Basketball, pickleball & tennis · Michigan
Courts get measured twice and painted once.
Basketball, pickleball and tennis, laid out to the dimensions the game asks for. The measuring is the real work — the paint just follows the chalk.
Why courts are different
Why a court takes longer than a lot.
On a parking lot, a stall an inch out of line is invisible. On a court, the dimensions are fixed by the sport rather than by your slab, and anyone who plays the game reads the space instinctively. A key that is slightly wrong or an arc that is slightly flat looks off immediately, even to people who could not tell you why.
Which means the measuring is the job and the spraying is the easy part. Arcs and keys are geometry, not freehand. Everything gets measured and chalked before any paint moves, because paint is the one part you cannot take back.
The other half of it is stencils. I own mine outright, including a full basketball set, so your date does not depend on a rental coming back from somebody else's job.
What I line
Courts, and the lines that go on them.
Basketball
Full and half court, keys, free-throw and three-point arcs.
Pickleball
Singles and doubles, service courts and the non-volley zone.
Tennis
Full layout, singles and doubles lines, service boxes.
Shared courts
Pickleball or basketball overlaid on tennis, color separated so both stay readable.
Multi-court sites
Several courts laid out together and kept consistent across the whole area.
Perimeter & keylines
Boundary lines, center marks and the detail that makes a court look finished.
Scope
I line courts. I do not build them.
Worth being blunt, because court projects have several trades on them and it is easy to assume one person covers the lot.
What I do
- Layout and measurement
- Line marking, all sports above
- Stencils and logos
- Overlay lines on an existing court
- Re-marking a faded court
What I do not touch
- Resurfacing and color coating
- Crack repair and slab work
- Net posts, hoops and fencing
- Asphalt or concrete installation
Layout work
Measured first, painted second.
The shots below are lots and drives rather than courts — court photos go up on this page as courts get finished. What they show is the part that decides a court: symbols, arcs and lettering that have to land where the tape says, on the first pass.
Questions I get about courts
Questions I get about courts.
Do you resurface courts as well?
No. I lay them out and line them. Resurfacing and color coating are a different trade, and if your surface needs that it should happen first. Get it coated, let it cure, then I line it.
Can you add pickleball lines to an existing tennis court?
Yes, and it is one of the most common asks. The thing that makes it work or fail is color separation. Two sets of lines in similar colors means nobody can read either of them from the baseline, so the overlay gets marked to stand apart from what is already down.
How long does a court take?
Most single courts are a day once the layout is set, and the layout is the part that takes the time. Multiple courts in one area are more efficient per court, so if you are doing several it is worth doing them together.
What condition does the surface need to be in?
Sound, clean and dry. Paint does not bridge cracks and it does not hide a failing surface, it draws a line straight across the problem. If the slab needs work, that comes first.
Can you mark to a specific standard?
Tell me which standard you are marking to and I will lay it out to those dimensions. Court dimensions are set by the sport, not by the slab, so the honest answer on a tight site is sometimes that the space will not take a full-size court.
Do you own your stencils?
Yes, including a full basketball set. Nothing on your job is waiting on a rental coming back from somebody else.
Do you work for schools and parks departments?
Yes, and a lot of court work is exactly that. Most of it comes through the contractor running the wider project, but I am happy to deal direct.
Nordic Lines LLC
Which court, and where?
Send me the address and what you want marked. If it is an overlay, tell me what is already down.
(734) 624-4164Call or text. If I am running a machine, I call back in the morning.