Dismantling of courts 1 -4 started on 25 August. By 31 August, we were ready for checking the flatness of the slabs. We estimate that the slabs were poured about 25 years ago and I was a bit worried about their condition. First thing we want to do is check for any low spots where water will form ponds when it rains...
We instructed the supplier to conduct flatness testing with strings by putting nails at 2 meter intervals along the edges of the court and stretching strings across the court to form 2 X 2 meter grid pattern.
We then check the flatness along each of the 4 sides of each box of the resulting grid pattern.
So we check the gap between the string and we identify any areas with a 5 mm or more gap over a 2 Meter run.
The string test identified a few areas like the one above... and the vendor will repatch these areas and we'll run a final "live" ponding test by intentionally flooding the courts with water later in the week.
The slabs were in surprisingly good condition except that we found a few dozen "holes" about 1 inch in diameter scattered all over. We eventually identified these as places where wooden stakes were used to level the slabs during pouring back in the 80's . The wood has since rotted away, and rain running through the holes has created small voids of various depths. In the photo below, the vendor is checking the depth and extent of one of these holes... this one turned out to be over a foot deep and perhaps 6 inches in diameter. We won't hack these up, as that would do more damage than good... instead we'll fill them as best we can and seal them with concrete...
Work on all four courts is scheduled to finish by the end of October, but the vendor is well ahead of schedule and I think we may be able to play on them again by the end of September if we continue to have good weather...
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