorded. That produces one document showing what the estate holds and what condition it is in, which very few organisations have.
From there the work is prioritised. Some floors need attention this year, some can wait three, some need nothing beyond maintenance. The programme then phases across budget years, taking each hall out of use at the quietest point in its own calendar rather than trying to do everything in one summer.
The advantages compound. Costs fall because mobilisation is spread and the sequence is efficient. Specification is consistent across every site. Documentation is standardised. And nobody is ever in the position of having six floors fail at once.
We work this way with academy trusts, local authorities, leisure operators and universities.
Facilities managers are usually working to a figure set before anybody looked at the floor, so it helps to know what moves it.
Area is the obvious factor, and bigger halls are cheaper per square metre because mobilisation is spread further. A four court hall almost always works out better value per metre than a single studio.
Condition matters more than size. A screen and recoat is a fraction of the cost of a full sand. Board repairs, replacing damaged sections and dealing with a failed subfloor all add, and they are the items that appear once the old lacquer comes off.
Markings are priced by what you need rather than what is there. Removing three redundant sets makes the hall clearer and the job cheaper.
Access and hours are the last variable. A hall we can work in continuously through a holiday costs less than the same hall done overnight around evening bookings. We quote both where it helps you weigh disruption against money.
Not every sports floor is timber, and the synthetic surfaces have a genuine place rather than being a cheap alternative.
Point elastic vinyl systems deflect where they are loaded rather than across an area, which makes them forgiving underfoot and well suited to halls with a very mixed timetable. They need no refinishing, they clean easily, and they come in a range of colours that lets a hall be designed rather than simply floored. They have a finite life and are replaced rather than restored when it ends.
Linoleum is the older relation, still found in a great many school halls, and it can often be deep cleaned and resealed rather than replaced.
Polyurethane and modified epoxy systems are seamless, poured or applied as coatings, and are particularly useful over Granwood and cementitious substrates. They can be fully recoated in a new colour with fresh markings, which turns a tired hall into a refurbished one without touching what is underneath.
We work across all of them, and we will tell you honestly when your existing surface is worth keeping.
Kent gives us a large volume of school work, including grammar schools, academy trusts and independent schools, alongside leisure operator facilities and a substantial rural stock.
School halls are the biggest group by some margin. The recurring issue is halls that have gone well over a decade without a proper refinish, where the seal has worn through in the traffic lanes and dirt is now sitting in open timber. Left much longer, the staining goes deep enough that sanding will not fully remove it, which is the point at which restoration stops being straightforward.
Academy trust estates are common here, and for those a condition survey across all the halls followed by a phased programme is far more useful than reacting site by site.
Leisure centres follow, where keeping the building trading means overnight and weekend working.
Village and church halls make up the rest, and the county has a great many. Those old timber floors are usually in far better shape than they look, and restoring them costs a fraction of what committees expect.
Kent enquiries divide between schools and community buildings, and two projects cover most of what people want to know.
De Wint School is the closest for a curriculum hall. It had gone well past its refinish cycle, with the seal worn through in the traffic lanes and markings faded past easy officiating. The floor was taken back to bare timber, damaged boards replaced, resealed, and remarked from measured governing body dimensions rather than traced from what was there. Redundant sports came off while the floor was open.
St Katherine Hall is the better comparison for community buildings. An old timber floor carrying badminton one evening and a community event the next, under decades of polish that had to be removed chemically before sanding. Underneath was a floor with plenty of depth left, and it is now set for another few decades.
For trusts with several halls, the more useful first step is surveying all of them and producing a costed priority order.
Size, condition and specification set the price. We survey free of charge, take moisture readings and measure remaining board depth, then quote a fixed sum with the scope itemised. If a cheaper approach will genuinely work, that is what we will recommend.
The whole area and its neighbouring counties. We have worked the length of the UK since 1987, and remote projects are simply planned more thoroughly rather than priced at a premium.
Almost always, and it is usually the right answer. Sanding, repairing and resealing costs a fraction of a new floor with far less disruption. We only recommend replacement where moisture or sub-floor failure genuinely rules restoration out.
Every two to three years for most halls. Baselines and service areas wear first, so courts become uneven in appearance long before the floor itself needs attention.
Yes. Every survey produces a written report with moisture readings, board condition, recommended work and firm costs, designed to be usable as budget evidence.
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.
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. On timber the reliable method is sanding, which removes them completely. Most halls carry markings for at least one sport nobody plays, and taking them off is the cheapest improvement available.
Almost always polish or the wrong cleaning product building up, or a seal worn smooth in the traffic lanes. Both are fixable, and both should be dealt with before somebody is injured.
It depends on board thickness and how much has already been removed. A solid strip floor might take six to eight full sands across its life. We measure the remaining wear layer at survey.
No. Every job is carried out by our own directly employed team using our own machinery. It is why we can commit to a finish date and why the standard is the same on the last day as the first.
Book a free survey of your floor in Kent 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.