Outdoor Basketball Tiles Review:
We Purchased Outdoor Basketball Modular Tiles for a Home Basketball Court…Read our Thoughts and a Detailed Review:
Our goal was to build a professional outdoor basketball court for our family which led us to research what types of court products we will need to buy in order to make this court a success. All of our research led to one to one very distinct type of basketball tile being used for home courts both here in Australia and on courts across the globe, these tiles are called Polypropylene Tiles.
This honest review includes details on our research, the basketball tiles we decided on and how these tiles have performed.
Firstly, What Are Modular Polypropylene Tiles?
Modern outdoor basketball tiles are made of polypropylene which is a durable material which possesses several properties that make it highly suitable for various outdoor sports courts including basketball, futsal, pickleball courts and more. Each tile is light in weight (only 0.31kg) and approx 305mm x 305mm width and length, with a height of 1.5mm. They clip together with ease, a bit like putting together a very simple puzzle.
How Did We Find and Source These Tiles?
We conducted a lot of research on the web, followed up by calling leading court builders here in Australia to ask them about the types of tiles they use. 100% of the outdoor court builders we spoke to used and recommended these for basketball courts. Next, we visited two separate companies warehouses to inspect the tiles in person, and found them all to be very similar in terms of their sizing, texture, bounce quality, weight and cost.
To source the tiles, we looked for international manufacturers via Alibaba. After paying for and trialing three separate samples, we settled on a manufacturer who could prove to us that they had worked with similar clients in Australia, who could verify their product met strict safety and quality requirements and who communicated with us in a professional manner. You can learn more about this process in this post.
Are Polypropylene Basketball BasketballTiles Worth It?
After over 6 months of use, the resounding answer is yes. I have documented the pros and cons below, however high quality materials, ease of use, light weight / flexible nature, make them very appealing.
I have documented the costs in a this post to help you understand their value, and with that in mind, lets start with the the pros we have noticed.
Polypropylene Module Tile Pros:
- A Consistent Bounce: Each tile comes with a cushioned double-layer of approx 46 rubber cushions – which are surprisingly bouncy and makes the court nice and even. We have not noticed any decay in over 6 months of exposure to the hasrh QLD weather.
- Strength: Polypropylene is said to be resistant to a wide range of chemicals, including acids and alkalis. This means the material won’t degrade easily, especially when exposed to outdoor elements and substances. Unfortunately for us we have a lot of bats in our suburb who love to drop their crap in our yard. But, luckily for us their toxic sh*t washes straight off and doesn’t stain the tiles or eat into in any way.
- Quick Dry /Non Slip: It’s true, these tiles have a simple and quick dry non-slip texture design and grip will not be an issue. Whilst you can still slip if playing in the rain, we have found that they dry reasonably quickly that even humidity or tropical rain has not stopped our kids getting out on the court on a regular basis after it haS rained.
- Lower Noise: At first, we were worried about our neighbours as their boundary is right next to the court, however we were surprised by the noise-minimisation these tiles seem to provide. Whilst it’s not as good as bouncing a ball on carpet, my best guess is it reduceds the noise output by approx 30-40% ( noise and vibration) when compared to bouncing a ball on a concrete slab or tiles.
- Weather Resistance: Polypropylene is highly resistant to environmental factors such as UV radiation, moisture, and temperature fluctuations. This means the tiles are less likely to fade, become brittle or degrade due to excessive sun, and hot temps (like we have here in QLD). Our tiles have aleady survived a brutal QLD summer (high heats, storms, hale and wind) and we haven’t seen anything to suggest that they will fall apart, break or wear down significantly from being outdoors.
Polypropylene Modular Tile Cons:
- Heat: Whilst the tiles offer UV protection, this won’t stop your bare feet from burning if you’re hooping without shoes. It does take them a while to heat up, but the darker tiles can put out a fair bit of heat if they are baking in hot temps all day.
- Shock Absorption: Whilst the shock absorption is much better than a typical concrete slab, the tiles are not as good at absorbing shock when compared to some of the newer indoor rubber tiles we have seen or when compared to professional indoor courts (to be expected on a home court).
- Tile Clips: Occasionally you may need to unclip your tiles in order to move them or change your court (which is rare). If this happens, we have noticed the tiles can stick so they need a bit of effort to pull them apart (a minor grievance if I be honest).
- Edging: The border around the court is called edging, and they also clip together quite easily. The edging looks good, however sometimes they don’t always clip in perfectly and some of our edging has moved over time. We do clip them back in, but it’s worth noting!
Our Outdoor Basketball Tiles Verdict:
The outdoor polypropylene tiles are a resounding success. These tiles look great and perform as well as (if not better than) we hoped that they would. The ball bounce is very consistent and they don’t make nearly as much noise (compared to a slab) than we expected. When it rains, you can literally be back out balling on these tiles within 15-20 minutes due to their quick dry nature and grippy base.
In terms of the tiles price, because we sourced and installed these ourselves (it worked out to be approx AUD $32 a square metre which you can read more about here) we feel as if we have added a lot of value for a reasonably cheap price. Bare in mind, most basketball court installers in Australia charge in excess of AUD $100 per sqaure metre to provide and install the tiles (not including lansdcaping or building works).
These tiles are not hard to put together and provide a great deal of flexibility and free enjoyment for our kids and their friends (it’s handy not having to pay for hourly court usage anymore). It’s worth noting that our family also use this tiles area to ride their scooters, play cricket and more recently play pickleball.
There is no doubt that having a home court has saved us time and effort in travelling to local courts to shoot hoops whilst encouraging more regular shots and games of 1 on 1 (not to mention we like the look of a court in our yard). Because of the slab underneath, if we change our mind in the future (e.g if the kids outgrow this area), then we can easily pull up the tiles in less than 10 minutes and store them safely so we can use that area for some other purpose (it would be easy to lay fake grass over the top). We have also used some of the excess tiles we ordered as a flooring in our shed and for the gym area in our garage, adding even more benefits and functionality to our home.
We couldn’t be happier with these outdoor basketball tiles – we rate them a 4.75/5!
Are you interested in purchasing blue outdoor modular tiles for your own yard? You can buy them right here via our Clutch Store
