I got tired of my knees hurting every time I played ball on that concrete slab behind my garage. Decided to build a shock-absorbing court section using pine timber – cheap stuff from the local lumberyard. Here’s how it went down.

The Dumb Starting Point

First, I eyeballed how much space I needed – just enough for a free-throw line setup. Grabbed my rusty tape measure and marked a 10×10 foot square on the ground. Dug out the grass and topsoil with a shovel like some deranged gopher, sweating buckets in the July heat. Tamped the dirt flat with a rental compactor, which felt like holding a jackhammer for two hours straight.

Framing the Disaster Zone

Used pressure-treated 2x6s for the base frame, screwed ’em together into a grid with my wobbly drill. Realized halfway through I’d measured wrong when the frame looked like a trapezoid. Had to disassemble and re-cut three planks – cue the swearing. Laid landscape fabric over the dirt to stop weeds, then dumped a billion bags of gravel inside the frame. Used a rake to level it, but still ended up with a weird slope near one corner.

The “Shock Absorption” Experiment

• Sawed 1-inch thick pine planks into 2-foot sections (so much sawdust in my hair)
• Stained ’em with this “weatherproof” garbage that made my garage smell like a chemical spill
• Laid rubber padding strips – recycled tire scraps – between the gravel and wood
• Hammered planks onto the frame with decking screws, leaving gap-tooth spacing for drainage

Tested it by jumping up and down like a hyperactive toddler. The pine flexed slightly but didn’t crack. Felt like walking on a stiff mattress compared to concrete. Not NBA quality, but hell yeah – my shins stopped vibrating.

Epic Failure & Fix

Three weeks later, half the planks warped into banana shapes after heavy rain. Turns out “weatherproof” stain doesn’t beat actual sealing. Sanded everything down, drowned the wood in real deck sealant, then added diagonal braces underneath for support. Now it looks patchy as hell but survives thunderstorms.

Total cost? About 300 bucks and two weekends. Still creaks when I pivot, but at least my knees aren’t screaming anymore. Worth every splinter.