You know the story: the city wants to redo our surface and asked me what material we’d like. I’d just like it a bit smoother/ less grippy…
I asked around quite a lot and people are mostly using asphalt and concrete. I came to no clear conclusion about what’s better so please give your 2 cents, do your own research and let’s discuss this here. Otherwise I’d just tell them same again please but a little bit smoother…might be a missed opportunity though.
Cheers
I can’t say much on the perfect roughness and or material, as I don’t have much experience with different courts.
One point tho, I think is important, is that we use this opportunity to have the crease marked on the new surface.
Cheers
Timon
I know fresh asphalt from the streets. Really smooth to ride on, but still grippy. Concrete I know from the euros at dolder, this was too slippery for me and I don’t think that the dust which comes from the conrete while using or when new is a big plus for riding bikes on. So asphalt is my choice because grip and smoothness is very well combined.
Aari
I also have a suspicion that asphalt might be grippier when wet and could be very smooth. problem is we need some real life experience/ know how from people who have worked with it. We are talking about an investment of several 10’000.- by the sportamt, so we should really know about which material fits our criteria and constraints (like the thinness of the layer). Longevity is also an important point that I no fuck all about…
So please help think about who / where we could find this sort of knowledge
i’m coming from a construction background (i’m an architect and mostly working on what we call “aménagement” which means roads, parcs, paths, public places and sport playground) and threfore i work with compagnies that could do this kind of stuff, i’ve asked a bit.
If the aim in term of feeling is like Bienne (imo the best court ever: BIENNE SKATER BS 90 ) or the GVA court at “Aire La Ville” the material will be what we call “enrobé bitumineux” which is basically what is called here “asphalt” (which is what roads are made from).
The thing is that you will need “enrobé” with small rocks which is called “Enrobé AC 4” (the lower the number the thinner the rocks are).
BUT something to consider is what we could call “the glue” that “link” the rock together: for demanding sport like Inline Hockey / Skatter or Bike Polo the glue will have some “strengthen” properties.
And yes it’s serveral 10’000, likely around CHF 200.-/m2 depending on the work to do (for example if you can “just” remove the last current “layer” then add the new “AC 4” or if you need to go deeper).
But for a court about 20x40 (800m2) at CHF 200 /m2 you are at about 160’000.
This is a really rough estimation without knowing anything about the location and the final product.
I’ll ask around a bit more and come back if you are interested.
I personnally dont know them but the Swiss company “Realsport” have already some reference about Inline Skater court like this one:
Aaaaah merci quentin!!! I talked to people from taranto to montpellier but i didn’t think of you! Yeah I’m starting to look at asphalt as a great option. I couldn’t seem to find any swiss companies that actually specialize in hard sports surfaces. I’ll contact them right away. Amazing how expensive this can get for a layer just a couple of millimeters thick.
I didn’t get this though:
BUT something to consider is what we could call “the glue” that “link” the rock together: for demanding sport like Inline Hockey / Skatter or Bike Polo the glue will have some “strengthen” properties.
Can you elaborate? And yes, any info is appreciated if you want to keep digging!
Thanks again
youre welcome
companies:
Lapati:DIE PATI - EISBAHN-SPEZIALISTIN SCHWEIZ
Realsport: https://www.realsport.ch/fr/outdoor/skaterinline-hockey/gletterens-chemin-du-devin
price:
My estimation wasn’t about a 2mm layers but more about a situation in which you will need to demolish something existing (like about 50mm existing concrete or old asphalt) and then build like 40mm of new asphalt.
BUT something to consider is what we could call “the glue” that “link” the rock together: for demanding sport like Inline Hockey / Skatter or Bike Polo the glue will have some “strengthen” properties.
What i mean is that the “formula” from a regular asphalt will be fine for a court but could also be optimized with special additive to renforce the ground (it could also be BS marketing stuff but i’m not an expert).
Real Sport called me back today (at 7:30 
). Apparently they only do soft multisport surfaces. the one in your link must have been done by a subcontractor. they will call me back with the name though
thanks again
Just thinking out loud. Do we know what is our current surface ? That would be ideal with a bit less roughness.
okay i talked a bit during a meeting yesterday with guys from Scrasa (a construction company, not sure they have “antenna” in ZH but they work a lot in GVA).
The new estimation is way lower, based on the hypothesis that you could only remove like 4cm of old surface, clean it, and then put bac a new layer of “SDA-4” (which is really small asphalt that should work).
It should be around CHF 30’000 (detail below, in french sorry).
Yeah that would be an option. The problem is no matter the material it seems that it’s quite tricky to do just a very thin layer that bonds well to the concrete below, so no water will enter and blow it up when freezing. This could work better with asphalt.
A cement based layer similar to the one we have could be great but I think it’s pretty hard to get it to bond well and to have just the right smoothness/ roughness. It’s rare to find a (more or less local) construction company to discuss this with - companies that actually build hardcourt sport venues that is…
Remy, did you try to contact Velosolutions? They are based in Flims dorf and are specialized in Pumptracks. They will have some experience about the surface material.
Hey
Thanks for helping. What makes you think they would know more? I’m sure they are concerned about tire grip but it doesn’t have to be all that smooth and in the end it’s just asphalt…
Cheers
No guaranty they know more. But since the requirements we have for a surface for polo seems to be very specific to our sport (grip, speed, durability), finding company experienced in building similar equipment is probably your best chance to find precise info. They seems to be building a variety of indoor and outdoor tracks, certainly at different level of finition. Since they are a bike focused company, they might be more openminded to discuss on other type of bike sports.
The other option I can think of are companies building skatepark. But it’s mostly smooth concrete then, like in Sihlcity. There you will have the chance that the company already with the city of Zurich, which may be a benefit.
Cheers
Ello. Does anybody want to take over the dossier ‘court surface’? Research is kinda done, for what I know fine asphalt like in geneva (aparently ac4) should be good, for concrete it really seems to depend on the experience and tecnique of the construction company…
The guy from sportamt wanted to contact dolder about that.
Last correspondance was two mails from me a while ago that never got a reply…also couldn’t get him on the phone.
@Kiki @Zita you want to take care of this?
I’m here for questions
I’ve also been waiting to hear whats up. Any idea where to go from here?
yeah I’d just keep trying to call the dude and ask him how they would go about finding a suitable company. i’d also contact the rollhockey guys again and see if they can agree with the choice of material…
I can do this but I also imagine this being a longer process and I kinda don’t want to do all of it.
so i might as well pass the baton now
Ok, baton received. Where do I find all the contact details I need?