CushionX Cushioned Courts
A rubber cushion layer bonded beneath your color coats, in 4, 6 or 8mm. The step up from a standard acrylic deck for Greater Phoenix players who want the slab to stop punishing them.
A preliminary range in about a minute. We confirm the cushion specification on site.
What CushionX actually is
A rubber mat, bonded to your slab, carrying the color coats on its back. The mat is eighty-six percent post-consumer recycled crumb rubber held together with a polyurethane binder, manufactured in-house by AT Sports and delivered in rolls rather than mixed on your driveway.
That matters more than it sounds. A poured cushion is only as consistent as the crew spreading it on the day. A factory mat arrives at one density and one thickness across the whole court, which is why the ball behaves the same at the baseline as it does at the kitchen line.
- Factory-built, not site-mixed: One density from corner to corner, independent of weather on installation day.
- Two adhesive systems: Water-based or urethane, applied by spray or squeegee, chosen against your substrate and the thickness you pick.
- Concrete or asphalt: Approved over both, bare or already coated — so an existing court is a genuine candidate.
- Recycled content: Eighty-six percent post-consumer rubber, which is a reasonable thing to mention to an HOA board.
Everything between your slab and the ball
Six distinct layers, each doing one job. A standard acrylic court has three of them.
- Color coatsFlexible acrylic, pigmented and sand-loaded. Sets the color and the pace.
- ResurfacerLevels the texture of the cushion so the color goes down evenly.
- Mat sealer, or reinforced membraneSeals the cushion on a residential build. Commercial specifications get the membrane instead.
- Seam sealerCloses the joints between mat rolls so nothing telegraphs through the finish.
- Rubber cushion mat — 4, 6 or 8mmThe part you actually feel. Recycled crumb rubber in a polyurethane binder.
- AdhesiveWater-based or urethane, sprayed or squeegeed, bonding the mat to the base.
- Your concrete or asphaltExisting or newly poured. Everything above depends on this being sound.
Choosing a thickness
Four, six or eight millimeters. The trade is straightforward: more cushion means more comfort and slightly less ball response, and the right answer depends on how often you play and what your joints have to say about it.
Firmest response
The thinnest mat in the range. Keeps the ball lively and the footing quick, and takes the edge off a concrete slab without changing how the game reads. The usual pick for players who came off a hard court and do not want the pace to move.
The middle ground
Noticeably softer underfoot while the ball still sits up. This is where most residential courts land once the homeowner has stood on samples of all three, and it is the thickness we quote by default unless something argues otherwise.
Maximum absorption
The most give in the system. Worth the step up for households playing most days, for anyone whose knees and hips have opinions about concrete, and for club decks that run open play from morning to dusk.
Nobody should choose this from a chart. We bring samples of all three to the site visit and let you stand on them in your own yard, which settles the question in about a minute.
Three composition levels
The same cushion mat underneath, built up differently depending on what the court has to survive. Specifying above your actual usage is money that never comes back.
Level 1
ResidentialThe cushion mat over adhesive, seams sealed, then a mat sealer, a resurfacer and flexible color coats on top. Built for household play — a family that uses the court several evenings a week and hosts on weekends.
- 4, 6 or 8mm rubber cushion mat
- Seam sealer
- Mat sealer
- Resurfacer
- Two flexible color coats
Level 2
HOA, club and light commercialEverything in Level 1, with a reinforced membrane laid in place of the mat sealer. AT Sports specifies that membrane where traffic climbs — the shared amenity deck, the community court that never really empties.
- 4, 6 or 8mm rubber cushion mat
- Seam sealer
- Reinforced membrane
- Resurfacer
- Two flexible color coats
Level 3
High-use commercial and tournamentThe reinforced build again, finished in urethane flex coatings rather than acrylic. This is the specification for municipal facilities and tournament venues, where the surface takes continuous play and still has to present well on finals day.
- 4, 6 or 8mm rubber cushion mat
- Seam sealer
- Reinforced membrane
- Resurfacer
- Urethane flex coatings
Why a Phoenix court is worth cushioning
The season never really ends
Somewhere colder, a backyard court gets four months of use and then sits under a tarp. Here it runs most of the year, and volume is what turns a hard slab into sore hips. Cushion is a bigger deal in Arizona than in Ohio for reasons that have nothing to do with the heat.
Fifteen percent, measured
AT Sports puts CushionX at up to fifteen percent greater impact resistance than a traditional surface. We would rather quote the manufacturer's number than invent a better one — and you can feel the difference standing on a sample before you commit.
Same crew, either system
We surface courts ourselves rather than handing the work to a sub, whether you end up on a standard acrylic deck or on cushion. The people who quote your court are the people who roll it.
See our credentials
You do not need a new slab to get cushion
CushionX is approved over previously coated concrete and asphalt, which means the tired acrylic court already in your yard is a candidate for an overlay rather than a teardown. We wash it, chase the cracks, check that it still sheds water, and bond the cushion straight over the top.
What an overlay will not do is rescue a failing base. If the slab has moved, if water stands on it, or if the cracking is still active, cushioning it just puts a softer surface on an unresolved problem. We will tell you that on the first visit rather than after you have paid for it.
See What an Overlay CostsWhat the schedule actually depends on
Cure windows, not labor
New concrete wants thirty days before anything bonds to it and needs to read under four percent moisture; fresh asphalt wants fourteen. The mat then goes down quickly, but the polyurethane adhesive takes four to seven days to cure fully before color can follow.
Temperature at application
The adhesives have a working range — roughly fifty to a hundred degrees for the standard method, and down to the mid thirties for the spray application. In practice that rules out a July afternoon and makes spring and fall the comfortable seasons to book.
Speed where it is available
Because the cushion arrives as a manufactured mat, the cushion stage installs up to three times faster than a conventional layered system built up on site. That compresses the disruptive part of the job into a much shorter window.
Common questions about cushioned courts
- Does a cushioned court slow the ball down?
- Less than people expect, and you control it. Pace comes mostly from the sand load in the final color coats, not from the cushion beneath them, so a 4mm build finished on the faster side still plays quick. Where you feel the difference is on the second and third hour of play, not on the first dink.
- How much softer is it, really?
- AT Sports rates CushionX at up to fifteen percent greater impact resistance than a traditional surface. Fifteen percent sounds modest written down and reads very differently through your shoes — it is the margin between finishing a long session comfortably and quitting early because the slab has worn you out.
- Can CushionX go over the court I already have?
- Usually. The system is approved over bare and previously coated concrete and asphalt, so an existing acrylic court is a candidate as long as the slab is structurally sound and drains properly. We check flatness, cracking and slope before we commit to an overlay — cushion does not fix a base problem, it sits on top of one.
- What does the slab underneath need to be?
- New concrete needs thirty days of cure and moisture below four percent before anything bonds to it; new asphalt needs fourteen. Those are manufacturer conditions, not our preference, and they are the most common reason a CushionX schedule moves. We measure rather than assume.
- Which composition level do I need?
- Almost every backyard court in Phoenix is a Level 1. The reinforced membrane in Levels 2 and 3 earns its cost when a deck sees traffic all day — an HOA amenity, a club, a municipal facility. Paying for tournament construction on a family court buys you very little.
- How long does an installation take?
- The cushion itself goes down fast: AT Sports builds the mat in-house and it installs up to three times quicker than conventional layered cushion systems. The schedule is then set by cure windows, not by labor — the polyurethane adhesive wants four to seven days to cure fully before the color coats go on.
Stand on a sample before you decide
Start with the Instant Estimator for a preliminary range, then we bring 4, 6 and 8mm samples to your site so you can feel the difference underfoot.
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