Why I decided to go with shock absorbing basketball flooring
My old backyard court was cracking concrete with zero bounce. Found out soft maple wood’s perfect ’cause it soaks up shocks when landing – good for middle-aged knees like mine!
Getting all the pieces ready
Drove over to the lumber yard last Thursday morning. Grabbed:
- 30 bundles of tongue-and-groove maple planks
- 2 big boxes of rubber shock pads
- Box of T-shaped assembly tools
- Sweat towel (knew I’d need it!)
Unloaded everything onto my driveway. First shock: each wood bundle weighed like a dead body. Nearly threw out my back hauling ’em to the backyard.
The real assembly grind
Day 1 disaster: Started snapping planks together without measuring. Ended up with a zig-zag pattern looking like toddler’s puzzle. Had to pry out 20+ planks with crowbar – mangled three pieces bad.
Day 2 redemption: Woke up smarter. Laid rubber pads first like jigsaw pieces. Started from center court, clicked planks diagonally while hammering joints with rubber mallet. Back screamed but progress!
Around noon, hit another snag – planks stopped locking. Turned out sawdust clogged grooves. Fixed it with vacuum cleaner attachment and candle wax trick from YouTube.
Final stretch & results
Finished around sunset yesterday. Sweat through two shirts but finally bounced the ball:
- That sweet thump-thump sound you hear in pro courts? Got it!
- Jumped hard – knees didn’t hurt
- No gaps between planks after twisting assembly tool all the way
Whole mess cost under $1k and took 18 labor hours. Cheaper than replacing my knees later. Dunking feels like jumping on clouds now!
