Court markings and court dimensions
Continental would be delighted to assist in the design of the layout of your hall and the coordination of the line markings required for the various sports you intend to play. It is vital that the sports equipment is coordinated with the sports equipment and the dimensions of the sports equipment you purchase so we believe the lowest risk is to have the lines set out by the same people setting out the sports equipment. Please do not hesitate to contact us for any advice with regard to dimensions of courts, layouts, run-offs, typical compromises etc. We would also be pleased to prepare a coordination line marking drawing for your project. We charge £375 for the production of line marking drawings including as many iterations are necessary and we are pleased to offer a credit to that value if we are appointed to carry out the line marking work in your facility.
We can mark courts on any type of sports flooring – from vinyl / polymer type floors to solid timber floors including the necessary seal on top of the lines on timber floors.
We have set out below various governing body recommendations for different sports along with court marking drawings.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Sport England's current guidance on the standard size of a 4 court sports hall is now 34.5m x 20m x 7.5m. Previously the standard dimensions were 33m x 18m x 7.6m, although many halls are still being constructed to the old standards. Sport England has also standardised the terminology for the different levels of each sport into the following categories (from Recreational, Club, County, Regional, National, International):
- Community
- Club
- Premier
- International
Line colours
We are regularly asked what colour the lines for different sports should be painted. There are few hard and fast rules for multi-sport environments (most specific guidance is for high level facilities with only one sport marked) but the general guidance is: (1) avoid using the same colour for more than one sport, and (2) ensure the lines contrast with the floor colour. The guidance from the different popular sports is as follows:
| Sport | Guidance | Typical colour actually used | Source of guidance |
| Badminton | "preferably white or yellow" | White | Laws of Badminton |
| Basketball | "white or other contrasting colour" | Black | Official Basketball Rules |
| Five-a-side | no guidance | Yellow | |
| Futsal | "clearly distinguishable from the colour of the pitch" | Orange or Blue | Futsal - laws of the game |
| PLEASE NOTE: The laws of the game of Futsal specify "All lines must be 8cm wide". This can visually overwhelm the other sports lines particularly in a small hall (other lines are 50mm and 40mm for badminton). In smaller halls it is therefore common to paint 50mm lines for Futsal to prevent that sport dominating. | |||
| Handball | no guidance | Orange | Rules of the Game (Indoor Handball) |
| Netball | "preferably white" | Red | INF Rules of Netball |
| Volleyball | "of a light colour which is different from the colour of the floor and from any other lines" | Light green or light blue | FIVB Official Volleyball Rules |
| Tennis | "clearly contrasting with the colour of the surface" | Yellow | ITF Rules of Tennis |
| Indoor hockey | "a light colour which contrasts with the playing surface and are a different colour to any other lines on the floor. For higher level competitions, or when there are no other markings, the lines should be white" | Blue or orange | FIH Facilities guidance - INDOOR HOCKEY |
| Boccia | no guidance | Contrasting colour that is unused elsewhere - red, grey, pink, white, dark blue may be used | BISFed Boccia Rules |
| PLEASE NOTE: Boccia courts are the same size as badminton courts so often they are superimosed on badminton courts. In those instances the perimeter of the badminton court is used as the perimeter of the Boccia court - so only the incremental Boccia lines are marked and in a colour different to the badminton colour. | |||
| Pickleball | "clearly contrasting with the color of the playing surface" | Normally badminton lines are used (they are a very close approximation to Pickleball lines) | USA Pickleball Official Rulebook 2024 |
Line Priority
We are regularly asked to confirm which lines take precedence in order of painting. The general rule on line priority (i.e. which lines are painted on top when they cross other courts, and which are underneath others) is that the faster the activity, the smaller the projectile, and the more important the line, the higher the priority.
Therefore the fast sport of badminton with a small projectile is normally the top priority and most badminton courts are marked on top of other lines. Sports such as netball and football require lower emphasis on the lines so those lines are lower priority and will be underneath other sports lines.
The exception to the above is in halls that have a particular sport focus. So if a hall is primarly used for netball but accommodates other sports then the netball court will be painted on top of all other courts.