Alright let me walk you through my weekend project – putting together that rubber basketball court flooring with wood pieces. Man, it was way messier than the YouTube videos show! Grab some coffee, this one’s got story time.

Starting Off Wrong Like Always

First thing, I unrolled that giant rubber sheet right on my dusty garage floor. Big mistake. Tiny rocks and sawdust stuck to the bottom like glue. Had to wipe the whole thing down with damp cloth. My back was screaming before I even got to the wood part. Pro tip? Do this inside or on clean concrete.

Wood Planks Everywhere

Dumped out the larch planks from those flat boxes. They looked all crooked and weird at first – thought they shipped me garbage. But nope! Turns out you gotta line up the little tongue-and-groove bits. Took me like 10 minutes just to get the first row straight. Needed:

• Rubber mallet (basically whacked the planks into submission)
• Measuring tape (kept getting 1/4 inch gaps if I eyeballed it)
• Carpenter’s pencil (regular pen just smeared everywhere)

The Rubber Wrestling Match

Thought cutting rubber would be easy. Lol, nope. Utility knife blade got stuck halfway through! Had to saw it back and forth like a maniac, sweating buckets. Finally got it trimmed to size – edges looked like my kid cut them with safety scissors. Hot glue gun came in clutch sealing the ugly cuts.

Putting It Together

Okay. Rubber layer down first on my now-clean garage floor. Dropped first wood plank row on top. Tapped the grooves together with my mallet – bam bam bam – felt good. By row three, it’s kinda looking like a real floor! But then I hit the wall… literally. Cut the end plank too short. Swore so loud my neighbor yelled “You good over there?!” Rookie measurement error. Whacked my knuckles hard with the mallet too. Pro tip? Wear work gloves unless purple fingers are your aesthetic.

Finish Line Chaos

Four hours in? Covered in sawdust, rubber crumbs stuck to my sweatpants. But slapped that last plank in place and stepped back. Damn it actually looked professional! Did a little bounce test with the basketball – solid grip, nice wood feel underfoot. Worth the blood and tears? Yeah… but next time I’m just calling Handy Andy.

Moral of the story? Your fingers and lower back will hate you. Use glue sparingly unless you want permanent rubber boogers on the planks. Took me twice as long as the package said – but hey, now I got a legit court for beers and hoops this summer.