ForConstructionPros.com

If your company already offers sealcoating and line striping, you might want to consider adding tennis court maintenance to your lineup of pavement services. Tennis court surfacing and striping is a logical extension of the skills you and your crew already possess. Many paint and sealcoating suppliers offer the materials you will need for these jobs and can be a good source for advice when starting out.

Tennis court work, however, does require additional knowledge and the patience to meet the high standards set by your customers, but in the end it has the potential to pay off for you.

"Contractors just looking to consider tennis court work sometimes are scared off by the price," says Jeff Gearheart of SealMaster. "When you see driveway sealer for $1.50 a gallon, and then you see tennis court surfacing at $8 or $9 a gallon, some people might not want to make this initial investment, but they get so much more money for the area they are doing."

"Money wise, we've done quite well," says Brad Buck, partner at C&B Buck Bros. in Holland, OH. "If we're slow in one area, the tennis court striping seems to pick up some of that. I do a lot of six-court areas, and for a school system it takes seven days to do it. So that's seven days that my guys have more work and we've got other crews who are out sealing driveways and parking lots."

J&S Asphalt in Rocklin, CA, has been working on tennis courts since the late 1980s and has their own tennis court crew that does surfacing, striping, and building. President Roy Sampson says the tennis business has been successful for his company, too.