Alright folks, let’s talk about assembling this shock absorbing basketball floor made from larch wood. Started simple enough. Got the delivery – bunch of wooden planks labeled for this “level larch” flooring project. They looked good, sturdy stuff. First thing’s first, cleared out the garage space completely. Swept it clean, not leaving any dust bunnies hiding.

Prepping the Base

Laid down this thick rubber underlayment stuff first. Unrolled it like a big carpet across the whole area. Measured it twice, cut it once with a box cutter. Sounds easy? Took me a good hour just to get it flat without wrinkles. Had to shove it right against the walls. The stuff fought back, bunch of nonsense.

Starting the Wooden Puzzle

Then came the actual planks. Each one had these plastic edge pieces attached – like tiny shock absorbers I guess. Had to snap the planks together, tongue-and-groove style. Click, click, click. Forced them together using a rubber mallet and a scrap wood block to avoid dents. Sweated like crazy doing the first row along the wall.

The tricky part? Figuring out the stagger pattern. Didn’t wanna line up the joints like dominoes. Measured the distance between joints on adjacent rows, kept it random but always over a foot apart. Cut ends using a circular saw right there on sawhorses, dust flying everywhere. Wore a mask but still hacked like an old man halfway through.

• Marked cut lines with a speed square.
• Screamed internally when one cut went wonky.
• Had to recut three planks thanks to measuring mistakes.

Locking It Down & The Finishing Touch

Kept adding rows, crawling around on my knees. Used these plastic spacers along the walls for expansion gaps – slid them in as I went. Mallet got a serious workout. Towards the last few rows? Space got tight. Had to actually disassemble the doorway trim to squeeze the final planks in. Major pain.

Finally, popped in all those rubber trim pieces around the edges. Hides the gaps, makes it look professional. Felt pretty smug wiping the sweat off my forehead. Stepped onto the finished floor. Solid. Bounced a basketball right in the center – thud felt good, not that harsh smack on concrete. Success! Took me the whole weekend, a bit of swearing, but now I’ve got a proper court spot right in the garage. Worth the hassle.