Alright folks, let me walk you through this project I tackled last week – fixing up the old volleyball court floor with maple assembly panels. Thing was getting downright dangerous, boards creaking and wobbling like crazy.

Digging Into the Problem

First things first, I went down to the community center gym to see just how bad it was. Kneeled right on that maple floor and started pushing and pulling on planks. Found about six spots near the net where boards had pulled away from each other, leaving gaps wide enough to catch a toe. Not good for diving after a ball!

Gathering the Stuff

Went rummaging in my shed and garage for what I’d need:

• A few leftover maple floor planks from when they first built the place
• My trusty cordless drill – gotta love battery power
• Two sizes of wood screws: the short ones for pulling things tight and longer ones for hitting the joists
• Wood glue, the heavy-duty stuff that dries yellow
• My fat rubber mallet, the one that weighs a ton
• Big crowbar – just in case things got ugly
• That metal L-shaped thingy for finding hidden floor joists

Piled it all into my beat-up wheelbarrow for the walk over.

The Real Dirty Work

Started at the worst spot near the left service line. Poured a fat bead of that yellow glue right into the crack between two loose boards. Jammed the crowbar tip in next to one board and gave it a gentle lift – just enough to squeeze more glue underneath. Wiped off the ooze with an old rag. Then came the fun part – laying into those boards with the mallet to bang ’em back together. Thud! Thud! Thud! Had to really whale on some of them.

While the glue was still wet, I whipped out the joist finder and slid it around until I felt it click on a joist. Held the board down HARD with my knee and drove a long screw straight through the maple plank and deep into the joist below. Felt it bite – good. Did the same with a shorter screw a foot away just to clamp the plank edge tight against its neighbour. The drill whined like crazy on those old boards.

Rinse and Repeat

Moved to the next gap, same deal. Glue. Lever. Mallet smash. Glue wipe. Screw down into the joist. Screw sideways to bind planks together. My back was killing me from crouching. Found two spots where the boards were so warped, I had to wrestle the crowbar under them and stand on the darn thing like a teeter-totter to force them level before screwing. Sweating buckets!

Finishing Touches (Sort Of)

After I got all six spots done, I went back over every screw head and made sure they were sitting flush, not sticking up. Gave the whole area a good stomp test. Solid as a rock! Threw a volleyball down hard onto one of the fixed spots – it bounced true, no more weird rattles or clunks. Success!

Quick Reality Check

Look, it ain’t pretty perfection. You can totally see the screw heads if you’re looking, and where the glue squeezed out darkened the maple a bit. But the floor feels safe again underfoot. Didn’t cost much but a Saturday afternoon and some shed scraps. Maybe next year they get a pro to sand and refinish the whole court. For now? Game on.