Man, I gotta say, concrete driveways wrecked my knees after hooping for just 20 minutes – felt like an 80-year-old hobbling indoors! So I hunted for solutions and saw folks online building portable floors. Thought: “Heck yeah, gotta try this with hevea wood rubber.” Went straight to Home Depot that Saturday morning.
The Material Hunt
Grabbed:
- Twelve 4x4ft plywood sheets – thicker ones for less bending
- Two rolls of those spongy hevea rubber sheets (felt like giant yoga mats)
- A gallon of outdoor deck glue
- Box of heavy-duty L-brackets
- Carpenter’s pencil because I always lose mine
Dragged everything home in my pickup truck. The rubber smelled like burnt tires – almost puked unloading it.
Gluing Nightmare
Cut plywood into 2x2ft squares first. Slathered glue on plywood, slapped rubber sheets on top. Big mistake: forgot weights for pressing! Used old textbooks and my kid’s dinosaur encyclopedias. Dog jumped on one piece – paw prints forever baked into tile 7. Had to redo that one after scraping glue for an hour.
Snapping Brackets & Cussing
Connected tiles with L-brackets underneath for portability. First time bolting? Hah! Cracked three brackets from overtightening. Wasted an hour driving back for replacements. Pro tip: power tools aren’t always smarter – hand-tightened with wrenches worked better.
Maiden Bounce Test
Finished at midnight. Ran outside barefoot for the test jump. Mind-blowing difference! Landing felt like stepping onto a trampoline – no ankle sting! Dribbled the ball: quiet thuds instead of sidewalk cracks waking neighbors. Only issue? Edges slightly buckled when I stomped near seams. Added extra brackets next morning – solid now.
Total cost? $380 bucks. Saved $1200 over store-bought versions. My kid’s used it every afternoon this week – even did cartwheels on it yesterday. Worth every glue stain on my jeans.
