How to paint basketball court lines on a driveway: dimensions, layout, stencils and paint

The dimensions

Murray Sporting Goods' standard kit describes its layout as “a 12' wide free throw lane, a 15' free throw line, and a 19' 9" high school regulation 3-point line”; Stencil Ease ships its key stencil with a court drawing “with High School specifications.” College and NBA arcs are longer (22 feet 1.75 inches and 23 feet 9 inches) and do not fit a driveway; high school is the right target for a home court and the one the kits are cut to.

Will the arc fit

A 19-foot-9 arc centered on the rim spans nearly 40 feet at its widest, which is wider than a two-car driveway. On a 22-foot slab the arc's wings run into the grass about 11 feet from the center line, so what you can paint is the top of the arc and about a third of each side. Murray sells the lane-only kit for exactly this: “perfect for concrete slabs that aren't wide enough for a three point line.” Depth matters too: the free-throw line is 15 feet out and the top of the arc almost 21 feet from the backboard, so a 20-foot-deep pad gets the lane and not the arc.

Layout, in chalk first

1. Mark the backboard's face on the slab: hang a plumb line from each bottom corner of the board and snap a chalk line between the marks. Everything measures from this line.
2. Drop a plumb bob from the center of the rim and mark it; Murray's lane kit includes one for this.
3. Square a center line out from the rim mark, perpendicular to the backboard line (3-4-5 triangle: 3 ft along the board line, 4 ft along the center line, 5 ft between).
4. Free-throw line: 15 ft from the backboard line along the center line, 6 ft either side of center.
5. Lane: from the ends of the free-throw line back to the backboard line, 12 ft apart.
6. Circle: a string 6 ft long pinned at the free-throw line's midpoint.
7. Arc (if it fits): a string 19 ft 9 in long pinned at the rim mark, swept from sideline to sideline.

Stencil, tape or freehand

Stencil kits are the fast way: Murray's cardboard puzzle pieces snap together and the maker claims 15-20 minutes to lay out, 10-15 to paint and 30 to dry, with a spray guard on 6-inch-wide pieces; Stencil Ease's LLDPE plastic key stencil is 25 pieces at 1/16 or 1/8 inch, lays flat in wind, and is built for hundreds of uses at $329. Tape works for straight lines: two runs of painter's tape 2 inches apart and a roller between them, with a chalk snap line as the guide; the circle and the arc are the problem. Freehand with a chalk line and a string compass is free and takes an afternoon; the arc looks like an arc drawn by hand, which is fine on a driveway.

Paint and prep

Pressure-wash and let dry; paint does not stick to a dusty slab. Use a paint rated for concrete or asphalt and for driveways (tires and hot sun), in a color that contrasts with the slab; the stencil kits say to spray or roll and do not include paint. Stencil Ease estimates 2-3 cans of spray paint for its key stencil. Mask the stencil edges if you want crisp lines, spray light coats, and lift the stencil before the paint fully cures so it does not bond. Expect to recoat in a few years where the car turns; that is what the reusable kits are for. For the temporary version, chalk does the same layout in an hour and washes away.

And for the version that needs no paint at all, modular court tile comes in several colors, so the lane and the arc can be laid in tile instead of sprayed on the concrete: best basketball court tiles ranks the live systems and does the coverage math before you order.