You have decided to build a padel court. The money is committed and the site is ready. Now what actually happens — in what order, for how long, and at what stages can things quietly go wrong if nobody is watching?
A padel court looks like a single product, but it is eight separate construction stages done by different trades. Miss the spec on any one of them and the court still looks finished on handover day. The problem shows up six months later — a cracked slab, a flexing frame, a glass panel that shatters on its own in the summer heat.
This guide walks you through every stage, what you need to verify at each one, and how the whole thing fits into a realistic timeline for North India. The full padel court construction cost in India runs ₹9–14 lakh for a single outdoor court.
Step 1: Site Clearance and Layout
The court footprint is 20m × 10m. But you need more than that — plan for at least 20m × 11m clear (1m service zone minimum behind each baseline) and ideally 22m × 12m if budget allows for proper run-off. Most contractors confirm final peg positions at this stage, and it is your last chance to catch a setback or drainage issue before any civil work starts.
In North India, sites often have existing utilities running through the ground — water lines, electrical conduit — that were never mapped. Before breaking ground, ask for a services check. Hitting an underground cable or pipe adds a week to your project before anything useful happens.
Drainage fall is also decided here. The finished court needs a 0.5–1% fall to perimeter channels. Your contractor should mark the outlet direction before the first excavation cut. On a flat site this is easy to get right. On a site that has been filled or levelled, the sub-surface may drain the wrong way, and you find out after the slab is poured.
Step 2: Foundation and RCC Slab
The foundation is where most padel court failures start, and where the most corners get cut. An RCC slab 150–180mm thick with steel mesh reinforcement is the correct specification. Anything thinner, or poured without rebar, will crack under commercial use within two to three years.
The sequence: excavate 400–500mm below the finished level, compact the sub-base with 150–200mm of crushed stone, install a perimeter anchor beam (at least 30×30cm, ideally 40×40cm — this is where the steel structure bolts in), lay rebar and mesh to specification, then pour and finish to a flatness tolerance of no more than 3mm deviation over 3m. That last figure matters — poor flatness means the ball bounces inconsistently, and players notice immediately.
Build in your drainage channels during the pour, not after. In North India, monsoon rainfall intensity far exceeds what European padel drainage tables assume. Size your channels and catch-basins to the actual 30-minute IMD rainfall intensity for your city, not to a generic European design figure.
Mini-story — Jaipur, 2025. A developer poured a 100mm slab to save ₹80,000 on concrete and rebar. The contractor told them it was "sufficient for sports use." Within 18 months, a 4m crack had opened along the baseline. The repair — saw-cutting, pressure grouting, resurfacing — cost ₹2.8 lakh. The court was unusable for six weeks during Jaipur's peak playing season.
Step 3: Steel Frame Erection
The steel structure anchors into the perimeter beam you built in the slab stage. Columns at 80×80×3mm minimum for standard courts — upgrade to 100×100mm at corners and on any open-field or wind-exposed site. Bracing at 60×40×3mm. This is typically imported from China as a kit with pre-drilled base plates.
The finish matters for India's climate. Hot-dip galvanizing to ISO 1461 is the outdoor standard — it gives roughly 15 years of protection without repainting. Duplex coating (hot-dip plus UV-stable powder coat) is the best available option and is worth specifying for exposed outdoor courts where repainting is inconvenient. Powder coat alone is fine for indoor courts.
When the kit arrives, check the column section before erection. A column that looks right from the outside can be 60×60mm rather than 80×80mm — a 25% reduction in section that you will not catch once it is upright and painted. Ask to see the mill certificate. See our full guide on padel court steel frame specifications.
Step 4: Glass and Mesh Panels
Back walls are 3m of tempered glass (EN 12150, 10mm standard) with 1m of galvanised wire mesh above. Side walls step: 3m high for the first 2m from each back corner, then 2m high for the run, with mesh above reaching 3m. Access doors go at the centre of each side wall — at least 1.05m × 2m for single doors.
The fixing detail is what separates a good court from one that starts cracking within two years. Every glass panel sits in a PVC bushing with a neoprene gasket — glass never touches steel directly. The fixing holes are drilled before the glass is tempered. Holes drilled after tempering cause edge stress and almost always result in cracks within 12 months in the thermal cycling of a North India summer.
Insist on heat-soak-tested glass. The test holds panels at ~290°C for two hours to flush out any panels with a nickel-sulphide inclusion — the invisible flaw that causes tempered glass to shatter spontaneously months after installation. The cost is small; the alternative is a ₹3 lakh panel-and-mobilisation bill a year into operation. See the full padel court glass walls guide for everything you need to specify.
Step 5: Turf and Sand Infill
Padel turf is PE monofilament, 10–15mm pile (12mm is standard competition spec), glued to the slab with adhesive and jointed with heat-welded seams. After laying, roughly 2.5–3 tonnes of dry silica sand (0.2–0.5mm grain) is brushed into the fibres at 8–15 kg/m².
The silica sand is not decorative — it holds the fibres upright and determines how the ball bounces. Too little infill and the court plays fast and unpredictable. Too much and the court feels dead. The correct infill level is set by the turf manufacturer's specification for that particular pile weight, not by guesswork.
For North India, specify a turf with at least 5,000 hours UV stability plus a named HALS stabiliser (Chimasorb 944 or equivalent) in the spec sheet. A vague "UV resistant" claim is not a specification. The difference between UV-rated turf and unrated turf in Gurgaon or Delhi summer is roughly three years of useful life — and turf replacement runs ₹2–4 lakh once mobilisation is included.