Covered Pickleball Court Roof: Structure & Cost (Philippines 2026)

Two courts under one steel-truss roof. The columns stand outside the playing surface, and the eave height is set by the lobs, not by the roofing sheets. Illustrative photo.

Short answer: two courts under a steel truss roof on reinforced concrete columns, with a 19.5 m span, a 6 m eave and a 250 kph design wind, come to about ₱1.69 million, or roughly ₱4,190 per m² of roof plan area, with a planning range of ₱1.52 to ₱2.12 million. That is the calculator's default case below, and it covers footings, columns, grade beams, truss, purlins, roofing sheets and painting only. It leaves out VAT, contractor overhead and profit, permits, design fees, the court floor and the lights. The rate is scaled from a real estimate for a roofed pickleball facility in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental: ₱4,015 per m² of roof plan area without its mezzanine, ₱4,734 with it. Every court roof we have designed is governed by the same three things: wind uplift, seismic Zone 4 and where the columns can stand.

No Philippine code sets pickleball court dimensions, and the international rulebook sets no minimum roof height either, so most of the real decisions belong to the owner and the engineer. Below: the roof options compared honestly, how the structure is built (with the Canlaon numbers worked out), the NSCP basics, the court layout against the column grid, the mistakes we see, and what to send an engineer.

1. What the Roof Has to Cover

Start with the court, because it fixes the span. The USA Pickleball 2026 Official Rulebook, Section 3 sets a court of 20 ft × 44 ft (6.10 × 13.41 m) for singles and doubles (Rule 3.A.1), measured to the outside of the lines (Rule 3.A.2), with lines 2 in. (5.08 cm) wide (Rule 3.A.4.e). Rule 3.A.3 gives the space around it:

A few things the rulebook does not give you. It sets no minimum ceiling height. It does list the ceiling, walls, fencing and lighting fixtures as permanent objects (Section 2, Definitions): a served ball that touches one is a fault (Rule 7.E.3), and after the serve a ball that hits one before bouncing on the court is a fault (Rule 10.C.4). Rule 17.B.2 has the referee check court conditions, including lighting, before each match. And it gives no spacing between neighbouring courts; that is layout practice. No Philippine code sets pickleball court dimensions or roof clearance either. Roof height is therefore your decision, and a low eave is the mistake owners regret most (section 6).

The floor is a separate job with its own cost; our pickleball court construction cost guide covers slab, surface and lines. This article is about what stands over it.

2. Roof Options Compared

Four systems come up in real enquiries. The cost column is relative to a steel truss on RC columns, which is the only one we have a costed example for; the other multipliers are AEDO planning judgement and say so.

The honest ranking for a typhoon country: a designed steel roof first, a steel frame second, fabric only where you accept re-covering it and the frame is designed for the fabric loads, and purlins alone only as a narrow side canopy. Our sibling posts cover the same steel questions at other scales: the covered court and multi-purpose hall cost post, pre-engineered vs conventional steel, and concrete vs steel frame.

3. How the Structure Is Built: the Canlaon Numbers

Here is the anonymised reference: a roofed pickleball facility in Canlaon City, Negros Oriental, over three courts, from AEDO's cost estimate, project specification and structural design report. The frame envelope is 29.71 m × 18.80 m, and the load path runs through these parts:

• Frames. Seven transverse portal frames at 4.95 m centres (six bays, 29.7 m). Each has two RC columns and one welded steel angle-bar truss spanning 19.50 m centre to centre. The truss is double-pitched, with a 2.57 m ridge rise (about 14.75°) and a raised ventilation monitor at the ridge.
• RC columns. 14 columns, 400 × 600 mm, 6.10 m from top of footing to top of column, with 14 main bars of 16 mm and 10 mm ties at 75 mm in the confined end zones and 150 mm at mid-height. Lateral resistance across the roof is cantilever action of these fixed-base columns.
• RC pedestals and footings. 14 isolated footings, 2.00 × 2.00 × 0.40 m each, plus 12 grade beams (0.30 × 0.40 m, 4.55 m clear) tying the footings. The design assumed an allowable bearing pressure of 120 kPa pending geotechnical investigation, soil weight 18 kN/m³ and 1.60 m of soil over the footings, with safety factors of 1.5 for sliding and overturning.
• Truss. Angle bars: L75 × 75 × 5 chords and L36 × 36 × 3 webs, ASTM A36. The chord separation runs from 0.40 to 0.60 m. The estimate counts 64 pieces of the larger angle and 60 of the smaller, 6 m long, including 10% cutting waste.
• Bearing plates and anchors. A 400 × 600 × 10 mm steel plate at each column head, 8 anchor bolts of 16 mm × 250 mm per column (112 in all), cast into the column.
• Purlins and bracing. 126 cold-formed C-purlins, 2 in. × 6 in. × 1.8 mm, 6 m long, and 30 round-bar braces of 16 mm with turnbuckles.
• Roofing. 650 m² of pre-painted rib-type long-span sheet priced at 0.6 mm in the estimate (the project specification says 0.50 mm base metal; the two documents disagree, and we use the estimate because it is the one that carries the price), with flashings, ridge roll, screws and 10 mm insulation, plus 78 m² of fixed-blade ridge louvers. The 650 m² is 1.16 times the 558.5 m² plan area; the estimate does not break that down, and the roof slope, laps, the ridge monitor and waste all add to it.
• Painting. Concrete: neutraliser, primer, two coats acrylic latex. Steel: red-oxide primer and enamel.

Working out the cost per m² of roof plan area

The estimate totals ₱2,644,409.95. It covers structural roof framing, RC substructure, formworks and painting, and excludes VAT, contractor overhead and profit, and permit and government fees. It includes a mezzanine (item J, ₱389,135.80) and a provisional 3.2% labour correction (item L.1, ₱81,997.21, which adjusts the unit costs to the ₱500 laborer and ₱550 skilled day rates used for Negros Oriental).

The item groups, before labour, per m² of the 558.55 m²:

Read this figure for what it is. It is a roof-and-substructure number: the specification for the same facility also lists the court slab, masonry, ceilings, plumbing, electrical, fire alarm and the court surface, and none of those are in this estimate. That is why it sits well under the ₱8,000 to ₱13,000 per m² AEDO planning band for a basic covered court with slab in our covered court cost post, and it should be compared with whole-building cost per m² only with that in mind. It is also one estimate with one set of unit costs; a different site, soil or contractor will land differently, which is why the calculator gives a range, not a number.

4. Wind and Seismic Basics (NSCP 2015)

Wind (Section 207). NSCP 2015 has no wind zones. The basic wind speed comes from contour maps chosen by the occupancy category of Table 103-1: Figure 207A.5-1A for Categories III, IV and V, 1B for Category II and 1C for Category I. On the 1A map the contours run from about 240 to 320 kph across the country, and at some sites the printed labels are hard to read. Read your site's value per location, or use our wind lookup; our wind load guide covers the formulas (velocity pressure q_z = 0.613 K_zK_ztK_dV², Section 207B.3.2). The Canlaon report used V = 250 kph, Exposure B, importance factor 1.00, gust factor 0.85 and a mean roof height of 6.50 m, and it analysed the roof as enclosed (internal pressure coefficient ±0.18); the project specification includes masonry walls, doors and windows. An open court with no walls is different: wind acts on the underside of the roof too. NSCP 2015 has net pressure coefficients for open buildings with monoslope, pitched and troughed free roofs (Figures 207B.4-4 to 207B.4-7, printed for a height-to-length ratio h/L from 0.25 to 1.0), so a low or long roof can fall outside them and needs the engineer's judgement.

Which category? Table 103-1 puts occupancies with 1,000 or more in an assembly room, or 5,000 or more people, in Category III, and calls everything not listed elsewhere Category IV. Category V is "private garages, carports, sheds and fences over 1.5 m high". A club roof is most likely Category IV, but the engineer assigns it, and a spectator stand can change it.

Why uplift governs. In the Canlaon design report the superimposed dead load on the truss (sheets, purlins, accessories) is 0.30 kPa (1.50 kN/m on a frame line at 4.95 m). The windward uplift is listed as 5.05 kN/m, about 1.0 kPa on the same basis: more than three times the weight of sheets and purlins, before the truss's own weight. That is why NSCP Section 203 includes 0.9D + 1.0W in strength design (the allowable-stress combinations use 0.6W): dead load helps, so you take less of it when checking uplift. The roof live load is set by Table 205-3: for a roof flatter than 1 in 3 with more than 60 m² tributary area, 0.60 kPa (Canlaon used 0.64 kPa on its frame spacing).

Seismic (Section 208). Section 208.4.4.1 makes Palawan (except Busuanga), Sulu and Tawi-Tawi Zone 2 and every other place Zone 4. The Canlaon design used Zone 4 (Z = 0.40) and soil profile type S_D. A court roof is light, so wind often beats earthquake for member sizes, but the system rules still bite. Table 208-11B lists steel systems by seismic zone: special truss moment frames are NP (not permitted) in Zone 4, as are intermediate and ordinary steel moment frames, and fixed-base steel columns fall under "cantilevered column building systems" (R = 2.2, Ω₀ = 2.0, limited to 10 m high in Zone 4). Special steel moment-resisting frames are allowed in Zone 4 (R = 8.0), but they carry special detailing rules. So in our steel-column designs the truss sits on the column heads as a pinned member and the columns cantilever from their bases. The Canlaon roof has RC columns instead, fixed at their bases and resisting the lateral load by cantilever action. For concrete, Table 208-11A lists ordinary and intermediate reinforced concrete moment frames as NP in Zone 4 and lists cantilevered column elements (R = 2.2, Ω₀ = 2.0, up to 10 m high) as permitted. Either way the frame across the courts leans on its column bases and footings.

Soil. The design assumed a bearing pressure of 120 kPa pending a geotechnical investigation; an assumed value is not a finding, and 120 kPa is above every non-rock presumptive value in NSCP Table 304-1 (100 kPa for gravel, 75 for sands, 50 for clay), while Section 303.3 asks for a geotechnical study to verify any bearing value better than the code's. NSCP Section 303.1 asks for a foundation investigation and a professional report at each building site and makes an exhaustive geotechnical study a requirement for structures of two storeys or higher; AEDO's published structural offer for smaller structures uses a presumptive value from Table 304-1 after the site has been inspected (Section 304.2). Either way, the drawings should say what was assumed, and the contractor should report soil that looks different.

5. Court Layout vs Column Spacing

• No column inside the court or its run-off. The 20 × 44 ft court sits inside the 30 × 60 ft minimum playing surface, and a column, brace or fence post standing anywhere in that surface is a permanent object in play. Put columns beyond the playing surface, and check the clear distance between column faces, not the centre-to-centre span: 64 ft (19.51 m) between faces means a centre-to-centre span of about 20.1 m with 600 mm columns. Canlaon's 19.50 m centre-to-centre span leaves less clear width than 64 ft.
• Frame lines can cross the courts; columns cannot. Trusses run across the court length at 4.95 m centres in the Canlaon roof, so they hang over the playing area, but the columns stand at the two ends. Adding a court adds bays along the row, not span, which is why cost per m² stays flat as courts are added.
• Two ways to orient the span. Span across the court length (about 19.5 m) and repeat frames along the row, or span across all courts side by side (two courts abreast is about 20.7 m). The plan area is the same; the span, truss weight and column reaction are not. The calculator defaults to the first.
• Height and lights. The eave is set by the lobs, then by the lights, which are also permanent objects. Our clear height post covers the same trade-off for warehouses, where every extra metre costs column, bracing and wind exposure.
• The rulebook gives no spacing between courts. How many metres you leave between adjacent courts is layout practice, so plan it with the owner and the engineer together; it decides the bay length along the row and where the frame lines fall.
• Solar or other loads on top? Extra loads change the design; see rooftop solar structural mounting before you add panels to a light court roof.

6. Typical Mistakes

1. Eave and ridge too low for lobs. The ceiling and everything hanging from it are permanent objects, and a served ball that touches one is a fault. Raising the roof later is a rebuild. Decide the clear height before the truss is drawn.
2. Uplift ignored on open structures. Footings sized for the weight of a light roof, and connections drawn for gravity. On an open frame the wind lifts more than the roof weighs (section 4). Check the anchor bolts, the plate and the footing weight against 0.9D + 1.0W.
3. Tarp in a typhoon zone with no engineer. A fabric roof that nobody designed for wind either tears (and you replace it) or holds, and then everything it catches goes into a frame that was never sized for it. We found no Philippine standard that sets the wind design of tarp roofs.
4. No soil information. A footing sized on an assumed bearing value can be wrong in either direction, and on a hillside or filled lot it can be badly wrong. Ask for a borehole or at least a test pit at a column position.
5. Columns inside the run-off. Drawn on a lot sketch that ignores the 30 × 60 ft surface, then discovered when the lines are painted.
6. Buying by pieces. A "purlin and roofing package" priced per sheet has no truss, bracing or footing in it, and the missing 60 percent or so of the cost turns up later. In the Canlaon estimate, roofing and purlins are only ₱1,586 of the ₱3,891 per m² subtotal.
7. Skipping the permit. A roof over a court is a structure. See the permit note below.

7. What an Engineer Needs From You

• A site plan or lot survey with the court positions, north arrow, boundaries and any existing buildings or trees.
• Court count and orientation: how many courts, side by side or end to end, and which way the roof should span.
• Location, so the wind speed can be read from the NSCP map and the seismic zone confirmed; note if the site is open, coastal or on a ridge.
• Soil information: any borehole, test pit notes, a neighbour's foundation experience or the local soil type. If there is none, say so, and the design will state its assumed value.
• Clear height and lights: the eave height you want and whether you plan sports lights or netting on the roof frame.
• Walls, fences or spectator seating planned now or later, because they change the wind case.
• A budget range and the type you prefer, so the engineer can say early if it does not fit.

A sensible order: court layout first, then the engineer's roof concept and column grid, then the drawings, then bids. For fees, our structural engineer fee guide lays out how design is charged, and the pickleball court structural design package fee post covers what a package includes. AEDO's published 3-working-day structural offer is ₱7,500 up to 150 m² and ₱50 per m² from 151 to 500 m². By that formula, a roof of about 404 m² would be ₱7,500 + 254 × ₱50 = ₱20,200 if the job is accepted under that offer; whether an open steel roof qualifies is confirmed on inquiry, and roofs above 500 m² or irregular ones are quoted per project.

8. Permit Note

Section 301.1 of the 2004 Revised IRR of PD 1096 says no person or corporation may "construct, alter, repair, convert, use, occupy, move, demolish and add any building/structure" without a building permit from the Building Official. The IRR's definition of a structure is wide: "that which is built or constructed, an edifice or building of any kind, or any piece of work artificially built up or composed of parts joined together in some definite manner." The exemptions in Section 301.3 are minor works such as sheds and playhouses of up to 6 m² for private use, open patios up to 20 m² on the ground, and garden walls under 1.20 m. A court roof is not on that list. Ancillary permits (Section 301.2), including the civil/structural permit, are signed and sealed by the professionals and submitted with the application.

Occupancy class is where it gets local. Rule VII lists tennis and basketball courts under Group A Division 1 when they are run by membership organizations for members and their families and "not operated primarily for gain". Pickleball is not named, and a club that charges per hour does not fit that wording. Group J Division 3 (accessory) lists "pelota, tennis, badminton or basketball courts" beside stages and platforms, and Table VII.1 lists a "playcourt, e.g., tennis, bowling, billiards" among its business and mercantile uses. Other candidates are Group C (buildings used for school or day-care purposes, involving assemblage for instruction, education or recreation) or Group H Division 3 (assembly building without a stage, under 300 occupants). The same section says an occupancy not named goes in the group it most nearly resembles. We found no IRR text that settles pickleball. The closest named match is Group J Division 3, and we expect an office to lean that way, but that is our reading, not a ruling: the classification is the Building Official's call, so ask before you design, because it drives the requirements. Tarp roofs: we searched the IRR text for tents, tarpaulin, fabric, shade and membrane. The only related items are awnings and canopies (Section 1006 for movable awnings on a wall, and 1609 for plastics in awnings and canopies) and Section 504, which lets the Building Official allow temporary structures in fire zones by special permit for a limited period. We found no exemption that would take a permanent tarp roof over a court out of Section 301. On fire safety, Section 10.2.8.13 of the 2019 Revised IRR of the Fire Code (RA 9514) says all grandstands, tents and other places of outdoor assembly must comply with NFPA 102, the US standard for grandstands, tents and membrane structures. We did not read NFPA 102, and whether the Fire Marshal applies it to a permanent fabric roof over a court is the Bureau of Fire Protection's call.

The processing steps have changed since 2004. Joint Memorandum Circular 2018-01, as amended by Amended JMC 2021-01, streamlines how building permits, certificates of occupancy and related permits are processed. We read the amended circular's purpose and legal basis: it restates that Section 301 of PD 1096 requires a building permit and that Section 309 requires a certificate of occupancy, so it changes the process, not the requirement. We searched for a later issuance that removes the permit requirement and did not find one, but we did not read the circular's process annexes. For what offices actually return, read why building permit plans get returned, and if the court sits inside a commercial venue, commercial fit-out permits. Lights and pumps need power: electrical service sizing covers the supply side.

Frequently Asked Questions