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Flooring Professionals To The Leisure Industry
Courtship Flooring is a commercial sports flooring contractor working in Rutland and across the UK. A small county where most work involves school halls and community buildings serving several purposes each.
Established in 1987 and still family-run, we install, refurbish, sand, seal, mark and maintain indoor sports floors for schools, academies, colleges, universities, leisure trusts, local authorities and clubs. Every stage is carried out by our own team. We do not undertake domestic work; that is handled by 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
A modest hall gets the same process as a multi-court facility: survey with moisture readings, dust-controlled sanding, matched repairs, correctly built-up seal and accurate markings.
Scale changes the duration and the price, not the method. Smaller jobs are frequently completed inside two or three days, and because repairs are handled in-house rather than subcontracted they remain viable rather than being turned away.
Facilities without a technical estates team are at a disadvantage when contractors disagree about what a floor needs. Our survey report is written to be read by a governor, trustee or committee member rather than a specifier.
It sets out what the floor is, what condition it is in, what the realistic options are and what each costs, in plain language. You can use it to challenge any quotation, including ours.
In a small county, coordinating with a neighbouring school or hall spreads mobilisation across both and reduces the cost for each. It is the single easiest saving available to smaller facilities.
We are happy to arrange that between unconnected organisations and quote each separately, so nobody depends on anybody else’s decision or timetable.
Years of heavy use had left the sports hall floor at Aston University dull, patchy and worn along every busy lane. Our team sanded it back to bare timber, made good the damage, then rebuilt the finish with a durable seal and a full set of new markings, working around a demanding academic timetable.
The before and after photographs show what a properly executed refurbishment delivers: a floor that looks and plays like new, for a fraction of replacement cost and without weeks of disruption.
~ 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 halls are asked to accommodate five or six sports on one floor, and the difference between a hall that works and one that confuses everybody is hierarchy rather than cleverness.
We start by asking what is actually played, and in what proportion. The sport used most gets the dominant colour and the clearest line. Secondary sports step back. Anything genuinely redundant comes off, which is almost always the single biggest improvement available.
The conflicts are predictable. Netball goal circles land on the basketball key. Badminton tramlines cross both. Five a side markings run through everything. We resolve them by colour weight and by removing clutter, not by adding more variation into an already crowded floor.
Colour choice is made under your own hall lighting rather than on a paint chart, because LED refits have changed how colours read in a great many halls. Two shades that look distinct on paper can merge completely on the floor.
The real saving in looking after a sports floor is not in the refurbishment, it is in avoiding one.
A floor that receives a light screen and recoat every two to three years may never need another full sand. A floor left until the seal has worn through to bare timber will need a full refinish, and will have lost some of its remaining wear layer permanently in the meantime. Over the life of a building that difference is substantial.
A planned programme means scheduled visits rather than reactive calls: deep cleaning, screen and recoat when it is due, minor board repairs, remarking as lines wear, and an annual written condition inspection.
The inspection is the part clients tell us they value most, because it turns an unpredictable risk into a short report with a clear recommendation and a rough cost. That is something that can be put in front of a board or a governing body, and it is a great deal better than finding out in July that a hall will not open in September.
The question we are asked most often, and the answer comes down to three measurements rather than an opinion.
The first is the remaining wear layer. Every full sand takes timber off, and a floor that has been through many cycles may be close to its fixings. Once a sander reaches the tongue the board is finished, and nothing changes that.
The second is the structure. Isolated failed pads and battens are routine repairs. A system that has failed widely, or one that never suited the hall, is a different proposition.
The third is moisture. A slab with an active problem will destroy any floor laid on it, new or refurbished, until the cause is dealt with.
If the wear layer is adequate, the structure is largely sound and the slab is dry, refurbishment is almost always better value and will give many more years. Where those things are not true we say so plainly, because a refurbishment on a failing floor is money spent twice.
Every quotation follows a site visit, because a sports floor holds information you cannot get from a photograph and a price given without it is a price that will change.
We take moisture readings in the boards and, where there is any reason for doubt, in the slab beneath. Moisture from below is the single most common cause of a new finish failing early, and it is far cheaper to find before the work than afterwards.
We measure the remaining wear layer. Every full sand removes timber, and a floor that has been through several cycles may be close to its fixings. Knowing where you stand tells you whether this is a floor to refinish now or a floor to plan on replacing in a few years.
We lift a vent or an edge trim and look underneath. Dead spots, squeaks and movement almost always start below the boards, and no amount of work on the surface will touch them.
Then we record the finish, the markings and the condition of the perimeter. The survey takes about an hour and it decides everything that follows.
Rutland is small but it holds a disproportionate amount of the kind of building we work in: independent school sport, village halls and community facilities that serve a wide rural area.
Independent school sports halls, gymnasia and squash courts are a significant part of the work here. These are usually well maintained buildings where the expectation of finish quality is high and the work is planned a long way ahead into fixed holiday windows. A good proportion is preventative screen and recoat rather than full refinishing, which is the cheapest way to run a sports floor.
Village halls and community buildings follow. Because the population is spread, these halls tend to do a great deal of work: sport one evening, a parish meeting the next, an event at the weekend. That mixed use scores a floor from chairs and tables rather than wearing it evenly, and it usually sands out well.
We quote by element so a hall committee can see exactly what each part costs and phase it across two years if the funds require.
Rutland is small, but the halls here work hard and the enquiries reflect that.
Independent school sport accounts for a good share. Those halls are generally well maintained and come to us for preventative screen and recoat work rather than rescue, which is exactly how a sports floor should be run.
Village and community halls are the other main group, and because the population is spread, each hall does a great deal: sport one evening, a meeting the next, an event at the weekend. The characteristic damage is fine scoring from chairs and tables rather than concentrated sports wear, which sands out well.
The recurring complication is polish. Halls that have been polished for decades need that build up removed chemically before any sanding, because it clogs abrasives, and it is the item most often missed in quotations from firms that do not do this work regularly.
Court markings wear out long before the floor underneath them does, and recognising that is what saves facilities a great deal of money.
A timber sports floor might run eight to ten years between full refinishes. The markings on it, particularly in a netball centre third or a basketball key, can look tired in half that. If the seal is still sound and still gripping properly, replacing the whole finish because the lines have faded is an expensive way to solve a cheap problem.
The test we apply at survey is simple. If the lacquer is intact across the floor and only the markings have gone, you need relining. If the lacquer has worn through to bare timber in the traffic lanes, you need a refinish and the markings come as part of it. Somewhere between the two, a screen and recoat with fresh line marking usually gives the best value.
We will tell you which of the three your hall needs, and we would far rather quote the cheaper option and see you again in five years than sell a full sand nobody needed.
Price follows the size of the hall, the condition of the existing floor and the specification you choose rather than the postcode. Refurbishing a sound floor costs a fraction of replacing it, which is why we always price that route first. The survey is free and the quotation is fixed in writing.
Yes. Coverage is genuinely national, and where several facilities in one area need work, booking together shares the mobilisation and reduces the cost for each of them.
Yes, and it is the norm. Each sport is marked to its governing body specification in a distinct colour, with the layout planned so the primary court reads instantly. Crests and badges can be sealed in at centre court.
It depends on the depth remaining above the tongue, which we measure rather than guess. A floor sanded sparingly may have several cycles left; one machined every few years may have none.
Yes, including cradle, sports batten, pad and board and duo batten systems, specified against the sports being played and the build height available.
Regularly. We tender for frameworks, price on schedules of rates, and provide the full procurement documentation set including insurances, quality procedures and safeguarding arrangements.
Yes, and it is a genuine specialism. Granwood is a composite block in a bitumen bed, not timber, and it needs appropriate preparation and a modified epoxy coating system rather than standard sanding and lacquering.
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.
A light abrasion of the existing finish followed by a fresh top coat. It restores grip and appearance at a fraction of the cost of a full sand, and it works whenever the seal is worn but still intact.
Sealed vacuum extraction on all machines including edge equipment, screening of the working area, and agreement with your site team on isolating doors and air handling routes.
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.
Book a free survey of your floor in Rutland 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.