Okay folks, time to share another project that turned out way more involved than I first thought. Wanted a portable basketball floor for the driveway, something decent that wouldn’t wreck my knees but also didn’t cost a fortune.

Why Mess With Wood For Basketball?

Always liked how real wood courts feel compared to concrete or even some composites. Wanted that solid bounce under my feet. But it had to be portable enough to stash away when the car needed the space. Plus, the driveway pavement is brutal – zero give.

First Steps: Figuring Out the Parts

• The Wood: Decided on beech. Tough wood, good for wear, and actually kinda nice looking. Didn’t want those skinny gym floor strips though. Went for wider planks thinking it’d be sturdier. Got 20 pieces, each about 6 feet long and nice and thick.
• The Shock Thing: This was the trick. Knew I needed something squishy underneath to eat the impact. Looked at those puzzle-piece foam mats first – cheap, easy. But man, they felt way too soft, like walking on a mattress. Ball bounced weirdly slow. Scrapped that.
• The Frame: Realized fast that just putting pads under loose boards was asking for a twisted ankle. Needed something to tie the whole thing together so it wouldn’t shift when I ran. Opted for simple 2×4 lumber to make a basic box frame.

The Building Bit (Where I Made Mistakes)

First, cut all those beech planks to the same width. Sanded the top surfaces nice and smooth, sanded the edges too so no splinters later. Big mistake #1? Didn’t sand the bottom enough. Oops.

Built the frame out of the 2x4s, simple rectangle just bigger than where I wanted the boards to sit. Laid it out on the driveway. Now, the shock pads. Found some heavy-duty rubber pads designed for machinery – thinner than the foam but way firmer.

Started laying the pads inside the frame. Thought I had it covered. Put down a few pads, then placed the first beech plank on top. Pressed down. Felt awful. Totally uneven! The wood just rested on the frame edges, barely touching the pads in the middle. Completely useless for shock absorption.

Fixer Uppers and Actually Making it Work

Scratched my head. How to get the wood planks to actually press down onto the pads constantly? Needed something underneath the pads themselves to lift them up to meet the wood. Solution? Wooden shims. Small, cheap bits of tapered wood.

Got a bunch of shims. For each plank position, I laid down the pads first. Then, under each pad and along the frame sides touching the pads, I carefully hammered in shims under the pad. Just enough to lift the pad so the top of the pad was higher than the top of my frame. Now, when I placed a beech plank across, it sat firmly on the pads, not just on the frame edges. Pressed down – felt spongy, but firm. Nice!

Repeated it for every plank, checking and adjusting the shims under the pads as I went. Had to make sure the pads were lifted consistently everywhere. Used screws to secure the planks to the frame edges through pre-drilled holes.

Testing it Out

Finally got all the planks screwed down. Smacked the ball on it. Huge difference! On the bare driveway? Thud. Hurt my hand. On my new floor? It bounced back nicely, felt quick. Jumped on it myself – solid landing, no jarring impact through my legs and back like before. That rubber pad + wood combo really sucked up the shock. Mission mostly accomplished!

Portable? Well, it’s not light! But me and a buddy can lift the whole contraption by the frame and shift it to the side or into the garage. Good enough!

Lessons Learned

• Planning matters: Didn’t think enough about how the pads would actually connect with the wood under load.
• Sand everything: Sanding the wood bottom surfaces mattered way more than I thought for a good fit on the pads.
• Shims are your friend: Cheap little wedges saved the whole project.

It ain’t fancy NBA stuff, but it works way better than just playing on pavement, and my knees aren’t screaming after an hour of hoops. Neighbourhood kids keep asking to use it too. Now I gotta go patch the small dent where someone missed the rim entirely… What a bunch of clowns!