Painting a Court's Walls, Fence, Posts and Roof in Negros Oriental

Red-oxide primer on a steel pole beside a newly plastered block wall. Two surfaces, two different paint systems, and two different ways to fail. Illustrative photo.

Short answer: a pickleball court is mostly not the slab. Around the playing surface you have block walls, steel fence posts and rails, net posts, perhaps light poles and, on a covered court, a roof, and each one wants a different paint system. On new plaster the data sheets we read ask for dry, low-alkali masonry, not a day count. On black steel they ask for a prepared surface, a primer and a topcoat built up to a film thickness, with the edges, welds and bolts getting extra. Galvanised steel needs a different primer or none. A roof can be bought already painted, which usually beats recoating it. For the calculator's default case (69 m of 0.75 m wall plus a 2.44 m chain-link fence on 24 steel posts and four net posts, open court), AEDO's own Canlaon unit rates give about ₱12,700 all-in for about 52 m² of wall and 30 m² of steel, before contractor overhead, profit and VAT. Those rates come from a roof estimate (concrete columns and roof steel) and are applied here to a plastered wall and to fence pipe, so read the figure as a floor, not a price. That is small money next to the slab, which is the reason to ask for it as its own line in a quotation.

AEDO designs and checks nationwide and builds only in Negros Oriental. If your court is in Dumaguete, Bais, Sibulan, Tanjay, Canlaon, Manjuyod, Bayawan or anywhere else in the province, the paint specification for the walls, steel and roof can be written into one design-build contract, or priced as construction from your plans. Elsewhere in the Philippines we do the complete design, review the quotations and check milestones on the contractor you hire. This post covers everything around the slab; the paint on the slab itself is in our court paint types guide and the surface options guide, why coatings fail is in the peeling and blistering guide, when the court can be painted is in the painting schedule guide, and the lines are in the line marking guide.

1. What Goes on Each Surface

The table is the whole post in one place. The sections after it explain each row and say which parts are sourced and which are our reading. Product names are the ones whose data sheets we read; we are not recommending a brand, and AEDO is not a paint supplier and has no agreement with any brand named here.

2. Walls: Plaster, Alkali and Moisture

New cement plaster is alkaline, and a damp block wall pushes paint off from behind. The sheets we read deal with that in two different ways.

• A day count. Boysen's Philippine pages for Permacoat Latex and Acrytex both say to let new concrete dry for 14 to 28 days under normal weather before painting, and the Permacoat page adds that no neutraliser is needed after 28 days. Boysen's exterior masonry schedule is flat latex primer, then Acrytex Cast B-1711 for patching, then two topcoats; the masonry putty is for interiors only, as our tile and painting guide explains.
• A measurement. Nippon Paint (Hong Kong) gives no day count in its alkali-resistant exterior wall sealer or Weatherbond sheets. They say the surface must be clean, dry and free of oil, grease, dirt and loose material, the pH must be below 10, and high moisture causes paint defects, with a Protimeter moisture limit (a 6% to 19% window on the sealer sheet; the Weatherbond copy we read is garbled, giving a limit of 6% or a reading of 19). Both say to avoid painting below 5 °C or above 85% humidity, and not to paint when rain is expected during painting or drying.

Read together, the practical test for a new wall is a moisture and pH reading with the product's limits in hand, not the calendar. AEDO practice, not a sourced rule: in the Manjuyod job plan the plastering is done after the floor pour so the finish is not wrecked by the fill operation and the delivery truck; the plan puts plaster on the outer face above ground only, 52.06 m² of block face plus 5.48 m² of beam face. (The plan's own wall table, 32.58 m at 0.70 m and 36.56 m at 0.75 m above ground, multiplies out to about 50.2 m², so the 52.06 includes something the table does not show; we have not resolved the difference.) The proposal we read has no separate paint line for that wall, and the painting line (Item F) is for the court slab.

Coverage. Boysen gives 25 to 30 m² per 4 L as a primer and 30 to 35 m² per 4 L as a topcoat for Permacoat flat latex, at 1.4 to 1.7 mils, and says the figure depends on surface texture and porosity. Nippon Hong Kong gives 12 m² per L for the sealer, and 10 m² per L per coat at 30 µm for Weatherbond. Plaster is rough and thirsty, so the calculator starts at the low end of each range. Primer and topcoat times are short (Boysen flat latex: touch dry 30 minutes, recoat 1 hour at 25 °C and 50% humidity; Weatherbond overcoat 2 hours at 25 °C, full cure 7 days), so the wall is not what holds up the programme.

A wall that holds back fill is wet from behind. A court raised on fill, like Manjuyod, has block walls with soil on one side. Paint on the exposed face will not stop water coming through from behind, and our damp wall guide explains why a fresh coat over an active moisture source often peels again within a rainy season. Find and stop the water first; our waterproofing guide prices an external wall coating at ₱530 to ₱720 per m², which is a different job from a paint coat. The plaster itself is priced in the CHB and plastering guide, and a free-standing perimeter wall in the CHB perimeter fence guide.

3. Steel Posts, Frames and Trusses

On masonry the paint is mostly a finish. On steel it is the rust protection, and what decides how long it lasts is what you cannot see once the job is done: the preparation, and the film thickness.

• Preparation. Jotun's data sheet for Penguard Express MIO (an epoxy it says can be used as primer, midcoat or finish) lists St 2 as the minimum for carbon steel and Sa 2½ (ISO 8501-1) as recommended. Cloverdale's ISO 12944 system sheets describe Sa 2½ as a near-white blast-cleaned surface with all visible dirt, oil, rust, mill scale and old paint removed, and list Sa 3 for the systems they show. AEDO's Canlaon roof specification calls for the steel to be wire-brushed to remove mill scale, rust, oil and dirt, then one shop coat and one field coat of red-oxide or epoxy anti-corrosive primer, then finish coats. We have not classified wire-brushing against the ISO grades, so when a quotation says "wire-brushed" ask which grade it assumes. Boysen's B-310 page gives no preparation steps for black steel; its only rust instruction is for corroded galvanised surfaces (wire-brush the rust, apply its etching solution for 10 to 15 minutes, remove the residue and prime straight away), so do not read it as a rust-removal standard for black steel.
• Film thickness. Boysen Red Oxide Metal Primer B-310 is 2.0 to 2.5 mils per coat (51 to 64 µm, converting at 25.4 µm per mil) and Quick Drying Enamel 1.8 to 2.0 mils (46 to 51 µm). Jotun's industrial epoxy is specified at 75 to 250 µm per coat. A Cloverdale ISO 12944 example for category C5 (system C5.07) is zinc-rich epoxy 60 to 80 µm, epoxy 100 to 150 µm and polyurethane 30 to 100 µm, which add up to 190 to 330 µm; the sheet itself states a nominal total of 10.2 mils (260 µm) for that system. These are different products for different exposures, so do not read them as equivalent; the point is that "two coats" means nothing until the film thickness is stated.
• Spreading rate is thickness in disguise. Jotun's sheet gives volume solids of 74%, a spreading rate of 9.9 m² per L at 75 µm and 3 m² per L at 250 µm. The arithmetic checks: spreading rate in m² per L = volume solids % × 10 ÷ film thickness in µm, so 74 × 10 ÷ 75 = 9.9 and 74 × 10 ÷ 250 = 3.0. If a painter covers more area per litre than the sheet's theoretical rate, the film is thinner than specified, because theoretical rates assume no loss and a smooth surface.
• Hold times and weather. Jotun's sheet for Penguard Express MIO at a substrate temperature of 23 °C: touch dry 1 hour, overcoat minimum 2 hours, cured for service 4 days; at 10 °C the minimum overcoat is 4 hours. Its times assume relative humidity below 85%. Jotun's older sheet for Penguard Topcoat (an epoxy topcoat, issued March 2005 by Jotun Saudia) asks for a substrate at least 10 °C and at least 3 °C above the dew point, and for concrete not more than 4% water by weight. Boysen's B-310 recoat time is 12 hours and Quick Drying Enamel 8 to 12 hours (the enamel hardens fully in 3 days), at 25 °C and 50% humidity. Crew size changes none of these; they are set by the product, the temperature and the air.
• Finish. Jotun's Penguard Topcoat sheet rates its gloss retention "fair". Every C4 and C5 example in the Cloverdale guide ends in a polyurethane topcoat and marks the system UV durable. If the posts are in full sun, ask what the finish coat is and what the sheet says about gloss and chalk retention; Jotun's Express MIO sheet warns that epoxy used as a finish coat may chalk in sunlight.
• How much of this a court needs. KTA-Tator says edge coating may not be warranted for mild or interior exposure and is typically worth it in highly corrosive settings, and that tubular members have fewer edges and corners than I-beams. Court posts and rails are pipe, so their edge problem is mostly at cut ends, welds, caps and bolted fittings. Hempel's guideline is written for heavy-duty spray-applied systems in tanks and similar structures, so we use it for where the film runs thin, not as a court specification.

What AEDO's Canlaon record says. The Canlaon roof estimate prices the steel surfaces (truss, purlins, bracing and base plates) at 481.85 m² and ₱172.10 per m² all-in for red-oxide primer and enamel, and the concrete columns at 170.80 m² and ₱144.87 per m² for neutraliser, primer and a 2-coat acrylic latex. Those are the two rates the calculator uses. They are unit rates in an estimate that excludes VAT, contractor overhead and profit, and they were built for large, open areas (columns, trusses, purlins). Thin pipe posts, rails and fittings with edge coats take more hand work per m², so a contractor's quotation on your court will likely come in higher; treat them as a floor for planning, not a market price. Our steel fabrication guide converts the same rate to about ₱12 per kg for angle sections.

Maintenance is part of the system. The manual tells owners to touch up nicks and scratches on coated net posts as soon as they occur, and to examine fence posts at the footings for deterioration of the coating and patch where needed. It also warns that a rusting portable net frame left on the court may stain the court surface. For the cost of repainting a rusted roof frame and when it is no longer a paint job, see our rusty roof truss and purlin guide.

4. Galvanised Steel and the Fence Mesh

The manual describes most court fencing as a vinyl, polyester or polyolefin coated frame with matching coated mesh, says coated fencing usually costs more than galvanised but has long-term benefits, and says to consider coated materials where pollution is high or the court is close to salt water. As a saving it allows a galvanised frame and fabric, or coated fabric on a galvanised frame, and says the galvanised frame can be painted to match the vinyl fabric. It sets the standard mesh at a 2 in diamond, most often 9 gauge, and says a 7 to 8 ft fence is commonly used for most courts. It also says that if windscreens will be attached to the fence frame, the fencing should be engineered for wind loads by a professional engineer (printed page 64), which matters before any post size in the calculator is trusted.

• Painting over zinc is its own job. The American Galvanizers Association says a duplex system, paint over hot-dip galvanised steel, needs a paint specifically formulated for zinc, a prepared surface and telling the galvanizer in advance that the work will be painted. It names ASTM D6386 for preparing zinc-coated steel for painting; we read the AGA page, not the standard. Its own pages quote different service-life multipliers for duplex systems (1.5 to 2.5 times on one page, 1.5 to 2.3 on another), so we do not use one.
• New zinc and weathered zinc are treated differently. Boysen's pages say new galvanised surfaces are wiped with thinner, etched with a 10% solution of its Metal Etching Solution B-71 (1 part to 9 parts water), rinsed and dried at once; galvanised steel exposed for 6 months or more needs no etching. Jotun's Penguard Express MIO sheet lists, for galvanised steel, a cleanliness corresponding to the description of Sa 1 as both the minimum and the recommended preparation; we did not read ISO 8501-1 itself to say more.
• Galvanised and left bare is a legitimate choice. The calculator's third option removes the posts, rails, net posts and poles from the paint area. It does not remove the need to look at them: our lighting guide notes that, as general practice and not a code statement, hot-dip galvanised steel holds up better than bare painted steel in coastal air, and the manual's advice to inspect posts at the footings still applies.

5. The Roof: Pre-Painted, Recoated or Cool

On a covered court the roof is the largest painted surface, and the cheapest way to deal with it is usually not to paint it: pre-painted sheets are available. AEDO's Canlaon roof estimate prices 0.6 mm pre-painted rib-type roofing at ₱737.94 per m² all-in, including flashings, ridge, screws and insulation, and has no paint line for the sheets; its painting items cover only the steel and the concrete columns. Choosing the colour when you buy the sheet is a decision, not a paint job. The structure under it is in our covered court roof guide.

If you recoat. Boysen's Roofgard page describes a gloss, water-based acrylic roof paint for galvanised iron, pre-painted galvanised sheets and unglazed roof tiles, at 30 to 35 m² per 4 L at 1.4 to 1.7 mils, recoat after 2 hours at 25 °C and 50% humidity, with at least 2 coats, a VOC of 12.3 g/L, and the same new-zinc etch and rust preparation as above. Painting a rusted roof is a repair question first: if the purlin lips are gone, paint is not the fix, and our rusty roof guide shows how to measure what is left.

Cool-roof paint: what the maker says and what independent sources say. Boysen's Cool Shades page says a film with infrared-reflecting pigments stays cooler because it reflects infrared light before it turns into heat, and gives no reflectance number on the page we read. We did not find an independent rating for that product. The independent sources we read describe the physics and the limits:

• The US Department of Energy's cool roof guide says a roof's "coolness" is set by two properties, solar reflectance and thermal emittance, each on a scale of 0 to 1. Its 2011 edition says that in warm or hot climates a cool roof can cut the annual air-conditioning energy use of a single-storey building by up to 15% (a figure the guide attributes to studies, without naming sites), that it can cool interior spaces in buildings without air conditioning (it gives no number for that), and that it is rarely economical to replace a mechanically sound roof just to raise its solar reflectance.
• Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory's Heat Island Group says on a typical summer afternoon a cool-coloured roof that reflects 35% of sunlight stays about 12 °C cooler than a traditional roof that looks the same but reflects only 10%, and a clean white roof reflecting 80% stays about 31 °C cooler than a gray roof reflecting 20%. Those are roof surface temperatures, not room temperatures or bills.
• The Cool Roof Rating Council describes itself as a nonprofit that develops methods for evaluating and labelling the radiative properties of roofing and exterior wall products. Ask any supplier for rated initial and aged reflectance and emittance values, not a brochure sentence.

Our reading, which is reasoning and not a measured Philippine result: an open-sided pickleball roof has no air conditioning, so the "up to 15%" figure does not apply. DOE says a cool roof can make a non-air-conditioned building more comfortable but gives no figure, so how much cooler the court feels is unquantified here. A reflective colour on new sheets is cheap to choose; paying to recoat a sound roof for it is the case DOE says is rarely economical. A coat of paint is also not the cure for a roof that drips on cool nights; our condensation guide covers what is.

6. Coast and Humidity

If your court is near the sea, salt changes what a paint job has to do. We did not classify any particular site, and the standard that does the classifying, ISO 12944, is a paid document that we have not read. What we read is vendor summaries of it. The older extract labels its example environments as typical of a temperate climate, so neither sheet classifies a Negros Oriental site:

• Cloverdale's 2017 systems guide and an earlier fan-maker's extract both list the corrosivity categories C1 to C5, plus CX in the newer one. C4 (high) includes industrial and coastal areas with moderate salinity. C5 (very high) includes coastal areas with high salinity. The newer sheet puts "subtropical and tropical atmospheres" under CX (extreme).
• The first-year steel loss for C5 in the older extract is more than 80 and up to 200 µm, the same band as in our rusty roof guide, which reads ISO 9223 directly and explains that the category comes from measured test coupons or estimates, not from a distance to the sea.
• Durability ranges are not a guarantee. The 2017 summary gives low as up to 7 years, medium 7 to 15, high 15 to 25 and very high over 25, and calls them an approximate service-time expectancy; the older extract gives low 2 to 5, medium 5 to 15 and high over 15, and says the range is not a guarantee time. The ranges changed between editions, which is itself a reason to ask which edition a quotation follows.

The practical use is a question for the painter: which corrosivity category and durability range is this system meant for, and where is that written? The manual's own advice for fencing is to consider coated materials near salt water or heavy pollution. Humidity matters on the day too: Nippon's limit is 85% relative humidity, and Jotun's topcoat sheet asks for a substrate 3 °C above the dew point. Our condensation guide works out dew points from PAGASA station data, and the same arithmetic tells you whether a steel member is too cold to paint at dawn.

7. Colour and Ball Visibility

The manual says nothing about the colour of a painted block wall. What it says is about windscreens, the screens hung on the fence: for the best ball visibility the darker the windscreen the better, with black or dark green preferred, and a windscreen reduces sun glare off chain-link fencing and posts. Glare from the light fixtures is a separate subject, covered in our lighting guide along with the poles; the manual recommends light poles be centred on or immediately outside the fence or court.

Our reading, labelled as common practice and not a sourced finding: a matte mid or dark colour behind the baselines is a calmer background for the ball than a bright white wall in full sun, and posts and fence frames in a dark coated finish cut the glare the manual mentions. A bright wall is fine on the sides, away from where players look. The manual also notes some manufacturers offer poles with baked-on polyester or vinyl finishes in colours matched to net posts and fencing, which is an option when you would rather not paint poles on site.

8. How the Calculator Gets Its Numbers

Every line can be checked by hand. For the default case:

• Wall. 69.14 m × 0.75 m × 1 face = 51.86 m². The Manjuyod job plan has 52.06 m² of plastered block face above ground (its own height table multiplies out to about 50.2 m², see section 2); 51.86 is within 0.4% of the plan figure.
• Fence posts. 69.14 m ÷ 3.0 m = 23.05, rounded up to 24 posts. Each is a pipe, so its surface is π × diameter × height: π × 0.060 × 2.44 = 0.460 m², and 24 of them are 11.04 m².
• Rails. Two rails along 69.14 m of 41.3 mm pipe: 2 × 69.14 × π × 0.0413 = 17.94 m².
• Net posts. 4 × π × 0.075 × 1.0 = 0.94 m². Steel total 29.92 m².
• Litres. Area × coats ÷ coverage × 1.10 wastage. Wall primer 51.86 ÷ 6.25 × 1.1 = 9.1 L and topcoat 51.86 × 2 ÷ 7.5 × 1.1 = 15.2 L. Steel primer 29.92 × 2 ÷ 6.25 × 1.1 = 10.5 L and finish 29.92 × 2 ÷ 7.5 × 1.1 = 8.8 L. In 4 L cans that is 3 and 4 for the wall, 3 and 3 for the steel.
• Cost. Wall 51.86 × ₱144.87 = ₱7,512. Steel 29.92 × ₱172.10 = ₱5,150. Total ₱12,662, shown as about ₱12,700. The wall paint at retail (24.3 L × ₱171.75 per L, the Boysen can price in our tile guide) is about ₱4,180, and the calculator shows "not priced" for the steel paints because we found no Philippine price for them.
• Cross-check. Our tile and painting guide puts an exterior wall system at ₱290 to ₱480 per m² supplied and installed, which on 51.86 m² is ₱15,000 to ₱24,900, about 2.0 to 3.3 times the Canlaon-based wall figure of ₱7,512. The gap is real: Canlaon is an estimate before overhead, profit and VAT on concrete columns, and the guide is a planning range for a full exterior system with filler. Note also that the guide's paint-materials-only line for that system is ₱165 to ₱230 per m², above the Canlaon all-in ₱144.87, so the two are not like for like and the Canlaon rate is a low floor. Take the cheaper number as a floor, the other as an upper planning figure, and a written quotation as the answer.

The default case is not the Manjuyod job. It borrows the Manjuyod wall run, but the proposal we read excludes nets and fencing and its painting line is for the slab. The fence on 24 posts and the four net posts are our additions so the steel rows have something to show.

9. What to Ask, and What AEDO Does

Before you accept a quotation for the enclosure:

• Areas, per surface, in m². Wall face, steel (posts, rails, net posts, poles, truss) and roof, listed separately.
• Product names with the data sheet for every layer, so you can read the coverage, the recoat time and the application limits yourself.
• The steel preparation grade (Sa, St or "wire-brushed") and who checks it before the primer goes on.
• Coats and film thickness, not just "two coats". On steel, ask whether edges, welds and bolts get a edge coat.
• For new walls, a moisture and pH reading against the sheet's limits, not only the age of the plaster.
• Galvanised members: the etch or the zinc-formulated primer, or a statement that they stay bare.
• The weather rule: the temperature, humidity and rain conditions in which the painter will not work, and what happens to a coat that gets rained on.
• The corrosivity category the system is meant for, if the court is near the sea.
• Touch-up paint left with you and what the warranty covers. The manual's own maintenance advice depends on touching up a scratch the same week.

Frequently Asked Questions