HOA, club and community pickleball courts

We build pickleball courts for St. Louis–area homeowners associations, swim-and-tennis clubs, churches, apartment communities and small parks. For a shared court, the decisions that matter most are siting for noise, a slab that won't become a crack-repair line item in your reserve study, and a bid package your board can compare line by line. Published Midwest ranges run $25,000–$45,000 per court on asphalt and $45,000–$80,000+ on post-tension concrete, and multi-court projects cost less per court because mobilization and base work are shared.

Site visit before any price · Free, written, itemized quotes · Your city's court rules checked first · Acrylic or modular tile, built by a crew with more than a decade of courts behind it

Who we build for

• Subdivision HOAs adding courts to a common area or replacing an aging tennis court.
• Swim-and-tennis clubs where pickleball demand is growing faster than the courts.
• Churches and schools with a parking-lot corner or a lawn that could hold two to four courts.
• Apartment and senior communities that want an amenity residents actually use.
• Small municipalities and park boards building a first set of dedicated courts.

The questions differ for each — a church cares about Sunday hours and youth programs, a senior community about cushioned surface and shade — but the build is the same: ground, slab, surface, fence, lights, drainage.

Start with noise, not with the site plan

The first question for any shared court is how far it is from the nearest home. Courts on common ground are often closer to residents than a backyard court would be, they get played more hours, and complaints land on the board.

St. Louis has a case that every board should know. A Kirkwood club built four courts in 2023 about 60 feet from the nearest homes. The approval was conditioned on a post-construction sound study showing compliance with the St. Louis County noise ordinance. The first study, reported in October 2023, found that an hour of continuous play exceeded the ordinance; local reporting describes two failed tests; the club's request for a taller acoustic barrier was denied; and the dispute ran through a lawsuit until September 2026. We cover the full timeline in the noise guide.

What that means for a board:

• Measure the distance first. One acoustics firm's published guidance recommends mitigation for courts within about 350 feet of homes and an acoustic review within roughly 500–600 feet.
• Know your noise standard. St. Louis County's code sets 55 dB(A) by day and 50 at night for residential land, and lowers both by 5 dB for impulsive sound. Wildwood uses the same levels but ends "daytime" at 7 p.m. St. Charles County sets 55/50 with daytime starting at 8 a.m.
• Budget for quiet equipment and rules. USA Pickleball's Quiet Category paddles and balls are the cheapest mitigation there is. Posted hours cost nothing.
• Treat acoustic fencing as a partial fix. A solid barrier around 10 feet tall gets roughly 5 dB at a nearby ground-level home, per one published acoustics guideline. That's helpful; it's not a cure for a court that's too close.

Layouts for two to eight courts

Shared courts usually go in banks side by side, each with its own run-off. A few rules of thumb we use:

• Each court needs its 30 × 60 minimum, ideally 34 × 64. Two courts side by side need a 60 × 60 pad at minimum size or 68 × 64 at the preferred size.
• Long axis north–south, per USA Pickleball, so no one serves into a setting sun.
• Divider netting between courts keeps balls from rolling into the next game; low side fencing (USA Pickleball's minimum is 3 feet) does the same job permanently.
• Gates and a wheelchair-accessible route from the parking or path to every court. ADA access is part of the site plan, not an add-on.
• Room for spectators and waiting players — a bench row behind a fence, not on the court.

Why post-tension makes sense for shared courts

A shared court is a long-lived asset that shows up in a reserve study. On St. Louis clay, post-tension concrete often narrows its up-front premium over its life:

• Published examples put post-tension court life at 30 years or more, with the acrylic surface redone about every 8–10 years.
• Asphalt typically delivers 15–20 years before major rehabilitation; most acrylic courts need resurfacing every 4–8 years.
• Post-tension needs no control joints in the playing area, so there are no joints to open up after a few winters.

On published 2026 Midwest figures, the midpoints of the two ranges differ by about $27,500 per court. Over twenty-plus years, a longer resurfacing interval and no mid-life rebuild narrow that difference. We'll show your board both options in the bid, priced side by side. The engineering is in post-tension vs asphalt vs concrete.

Lighting: check before you promise evening play

Several communities in our service area restrict court lighting, and some prohibit it on residential land. Ladue prohibits sport-court lighting on residential properties (private clubs with a special use permit may light courts). Town and Country prohibits exterior lighting on permanent game courts in its estate districts. Where lights are allowed, plan LED fixtures with shielding, a curfew, and pole footings below the 30-inch frost line. ASBA recommendations (as reproduced by a lighting manufacturer) call for about 30 average footcandles for recreational play and 50 for club play. More in lighting and fencing.

Converting the tennis court you already have

Many St. Louis–area subdivisions have a tennis court that's lightly used and cracking. One tennis court holds four pickleball courts, and a conversion runs $5,000–$15,000 per tennis court on published Midwest ranges — if the slab is sound. If it isn't, conversion is money spent on a surface that will fail with the slab underneath. See tennis-to-pickleball conversion for how we triage an old court.

Budgets, reserve studies and bid packages

Boards get stuck on money and on comparing bids that don't describe the same project. Our HOA pickleball court planning guide walks through the sequence — resident survey, siting, noise exposure, budget and reserve, bid package, rules — and comes with free downloads:

• a resident survey template,
• a quote comparison checklist, and
• a court-use rules template.

Our written bid for a community court lists slab type and thickness, base depth, surface system, fence footing depth, drainage, lighting, who applies for each permit and what's excluded, so your board can line it up against any other bid.

Our court crew is a family-owned court builder that has built courts across Missouri and Illinois for more than a decade, and hundreds of them: backyard and community pickleball, basketball and multi-sport courts, outdoors and indoors. The crew is an authorized installer for a modular court-tile system and backs the courts it builds with lifetime support.

Not ready to talk yet? Start with the complete St. Louis court construction guide — the whole build, in St. Louis terms, with sources.

Frequently asked questions

How many courts should we build? Run the resident survey first. Two courts is the practical minimum for a community — one court means a line.

Do we need city approval if the courts are on our common ground? Almost always. Courts on common ground are still subject to zoning, fence, lighting and grading rules, and some cities require commission review. See the permits guide.

Can residents' dues pay for it over time? That's a board and budget decision. Many boards fund courts from reserves or a special assessment; put the resurfacing cycle into the reserve study either way.

What about liability for noise? The Kirkwood case turned on whether a noise condition was enforceable, not on a fixed distance rule. Site for distance and plan quiet rules from the start; don't count on a court ruling to settle a neighbor dispute.

Do you build for churches and schools? Yes. Tell us about the site and the hours you expect on the quote form.

Get a quote

Send us your site, court count and timeline. We'll walk the site with your committee and deliver a written bid your board can compare. Get a quote.