Okay so today I’m sharing my DIY journey building that removable volleyball court in the backyard. Started when my kid kept complaining about tripping on uneven ground during spikes. Thought – why not make a proper surface?

Digging & Leveling Nightmares

First grabbed shovels and spent three whole weekends just digging. Hit tree roots thick as my wrist, had to borrow neighbor’s axe. When rain turned pit into mud soup, nearly quit. Leveling was worse – used 2×4 planks as straight edges, kept finding dips. Added five extra bags of gravel after first compaction test failed miserably.

Frame Puzzle From Hell

Bought pressure-treated pine beams assuming assembly would be like IKEA. Wrong. Each 8-foot section needed:

• Drilling pilot holes to prevent splits
• Triple-checking corner angles with rusty speed square
• Battling warped wood using clamps as torture devices

Sweated through two shirts just getting rectangles aligned. Pro tip? Buy extra L-brackets. Snapped four during tightening.

Removable Panel Trickery

Here’s where engineering got clever. Cut 1×6 cedar planks with 1/4 inch gaps between for drainage. Screwed them to plywood subpanels, but! Made panels small enough for two people to lift. Underneath? Used rubber gym floor tiles on frames for bounce. Panels lock together with slide bolts – takes us 20 minutes to disassemble before winter.

Final Battle: Surface Wars

Sandpaper? Useless. Rented drum sander – immediately gouged corner. Fixed with wood filler that looked like dried toothpaste. Applied three coats of marine varnish watching YouTube tutorials between coats. Still got bubbles in second coat, had to sand again.

Four months later? Net’s up and the thump of serves sounds pro. Mud pit transformed! Though my knuckles are permanently stained with varnish. Totally worth seeing kid spike without faceplanting.