Okay, so today I wanted to try my hand at putting together some flooring. It’s that “keel, volleyball, hevea, assembly, wooden” type, which, honestly, I picked because it sounded fancy. I’m no expert, but I figured, how hard could it be? Famous last words, right?

Getting Started

First, I cleared out the room. This involved a lot of shoving furniture into other rooms and tripping over things. I also swept the concrete subfloor, because apparently, that’s important. It looked pretty clean to me, but I did it anyway.

The Underlayment

Next up was the underlayment – a roll of foamy stuff. I rolled it out, and it was kind of like wrestling a giant, floppy marshmallow. I taped the seams together with some special tape I bought. I’m pretty sure I used way too much tape, but better safe than sorry, I guess.

Laying the Keel (The Tricky Part)

Now for the keel. These were long wooden pieces that, I think, are supposed to make the floor bouncy for volleyball. I laid them out in rows, following the instructions (sort of). There were these little plastic spacers I had to put between them, which was a bit fiddly. I kept dropping them, and they’d roll under things. Let me said, these were hard work!

Assembling the Floorboards

The actual floorboards were next. These were made of hevea wood, which I learned is rubberwood. They had this click-together system, which seemed simple enough in theory.

• I started in one corner, clicking the first row together.
• Then, I added the next row, clicking it into the first row.
• Some of them went together easily, others… not so much.

There was a lot of banging with a rubber mallet involved. I may have also used my foot a few times (don’t tell anyone). I definitely broke a sweat, and maybe a few boards along the edges.

The Finishing Touches

Finally, I got all the boards down. It actually looked like a floor! I installed some baseboards around the edges to cover up the gaps, which involved more measuring and cutting than I anticipated. There were a few gaps I wasn’t super proud of, but hey, it’s my first time.

Overall, it was a bigger project than I thought it would be. There were moments of frustration, a few minor injuries, and a lot of learning. But, in the end, I had a new floor, and I did it myself. Would I do it again? Maybe. But I’d definitely invest in some better knee pads next time.