Okay, here’s my blog post about putting in some new flooring, told like I’m just chatting with a buddy:

Alright, so I’ve been meaning to redo the flooring in my makeshift home gym/basketball practice area. It’s basically a big room where I shoot hoops and do some workouts. The old floor was, uh, rough. Concrete, uneven, and just generally unpleasant.

First thing I did was grab a bunch of wooden battens. These are just long, thin pieces of wood. I got them from the local hardware store. They weren’t super expensive, but they weren’t exactly perfectly straight either, which, well, I kinda expected.

Measuring and Cutting (and Messing Up a Little)

Next up, the measuring. Let me tell you, measuring a big room isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially when you’re trying to be all precise and stuff. I definitely messed up a few cuts. No big deal, I just had to re-cut some battens. A little extra work, but hey, that’s DIY, right?

I used a simple hand saw to cut the battens. Yeah, a power saw would have been faster, but I like the, uh, workout I get from using a hand saw. Plus, less dust. (Okay, maybe I was just too lazy to go get the power saw from the shed).

Getting Down to Business: Laying the Battens

Once I had all my battens cut (more or less), I started laying them out on the floor. The idea is to create a frame, like a grid, that the actual flooring will sit on. This helps keep everything level and gives the floor some “bounce,” which is good for, you know, bouncing basketballs.

I used some construction adhesive to glue the battens down to the concrete. I also used some concrete screws here and there, just to make sure everything was super secure. I didn’t want the whole thing shifting around while I was dribbling.

• I put on the constrution adhesive.
• Lay down the batten.
• Screw in the concrete screws.

The Tricky Part: Making Sure It’s All Level

This was probably the most annoying part. Getting everything level. I used a long level and a bunch of shims (little wedges of wood) to adjust the height of the battens. It took a lot of fiddling and adjusting, but eventually, I got it pretty darn good. Not perfect, but good enough for my amateur basketball skills.

Flooring Time!

Finally, with the batten frame all set, I could start laying down the actual wooden flooring.I used a tongue-and-groove.I am so happy when I finally finished.

So, that’s basically it! It was a bit of a project, and it definitely took longer than I thought it would, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out. Now I have a decent floor to practice my jump shot, and that’s all that matters.