Woke Up Like Yeah Basketball Court Time

So my garage? Was basically storing junk. Boxes everywhere, dusty tools… looked like crap. Decided hey – gonna build a proper practice spot. Found this “Pad Basketball Hard Assembly Wooden Flooring” kit online. Ordered it. Box showed up last week. Big sucker. Heavy.

Cleared the garage first. Sweated buckets moving all that crap. Had to shove boxes into the basement. Garage floor’s concrete. Cold. Hard. Not good for dribbling or knees. Needed that wood feel, you know?

Cracked open the kit box. Whoa. So many pieces. Floorboards all bundled together. Bundles of those click-lock thingies. Foam pads. Little plastic spacers. Instruction sheet? Yeah, right. One crumpled paper with blurry diagrams. Felt like deciphering alien code. Figured screw it, I’ll just start.

Here’s the meat of it:

• First, laid out the foam pads. Big black squares. Like puzzle pieces. Had to tape ’em together edge-to-edge so they wouldn’t slide. Covered the whole concrete area I wanted. Took forever getting them flat.
• Then, the first row of actual wood boards. This part sucked. Had to find the groove sides. Each board’s got a tongue on one edge, a groove on the other. Had to place them groove-side towards the wall. Used the plastic spacers between the boards and the wall. Need that gap, stuff expands.
• Whacked ’em together gently. Click-lock system. Sorta just… angled one board down onto the tongue of the first one and pushed. Felt that satisfying “click”. Used a rubber mallet sometimes to tap ’em snug. Gotta be careful not to smack the edges hard, might chip.
• Second row was trickier. Slide the tongue of the new board into the groove of the first row. This part required angling it just right. Like holding it up a bit, slotting the tongue in, then pressing down flat till it clicked. Got the hang of it after a few tries. Still, a couple boards refused. Had to lift ’em out, check the groove for little wood slivers blocking it. Annoying.
• Kept going, row by row. Used a tapping block sometimes. Little plastic brick thing from the kit. Place it on the edge, hit the block with the mallet instead of the wood itself. Protects it. Found myself crawling across the floor, pushing and clicking.
• Midway point, hit a snag. Boards weren’t perfectly straight. Slight curve. Tried forcing it. Big mistake. Broke the tongue clean off one plank. Felt like an idiot. Had to dig that plank out. Used needle-nose pliers to wiggle it loose since it was locked. Took way longer than it should’ve. Slapped in a replacement board. Measured everything twice after that.
• Last row? Needed to cut boards to fit against the far wall. Had to measure the gap super careful, minus the spacer width. Marked the cutting line. Used a simple hand saw. Dust everywhere. Sweated more. Fit those cut pieces in. Needed the crowbar tool from the kit to pull them tight against the last whole row before locking ’em in. Tough leverage.
• Finally pulled out all those plastic spacers. Installed the baseboard trim stuff around the edges. Covered the gap between the floor and the wall. Looks clean. Hammered tiny finish nails. Carefully. Didn’t want more busted wood.

Done Deal… Almost

Swept the whole thing. Swept again. Felt awesome under my bare feet. Solid. Wood smell still strong. Grabbed my ball. Dribbled. Bam! That sweet solid bounce. Exactly what I wanted. No more icy concrete jarring my elbows.

But wait… problems? Yeah. Minor one. Near the door, one corner where I messed up that board replacement. It clicks a tiny bit when I step just right. Probably didn’t tap it quite flush. Might open it up later and redo that spot. Bit lazy right now though. Ball still bounces fine over it.

Overall? Massive pain in the backside. Heavy lifting. Confusing steps. Lots of kneeling and cursing at tiny tongue pieces. Broke one board like a noob. But standing there now dribbling? Pure satisfaction. Real court vibe right in the garage. Worth the sweat and sawdust.