The Discovery Phase

So yesterday afternoon, I went down to our community center volleyball court, right? Needed to practice some serves. But man, every time someone jumped near the engineer’s side boundary line – you know, that strip right in front of the old scoreboard? – this nasty creaking and wobbling happened. It felt downright dangerous, like someone could twist an ankle easy. I kneeled down near the net post and poked at the boards close to the concrete base.

Here’s what I saw:

• A bunch of split boards near the corner joint.
• Old, rusty nails sticking up maybe half an inch – real ankle-biters.
• The whole section felt spongy underfoot, like the wood was rotted underneath.
• Gaps wide enough for the corner of the volleyball to get wedged in, crazy!

What I Actually Did

First thing this morning, I grabbed my tool bag from the garage – stuff I had laying around. Figured I might as well tackle it myself before league night tomorrow. Here’s the step-by-step mess:

1. Pulled Up The Bad Boards: Used the pry bar first. Man, those old boards splintered everywhere. Some snapped clean off while I was pulling. Had to hammer out stubborn bits stuck near the support beam underneath.
2. Scrubbed Out The Gunk: Underneath was nasty – wet dirt, some kind of moss? Mixed bleach and water in a bucket, dumped it on the exposed concrete base, scrubbed it hard with a stiff brush. Took ages. Smelled awful.
3. Measured Wrong. Twice. Okay, so I grabbed a replacement plank from storage shed. Measured the gap. Cut it. Didn’t fit – too wide. Shaved off an inch. Still too big! Turns out the saw blade cuts eat up like an extra 1/8 inch each side I forgot. Ugh.
4. Nailed It Down (Kinda): Laid the cut board in place finally. Used my electric nail gun with some galvanized nails. Hammered a few in by hand where the gun wouldn’t reach. Sound was deafening. Sorry, neighbors.
5. Sanded Like Mad: The new board stuck up maybe 1/4 inch above the old ones. Grabbed the belt sander. Dust went absolutely everywhere. I looked like a powdered donut after. Had to sand the edges of the old planks nearby too so the transition wasn’t a trip hazard.
6. Stain Blunder: Tried to make it match the old wood. Stained the new board. Waited. Way too light! Did another coat. Too dark! Ended up some weird two-tone patch. Whatever. It’s in the corner.
7. Gooped On Sealer: Slapped a thick layer of that outdoor wood sealer over the whole patched area. Used one of those cheap foam brushes. Made it look kinda glossy but slick, so I sprinkled some fine sand on top while it was wet for grip. Looks messy, but works.

How It Feels Now?

Tested it after dinner. Jumped hard right on that spot. Solid as rock! No creak, no wobble. Ball bounced true. Feels safe. Is it pretty? Heck no, that patch job looks rough – like a scar on the court. But my feet don’t feel like they’ll fall through anymore, and the spike line ain’t a death trap. Good enough for tonight’s game. Maybe next summer I’ll redo that whole corner properly… or maybe I’ll just live with my janky engineer board fix. Function over fashion!