Padel Court Doors & Access: The Complete Dimension and Specification Guide

By PeakPadel Engineering Team · Published September 2026 · 9 min read · Updated: 2026-09-02

1. Why does the door matter more than it looks?

In the padel buying conversation the door is usually a half-line on the drawing, mentioned next to the net and quickly glossed over. It deserves more attention, for a reason that surprises most first-time buyers: the door and its frame are part of the playing surface. Because the walls are in play, a ball that hits the door or the frame keeps rebounding and stays live, exactly as if it hit the glass. That means a sloppy door — wrongly positioned, opening the wrong way, or fitted with a frame that juts into the court — does not just look untidy, it changes the game and becomes a safety problem for players chasing a rebound to the glass.

There is a second, more commercial reason to get the door right. It is, along with sand, hardware and lighting, one of the line items most frequently excluded from “complete kit” pricing. A buyer compares two quotes, picks the cheaper package, and then discovers on site that the door frame was never in the kit, or that the access door is a plain metal gate that does not satisfy the accessibility rules for a public court. The door is a small cost relative to the whole court, but it is a hard item to retrofit: the door is cut into the glass and steel layout, so adding or changing one after fabrication means re-cutting panels.

The good news is that the specifications are standard and easy to check. Once you know the official access dimensions and the options a factory offers, you can put the door on the same line-item footing as the steel and the glass — and confirm it is genuinely included before you sign.

2. What are the official access dimensions for one door vs two?

Padel court access dimensions are set by the FIP (International Padel Federation) rules and confirmed in every manufacturer’s build drawings. The exact number depends on how many doors you fit and where the court is used, so it is worth reading the table as a range rather than a single figure.

A few points that are easy to get wrong. New FIP-compliant courts are fitted with two doors, one on each side wall, both positioned at the net line (the midpoint of the court’s 20 m length). Fair symmetry is exactly why the rule exists: two symmetrical entrances give equal access and equal structure on both sides of the court, and they let tournaments move players efficiently between matches. Older and compact courts often run a single door on one side only. If you are building a single club court for recreational play, one door will usually pass; if the court will host competition or sit in a public facility where spectators and players move in volume, plan for the two-door layout from the start, because the second door is cut into the production layout and is far cheaper to build first than to add later.

3. What door types exist: glass swing, glass sliding, metal gate?

Factories generally offer three door configurations, and the choice is driven by budget and by how much of the wall you want to keep clear. The table below compares the practical options.

The glass swing door is the default because it keeps the enclosure visually continuous — a glass blade in a glass wall — and it swings outward, so it does not obstruct play. A powder-coated steel gate is the practical choice for a maintenance or equipment entry, where a full glass leaf adds cost for no benefit. Many well-specced courts run a glass access door plus a separate metal maintenance gate, which is the combination most competitive clubs order.

4. How do position, swing direction and clearance work?

Where the door sits and which way it opens matters more than most buyers expect. Three rules govern a correctly positioned door:

1. Position at the net line. Doors go into the side walls at the midpoint of the court’s length — 10 m from each end and directly opposite the net. This keeps the entrances out of the areas where players run to reach a back-wall rebound and gives each team a natural exit.
2. Open outward. An inward-opening door can swing into a player moving towards the back wall and cause a collision. Outward-opening doors clear the court and are the requirement set by the FIP rules and most national federations.
3. Keep the required offset from the net. Access doors should sit roughly 2 m from the net so neither the door leaf nor a player exiting through it interferes with net play. Regulatory clearance standards also apply where a door serves disabled users — this is covered in the next section.

Ask the factory to mark the door position, swing direction and hinge side on the shop drawings before you sign. It is a two-minute check that prevents a door swinging into the neighbouring court’s glass or jamming against a service line on site.

5. How do you specify the door when ordering from a factory?

Because the door is cut into the wall layout, it has to be specified at quotation stage. When you put the door on a purchase order with your supplier, confirm these seven points in writing:

1. Type and count — glass swing, glass sliding, metal gate, and how many (one door, two doors, or a glass door plus a maintenance gate).
2. Opening dimensions — clear width and height, stated as a range that satisfies your local access code, not a single eyeballed number.
3. Swing direction and hinge side — outward, and which side the hinge is on, so the leaf clears the glass.
4. Materials — tempered glass to EN 12150 for the blade, SUS304 stainless steel hinges/closers and a powder-coated or galvanized frame where used.
5. Locking — latch, lock or push-bar, and whether it suits your insurance and local safety rules for public access.
6. Accessibility — clear width and threshold that a wheelchair user can pass, and any ramped or level threshold requirement.
7. Included in the kit? — confirm the door frame, blade, hardware and installation as a named line, not “options”.

The last point is the one that catches buyers. A quote that lists “court package” and then adds doors, sand and hardware as extras is not a complete kit — a complete kit from a full-package supplier includes the door(s), the SUS304 fittings, the anchor bolts and the neoprene gaskets as standard. Line the door up on the same footing as the steel and the glass.

6. What is the access and disability-compliance point?

This is the issue most importers and first-time club owners miss, and it is the one that can hold up a permit. A public padel court is a venue, and in most developed markets — Singapore, the UK, Australia, the EU, much of the US — a venue that is open to the public must be accessible to people with disabilities. That imposes two door-related requirements:

• Clear width. An accessible door should pass the wheeled width your local code demands — commonly a clear opening of about 850–900 mm, sometimes more, measured from the door to the frame.
• Level or low threshold. A door that steps down or has a raised threshold can make a court effectively inaccessible, and may fail a disabled-access or local authority inspection.

The good news is that the FIP default access range (0.72–1.10 m per opening) comfortably covers the clearance needed for a wheelchair when the door is set to the wider end of the range. The catch is that the door must be specified there. If you buy the narrowest standard door and only discover the access rule after the court is installed, widening it means re-cutting the panel. Confirm the accessible clearance against your local building code before you confirm the door size with the factory, and get the manufacturer’s shop drawing to show the clear width.

7. Which materials and hardware last?

The door is on the outside of the court for twenty years, so the hardware has to take sun, rain, sand and constant swinging. Two material rules separate a long-lived door from one that rattles loose in a season.

Glass. A glass door blade should be tempered safety glass to the same standard as the wall panels — EN 12150 — typically 10–12 mm, with polished edges so nobody cuts a hand on the exposed edge. Because the glass door is a moving element rather than a fixed panel, the edge finish and the hinged frame are what carry the day.

Hardware. Hinges, closers, latches, lock casings and the track for a sliding door should be SUS304 stainless steel or better. Cheap zinc-plated hardware is the difference between a door that still opens cleanly in year eight and one that has seized by year two in a wet or coastal climate. The frame on a metal gate is powder-coated or galvanized to match the enclosure mesh, and the gaskets at every glass-to-steel contact are neoprene so the door does not rattle against the frame.

8. How do doors feature in crating, freight and installation?

Doors are heavy and awkward, which is why they deserve their own line in crating. A glass door blade is tempered glass — about 30 kg/m² — so a 1 m × 2 m blade is roughly 60 kg of glass plus the frame. It must travel in a steel-framed crate with the frame supported and the glass edge protected, and the hinge and closer hardware boxed separately and labelled for the right door.

Ask the factory for a per-container packing list that shows which crate holds the doors and the door hardware, so the installation crew can find them without unpacking every frame. A glass door with a self-closing closer is a two-person lift on site; have that in the delivery schedule and check that the crates are stored in a spot where they can be unloaded rather than left at the back of the yard.

The timeline for delivery and the way the structure is boxed are covered in more detail in our shipping guide, and the full production and assembly sequence in our installation guide.