Larkspur Basketball Courts

Ask anybody who has one and they'll tell you the court gets used for basketball maybe half the time. The rest is a scooter track in June, a hockey rink the week it drops below freezing, the place a kid learns to ride a bike, where the folding tables go when there are too many people in the house, and a lot of hours of somebody shooting alone at dusk.

Larkspur properties have the one thing that makes this work: room. Nobody out here is squeezing a court between two fences. What these lots hand you instead is slope, trees, and distance from the road, so grading and the access plan matter more than square footage. Get the plane right and it plays true for thirty years.

Court sizes and what fits a Larkspur lot

One plane, and joints that stay out of the way

A driveway can crown. A patio can pitch two directions to a corner. A basketball court cannot do either, because the moment the surface has a fold in it the ball starts behaving differently depending on where you dribble. So we build the whole slab as a single flat plane tilted about one percent in one direction, usually toward the low side of the property, and we check it with a laser before and after the pour rather than trusting a screed and good intentions.

Joint layout is the other half of playing true. Concrete gets control joints or it cracks where it feels like cracking, and a random crack across the top of the key is exactly what you don't want. We draw the joint plan around the court lines: outside the lane, along the sidelines and the baseline where possible, and never straight through the shooting areas. Cut them the same day the slab goes down, tight and early, so the concrete relieves itself in the cut instead of somewhere embarrassing.

Then the finish. A medium broom gives grip for shoes without shredding knees, and it takes an acrylic sport coating well if you want color and painted lines later.

Weather, seasons, and living with it year round

Pour between late spring and early fall. A court is a large single placement and we want a full day of settled weather, which in July and August means starting at first light and finishing ahead of the storms building over the foothills. Rain arriving mid-finish drives water into the surface and hands you a court that dusts. On something people slide across in sneakers, that's more than cosmetic.

Sun at this elevation is the underrated factor. Ultraviolet exposure runs harder here than down in the metro, and it goes after acrylic coatings and painted lines faster than most people plan for. Budget on refreshing both periodically. Prefer not to think about it? A plain broom finish with no coating ages gracefully and wants sealing every few years.

Winter use is the fun part. Snow clears off easily if you get to it before it packs, and plenty of families out here flood a corner and skate. Keep ice melt off it, magnesium chloride above all. And sweep the pine needles in autumn, because a wet needle mat left all winter stains concrete and leaves a slick patch in March.

What we build into a court

• Grades shot across the whole footprint before we quote, so the earthwork is a number and not a hope
• Subgrade cut, road base built up in thin layers and compacted layer by layer
• Number 4 rebar tied on a grid and set on chairs, because a court is one big uninterrupted slab
• 4,000 PSI air-entrained mix, placed continuously in a single pour
• Single-plane screed with laser verification, no crown and no double pitch
• Joints cut the same day, mapped around the key and clear of the shooting lanes
• Goal footing dug below frost, sleeved, and poured with the pad or as its own element
• Medium broom finish, then coating and striping once the concrete has cured