Alright, so I finally decided to tackle this portable volleyball court project. You know, something the kids could drag out onto the park lawn or the driveway. Sounded simple, right? Turned out… not so much. Grab a coffee.

Digging In and Messing Up First Attempt

First, I hauled my dusty ol’ tape measure out. Figured “portable” meant lightweight panels. Found these supposed “interlocking puzzle piece” maple flooring panels advertised online. Looked slick in the pictures. Ordered a bunch, confident I’d be playing volleyball by Saturday. Big mistake.

Those panels showed up, and wow, were they flimsy. Tried snapping them together on my garage floor. Some edges just crumbled like stale crackers when I pushed. Others popped apart if you breathed on them wrong. Total junk. Ended up tripping over a loose panel, nearly ate concrete. That maple ain’t cheap either. Felt like tossing the whole pile in the burn bin right then. Portable my foot.

Switching Gears and Getting Real

Okay, Plan B. Needed real wood that wouldn’t fold like cardboard. Drove down to the lumberyard, grabbed some proper 3/4-inch thick maple planks – tougher stuff. Measured my van interior first, though, ’cause “portable” still mattered. Cut the planks down to 4ft x 3ft panels just to make hauling possible. Heavy? Yeah, like carrying a sack of bricks. But solid.

Now, how to connect ’em? Hinges! Got a pile of heavy-duty strap hinges. Laid out two panels flat on sawhorses. Measured carefully where the hinges should go – dead center along the long edges. Marked the spots. Pre-drilled holes like the hinge instructions said (didn’t wanna split the maple, that stuff’s hard). Screwed the hinges down tight using short wood screws. Did this for all the panel pairs. Sounds easy? Took me half a Saturday, sweating and cussing dropped screws.

Testing (and Fixing) The Frankenstein Floor

Time to fold and unfold. Started connecting the hinged pairs together. More hinges along the short edges this time. Figured it’d fold up like some giant, awkward book. Connected three pairs… and tried folding it. Nope. The hinges binding against each other. Panels crashing down. Almost took my toe off. Needed space between them. Back to the garage.

• Unscrewed half the hinges.
• Chopped little blocks of scrap wood to act as spacers.
• Drilled holes through the spacers and reattached the hinges with longer screws.

Finally! It folded up, sort of. More like a wonky accordion than a book, but hey, it fit in the van. Unfolded it on the driveway. Stood on it… felt solid. Did a little jump. Didn’t crack. Real progress.

Making It Actually Usable

Flat floor ain’t smooth. All those hinge barrels sticking up were tripping hazards. Had to bury ’em. Grabbed my router. Painstakingly cut shallow grooves into the underside of each panel right where the hinges sit. Made ’em deep enough so the hinge barrel sank flush. Recessed. Took forever, smelled like burnt maple. But stepping on it afterward? Smooth.

Last thing: stopping it from sliding around on grass. Glued strips of rubber matting onto the bottom of the outer panels. Just cheap garage flooring stuff. Not elegant, but it grips the grass. Tossed a volleyball on it. That satisfying thump. Kids bounced on it. Held strong. Mission accomplished. Mostly.

Final Thoughts? Yeah, I Got ‘Em

Total truth? This cheap garbage ain’t “portable” in the suitcase sense. It’s heavy as sin. Takes two people to lug it unfolded. Folding? It’s like wrestling an angry bear. The maple cost a small fortune. And routing those grooves? Forget about it being quick. But you know what? When that ball hits that smooth maple, bounces true, nobody slips? Feels like a real court, right there on the grass. Totally worth the sore back and my dwindling savings. Next time? Might skip the park and just keep it in the backyard.