FAQ
Har-Tru or a hard court: which should I build in the Hamptons?
Har-Tru if you want the surface the fork plays on and will pay to keep it; a hard court if you want to walk out and play. A clay court costs $60,000–90,000 nationally plus about $2,000 a year, is watered overnight and at midday, brushed, rolled daily in the spring freeze-thaw and reconditioned every year with two tons of new material, and it plays in light rain; the clubs here are almost all Har-Tru: SPORTIME’s 33 courts, the East Hampton Tennis Club’s 15, Montauk Downs’ 6, Mashashimuet’s 8. A post-tensioned concrete or asphalt court costs $45,000–80,000, needs a wash and an algae treatment, a recoat ($4,000–10,000) when the colour wears and 30–120 minutes after rain, and lasts 10–25 years. A junior on the tournament track wants both within reach.
Last updated · Reviewed by South Fork Courts
The case for clay
The South Fork is a clay fork. SPORTIME Amagansett built 33 Har-Tru courts, the East Hampton Tennis Club 15, Montauk Downs 6, Mashashimuet Park in Sag Harbor 8, and the estates followed the clubs, because the game most Hamptons players learned is the slower, higher-bouncing, sliding game of green clay. Har-Tru is crushed metabasalt, slightly harder and faster than European red brick clay; it holds moisture for footing, plays in light rain when a hard court is a puddle for two hours, is kind to knees and old backs, and a well-kept court looks, from the house, like a lawn with lines.
The price of that is the routine. Watering overnight and at midday, brushing after play, rolling daily in the spring freeze-thaw until the court compacts, periodic divot repair and drainage clearing, and an annual reconditioning that cleans, levels, top-dresses with about two tons of new Har-Tru and relays the lines. Nationally that is a $60,000–90,000 build plus about $2,000 a year, with reconditioning priced at $2,500–3,000; on the fork it is a service contract on the clubs’ calendar, mid-April to early November, and a water bill at the Suffolk County Water Authority’s $1.866 per hundred cubic feet, which subsurface irrigation cuts by up to 60%.
The case for hard
A post-tensioned concrete court, $45,000–80,000 nationally, or asphalt at $40,000–80,000, plays the day it is dry and asks for a wash, an algae treatment and a recoat ($4,000–10,000) when the colour wears. It is the surface of the US Open and of every hard-court tournament a Hamptons junior will travel to, which is why the two hard courts at Mashashimuet Park are the busiest public courts in Sag Harbor in tournament season. It lasts 10–25 years, asphalt 15–20, and it dries in 30 to 120 minutes after rain. Its weakness is the base: on the outwash soil south of the highway that saturates every winter, an asphalt court over a bad base cracks from below and the recoat does not fix it. Post-tensioned concrete is the answer the guides give without explaining why, and we could not read the engineering source that does.
What decides it
- Who plays. A family that plays for pleasure: clay. A junior who competes on hard courts: hard, or clay with a hard court in reach.
- Who maintains. A house with a manager and a service contract: clay. A house that is empty from November to May and has nobody to roll in April: hard.
- Where it sits. Ocean side, in the wind: hard courts dry out less; clay wants irrigation and a windscreen. Bay side, damp: clay likes it; hard courts grow algae.
- What the village says. Neither surface changes the setback, the sunken-court rule or the lighting ban; both need the base designed for the water table.
What we do
Tell us which game you play and who will look after the court, and we send you to a builder who lays that surface in your town, and, for clay, to a company that will dress it every spring.
Services
Related services
Har-Tru & Clay Courts
The South Fork’s surface: what Har-Tru is, why it plays in light rain, the $60,000–90,000 build and $2,000 a year after it, the weekly routine, two tons of spring top-dressing, and irrigation.
New Tennis Court Construction
A new court from $45,000 to $80,000 nationally by the surface you choose, the 7,200 square feet it needs, the setbacks, coverage caps and permit clocks the towns and villages add, and the season it takes.
Court Maintenance & Seasonal Care
What a court needs every week, spring and year: the Har-Tru routine and its two tons of top-dressing, the hard-court wash and algae treatment, the $1,800-a-year average and $2,000 for clay, rain and the season.
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