Court Contractor in Flagstaff, AZ

Apex Court Builders, a family business based in Phoenix, builds and resurfaces pickleball, tennis, basketball and multi-sport courts in Flagstaff. Apex Courts Arizona LLC holds Arizona ROC 324026, one license that covers commercial and residential work, grading and concrete included, and court lighting is on the same contract. A court here is planned around dark sky rules, frost and a short coating season.

Call (480) 264-6889, Monday to Friday 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM Arizona time, or request a free estimate.

Flagstaff became the world’s first International Dark Sky City on October 24, 2001. Its outdoor lighting standards, Division 10-50.70 of the Zoning Code, were rewritten by Ordinance 2022-27, adopted November 15, 2022.

In the 2022 standards, section 10-50.70.040 puts city land within 2.5 miles of the Kaj Strand telescope at the U.S. Naval Observatory in Lighting Zone 1 and the rest of the city in Zone 2. Section 10-50.70.020 requires an Outdoor Lighting Permit before any regulated fixture is installed, modified or replaced.

Under section 10-50.70.060.C, lighting for an outdoor recreation facility is fully shielded, 2,700K or less, and designed by an Arizona registered engineer and certified before construction and after installation. Table 10-50.70.060.C turns sports lighting off by 9 PM in Zone 1 and 11 PM in Zone 2, except to finish a scheduled event already under way.

A house lot is tighter. Table 10-50.70.050.B caps a single family or duplex lot at 1,500 lumens in Zone 1 and 5,000 in Zone 2, motion sensing lights aside, and Table 10-50.70.050.C bars any fixture of 700 lumens or more there. The standards do not say whether a backyard court is a recreation facility or house lighting, and under the house limits a light on a pole gets no lumens at all in Zone 1 and shares a 1,500 lumen cap in Zone 2. Ask the city’s Zoning Code Manager for a written answer first.

The weather station at Flagstaff Pulliam Airport, 7,003 feet up, averages 202 days a year with a low at or below freezing, and on about 190 of them the high climbs back above freezing. The city’s design criteria for houses set the frost line at 30 inches, so ask Building Safety how deep fence post and light pole footings should go. One coating maker asks for a slope of at least 1 percent, a vapor barrier under a concrete slab and drainage around its edge.

The same maker wants air and surface at 50°F or warmer and rising, no rain on the way, and new concrete cured 28 days before the first coat. Another maker’s resurfacer needs 50°F during application and for at least 24 hours after. At the airport, normal highs top 50°F from March through November, but normal lows reach it only in July and August. So a coat that needs a warm night is held to July and August, and even then the low drops to 50°F or below on about 12 July nights and 15 August nights. One that needs only a warm day fits late spring into early fall, and a normal winter day stays too cold for either.

The National Weather Service says monsoon moisture usually reaches northern Arizona in early July and then brings afternoon and evening storms most days, which favors morning coats. A slab poured late in the season may have to wait for the next warm season to take its color.

New court lights also need a permit for the electrical work, since the city’s building permit handout exempts only minor electrical repair such as replacing lamps. A fence up to 7 feet needs a zoning permit but no building permit, so a 10-foot court fence needs a building permit. The handout’s exempt list names sidewalks and driveways but not a court slab, so ask Building Safety whether it needs one.

Forest Highlands’ development standards, revised in September 2020, do not permit tennis or other game courts, and a basketball goal there needs Design Review Committee approval. Flagstaff Ranch’s residential development standards, amended through July 2017, prohibit tennis and other game courts and every wall-mounted or freestanding basketball goal. Elsewhere, check the CC&Rs first.

Pickleball courts

Apex builds a single pickleball court in a backyard or a multi-court layout serving an HOA or a club. Each is a concrete slab, and its acrylic color coats wait for the short coating season above. See pickleball court construction.

Tennis courts

Apex builds a regulation tennis court to about 120 by 60 feet, counting its run-off. Where the lot is tight, a smaller practice layout fits instead, and a second color can add pickleball lines to either one. See tennis court construction.

Basketball and multi-sport courts

Apex builds basketball courts as half courts or full courts. Of the two communities named above, one bars the goal outright and the other puts it to a review committee. Apex’s multi-sport courts give one slab the lines of more than one game.

Apex builds bocce courts as well as padel courts.

Resurfacing runs from cleaning and crack repair through leveling, an acrylic resurfacer, color coats and lines. A recoat keeps to the same coating season as a new court. Cracks grow season to season, so fill them early. A sound tennis court can be converted for pickleball without a new slab, and one tennis footprint fits up to four pickleball courts. See court resurfacing and repairs.

Every court is quoted per project, and final pricing depends on court size, existing surface condition, crack repair, drainage and low spots, coating system, colors, striping and site access. Tell us where the court is going, whether the lot is in city limits or an association, and whether you want lights. Call (480) 264-6889 and the owner answers. The consultation is free. Or send the form below and we call you back.