Getting the Mess Outta the Box
Right, so this pad basketball engineer board thing landed on my doorstep. Opened the box and wow, just… chaos. Wooden planks all different lengths, bags of screws and bolts rattling around, and this big, intimidating flat thing – the ‘engineer board’ part I guess. Looked way harder in person than the pictures online. Felt like I needed an engineering degree just to sort the pieces.
Lumber Jumble Phase
First step? Dumped EVERYTHING out onto the garage floor. Sweeping aside old bike parts to make room. Spent like an hour just sorting the wood. Long floorboards here, shorter side pieces there, weird angled bits over yonder. Figured out which was the actual ‘pad’ base – heavy sucker. Had to haul it over to where I wanted the court. Measured the spot a bunch, paranoid I was building it in the wrong place. Sweating already, and I hadn’t even touched a tool.
Figuring Out the Frame
The instructions? Yeah, pictures mostly. Some scribbles and symbols. Felt like decoding hieroglyphs. Grabbed the biggest side boards first. Had to match pre-drilled holes on the big base pad with the holes on the side pieces. Got the first corner kinda lined up. Then the fun began: bolts. Found the chunky ones the paper said for the frame. Trying to hold the wood and thread the bolt and keep the washer on? Comedy of errors. Dropped more washers than I screwed in. Arms aching. Finally got one bolt started properly. Felt like a tiny win. Repeated the swear-fest three more times for the corners.
The Flooring Fight
Frame standing? Check. Now the actual floorboards. Big bag of shorter, grooved planks. The idea is they click together. Took two. Thought “Easy!” Pushed them. Click. Sweet! Next board… wouldn’t click. Pushed harder. Nope. Turned it around. Still nope. Tapped it lightly with a mallet. Click! Okay… so sometimes brute force needed? Laid the first row. Lined it up carefully against the frame’s edge. Drilled pilot holes through the groove edge into the frame base below – instructions said to, prevents buckling apparently. Then drove short screws down. Tedious. Measured each gap, worried they’d drift. My back hated me. Row by row, plank by agonizing plank. Took ages. Ended up with one plank too wide at the end. Had to drag out the circular saw (scary!) and trim it down. Sawdust everywhere.
Last Scraps and Screws
Floor looked mostly like flooring now! Still felt wobbly though. Time for the extra brackets and braces. Found these metal L-shaped things. Had to crawl underneath the frame to attach them between the base pad and the side supports. Contorting myself like a pretzel. Dropped screws into the gravel floor five times. Used a flashlight clamped in my teeth. Felt ridiculous. Attached all the extra braces the instructions showed. Added some small wooden supports at the mid-points underneath because I didn’t trust it.
Kicking the Tires (Gently)
Finally stood up. Wiped the sweat and sawdust off. Walked around the whole thing. Pressed down hard in the corners and middle. Rock solid now! No creaks. Phew. Tried the bounce. Felt… springy? Good springy. The wood had a nice give. Grabbed an actual basketball (not just a test ball). Dribbled. Thud-thud-thud. Perfect sound. Felt amazing. Jumped, landed hard. Structure held. Smiled for the first time in hours. Sweaty, exhausted, but stupidly proud of my messy wooden monstrosity. Actually works!
