Pickleball Court Structural Engineer Checklist Philippines

Most delays on a court roof come from what nobody wrote down before the design started: the location, the soil, the eave height. Illustrative photo.

Short answer: before you ask any structural engineer to quote a pickleball court roof, have five things in hand: the exact location, a site plan with the court positions, soil information (or an honest "none"), a decision on roof type and eave height, and a target permit date. Those five decide the wind speed, the footing size, the span and the schedule. Everything else is refinement. This post is the list, why each item matters, what a good engineer should hand back, and a tool that scores how complete your brief is and writes the RFQ for you.

It is written for architects, contractors and developers, most of them outside Negros Oriental. AEDO builds only in Negros Oriental. Everywhere else in the Philippines we design, seal the structural plans, review remotely and check milestones, and your own contractor builds from the sealed set. If you are an owner rather than a professional, our covered pickleball court roof structure cost post is the owner-side version of this one.

1. Site Data

This is the cheapest part of the brief and the one most often left vague. What the engineer needs, and why:

• Location precise enough to read a map. City or municipality and barangay, or a coordinate pin. NSCP 2015 has no wind zones: the basic wind speed comes from contour maps, and the seismic zone comes from the location too. "Somewhere in Mindanao" is not a location.
• Site plan or lot survey with boundaries, the court positions, north arrow, existing buildings, trees and the road. The 30 by 60 ft playing surface (rulebook Rule 3.A.3) has to stay free of columns, so the engineer needs the real footprint, not a sketch of "two courts".
• Existing ground level against the finished court level. A pad raised 1 m changes footing depth, the retaining wall and drainage. If fill is planned, say how much.
• Exposure notes and photos. Coastal, hilltop, open field or sheltered by buildings. Exposure feeds the wind analysis and the engineer will otherwise assume the worse case.
• Number of courts and which way the roof spans. Across the 64 ft length (about 19.5 m) with frames repeated along the row, or across all courts side by side. The plan area is the same; the span, truss weight and column reaction are not. See section 5 of our roof structure post.

Court size is not a Philippine code number. No Philippine code sets pickleball court dimensions. The reference is the USA Pickleball 2026 rulebook, Section 3: court 20 ft by 44 ft (Rule 3.A.1), minimum playing surface 30 ft by 60 ft, with 34 ft by 64 ft listed as the recommendation for new construction (Rule 3.A.3). If your client's tournament or league wants a specific area, write it into the brief.

2. Soil Investigation (NSCP 303.1)

The single biggest reason a design gets reissued is a soil value that was assumed at the start and contradicted later. What NSCP 2015 Section 303.1 says, read from the chapter 3 scan: a foundation investigation shall be conducted and a professional report submitted at each building site; for structures of two storeys or higher an exhaustive geotechnical study shall be performed; and an exhaustive investigation should also be conducted for questionable, expansive or otherwise problematic soils (for example liquefiable, organic, compressible or sensitive ones). Table 303-1 sets minimum borehole numbers for the study by footprint: 1 up to 50 sqm, 2 from 50 to 500 sqm, and 2 + A/1000 (rounded up) above 500 sqm, with A in square metres. On that formula a 558 sqm roof footprint, for example, would need 3 boreholes if a full study applies.

A one-storey court roof is not automatically an "exhaustive study" job, and that is where the practice varies. AEDO's published structural offer says a presumptive bearing value from NSCP Table 304-1 may be used for smaller structures after the site has been inspected (Section 304.2), and not on mud, organic soil, peat or unprepared fill. Two cautions from our own reading of it:

• A presumptive value is a conservative code number, not a measurement. On a hillside, a reclaimed lot or fresh fill it can be wrong in either direction.
• On a light open roof the footing often has to hold the roof down against wind uplift, so weight and soil cover matter as much as bearing. The design should say which soil value and which cover it assumed.

For scoping, put one of three lines in the RFQ: "borehole report attached", "test pit at column position attached" or "no soil data, please state your assumed value". The tool above scores the first two as Yes and Partly. Soil testing is a separate cost and has no price on our pages, so we don't quote one.

3. Wind Speed: Where the Number Comes From

The wind speed is not a client input and not a supplier's brochure figure. It is read by the engineer from the NSCP 2015 Section 207 maps for the site, using the map that matches the occupancy category in Table 103-1. As our roof post explains, the printed contours run from about 240 to 320 kph across the country and the labels are hard to read at some sites, so the value must be read per location. What you can do in the brief:

• Give the exact location, and optionally run our wind lookup tool to see the value we would start from. Have the engineer confirm it in the design report.
• Ask that the report state the basic wind speed, exposure category and enclosure assumption. An open court with no walls is a different case from an enclosed hall, because wind acts on the underside of the roof too.
• Say whether walls, netting screens or spectator seating are planned now or later. They change the wind case.

Background formulas are in our NSCP wind load guide. AEDO's Canlaon City court roof was designed at 250 kph, a site-specific value, not a national default.

4. Seismic Zone 4 Framing Limits

NSCP Section 208.4.4.1 puts every place in the country in Zone 4 except Palawan (excluding Busuanga), Sulu and Tawi-Tawi, which are Zone 2. Zone 4 restricts which lateral systems you may use, and it is where architects' first sketch of "truss on steel columns, rigid connections" runs into the code. These are the rows we read on the Table 208-11A and 208-11B scan pages that matter for a court roof (NP = not permitted, NL = no limit):

Table 208-11B on the scan page has an Ω₀ of 2.0 for the cantilevered column rows. The practical result, and what AEDO's own court designs do: the truss sits on the column heads as a pinned member and the columns cantilever from their bases, which then puts real demand on the footings and anchor bolts. That is an engineering choice of the designer, not a rule about roofs, so don't write "moment frame" into an RFQ. Write "lateral system to be selected by the engineer per NSCP Table 208-11" instead, and ask the report to name the system it used. If you are in Palawan, Sulu or Tawi-Tawi the Zone 2 column applies and the limits differ; say so in the brief.

5. Roof Type and Clear Height Decisions

Two decisions belong to the project team, not the engineer, and a design started without them gets redrawn.

• Roof type. Steel truss on RC columns, steel portal or W-rafter frame on RC pedestals, tarp or fabric on a light steel frame, or a purlin-and-sheet canopy. Each is a different structure with a different cost, and our roof structure post compares them. Two honest limits: we found no Philippine standard written for tarp or membrane roofs, so the frame is designed for the same wind and the fire question goes to the Bureau of Fire Protection; and the cost multipliers there for frame, tarp and canopy are AEDO judgement. If the roof is a tarp, say who supplies the fabric and its wind and fire documentation.
• Eave and ridge height. The USA Pickleball 2026 rulebook sets no minimum ceiling height. It treats the ceiling, walls, fencing and light fixtures as permanent objects: a served ball that touches one is a fault (Rule 7.E.3). So the height is a decision between the owner, the club and the engineer. AEDO's planning suggestion for the eave is 6 m, which is our suggestion, not a rule. A low eave is the mistake owners regret most, and raising a roof later is a rebuild. If a supplier quotes you a minimum height, ask where it comes from. The trade-off between height and cost is the same one described in our warehouse clear height post: every extra metre costs column, bracing and wind exposure.
• What hangs on the frame. Court lights, netting, banners, solar panels. They are loads. See pickleball court lighting cost for the fixture counts and rooftop solar structural mounting before anyone adds panels to a light roof.
• Steel supply route. Conventional fabrication or a pre-engineered supplier changes who designs the connections and who owns the design. See pre-engineered steel buildings and concrete vs steel frame construction.

6. What the Engineer Should Hand Back

Agree the deliverables in writing before the quote is accepted. The list below is what we would expect from any engineer for a court roof; it is a reasonable specification, not a legal minimum, and you should check each item against what your Building Official asks for.

1. Signed and sealed structural plans: foundation plan and footing schedule, column and grade beam layout, roof framing plan, truss and purlin schedules, bracing, base plate and anchor bolt details, general notes and material specifications.
2. A design report that states its inputs: basic wind speed and where it was read, exposure and enclosure assumptions, seismic zone and the lateral system used, assumed or measured soil bearing, load combinations, and the software or method. If a value was assumed, it says so.
3. Reactions at the column bases, including uplift, so the contractor and the person doing the fill know what the footings must resist.
4. Notes on what is out of scope: the slab, court surface, lights, fencing, drainage and permits, unless you have included them.
5. A response to permit comments. Ask whether one round of comment resolution from the Office of the Building Official is included, and how many are. Our why building permit plans get returned post lists the usual reasons.
6. A bill of quantities, if you want one. It is a separate item: AEDO's design packages page lists a Bill of Quantities and Cost Estimate at ₱3,000 to ₱8,000 depending on floor area, delivered in 3 to 5 days.
7. Site checks. Say whether you want milestone checks, such as footings before the pour or truss erection, and who pays travel. AEDO's Single Milestone Check starts at ₱7,500 per visit with a written report; travel to a remote site is not stated on that page, so confirm it when you enquire.

7. Timeline and Fee Basis

Ask every engineer you approach the same three questions: when does your clock start, what restarts it, and what is the fee based on. Here are AEDO's answers as published on our structural design page, so you can compare like for like.

Read the conditions with the numbers. The 3 working days start once the final plans, the site location, the soil data and the 60% downpayment are in, and restart if the design changes midway. The offer is stated for regular buildings; a court roof is not a standard building type, so AEDO confirms on the quote whether a given roof qualifies, and irregular or larger structures are scheduled and priced separately. Three courts in a row already pass 500 sqm. Full fee logic, including what a package contains, is in pickleball structural design package fee and the general structural engineer fee guide. Site visits are separate. Permit time is the local office's.

8. Permit Path in One Paragraph

Section 301 of PD 1096 says no one may erect, construct, alter, repair, move, convert or demolish any building or structure without a building permit from the Building Official. A roof over a court is a structure. The 2004 IRR's occupancy list (Rule VII, Section 701) names tennis, badminton and basketball courts but not pickleball, and sends an unlisted use to the group it most nearly resembles; a court run for gain may be classified differently from a members' club court. That classification is the Building Official's call, so put "occupancy classification to be confirmed with the OBO" into the brief and ask your engineer to design to the stricter reading until you have it. Fuller notes, including the tarp-roof and fire-code points, are in section 8 of our roof structure post. If the courts sit inside a commercial venue with a clubhouse, see commercial fit-out permits.

9. Scoping Mistakes

1. Sending drawings without a location. The engineer can't start the wind and seismic checks. It is the item most often missing from a first email.
2. "Soil: normal." There is no such value. Say "none", "test pit" or "borehole report attached".
3. Specifying the structural system in the RFQ. "Rigid frame with truss" in Zone 4 may collide with Table 208-11B. Give the constraints (span, eave height, budget), let the engineer choose the system.
4. Fixing the eave height after the truss is drawn. The span, column length, base reactions and cost all move.
5. Buying steel before the design. A "purlin and roofing package" priced per sheet leaves out the truss, bracing and footings. Order from sealed drawings.
6. Treating permit time as the designer's time. Set a target permit date in the brief and work back from it.
7. Assuming a nationwide firm builds nationwide. AEDO builds only in Negros Oriental. Line up your own contractor and decide who checks the footings and truss erection.

Frequently Asked Questions