So you know how I’m always tinkering in the garage, right? My youngest, Jake, he’s crazy about volleyball now. Started playing club stuff. Took him to practice one day, watched those kids jump and land on that concrete floor. It just sounded hard. Like, bone-jarring hard. Got me thinking. What if I put something down in our garage? Something with a little give? Saw some stuff online about “shock absorbing” floors. Price tags made my eyes water. Forget that. Figured, wood can give a bit. How hard can it be?

Getting Started

Went down to the big box store one Saturday morning. Wandered the lumber aisles. Solid hardwood? Yeah, beautiful, also yeah, crazy expensive and super hard to install. Nah. Then I saw this “beech assembly flooring.” Looked like click-together laminate, but thicker. The package had a picture that sort of implied it might have some flex. Description said “assembly” flooring. Felt it, seemed more solid than regular laminate. Good enough. Bought a whole pallet-load thinking I could return what I didn’t use. Famous last words.

Got it home. First job: clear the damn garage. Swept, shoved bikes into corners, moved stacks of who-knows-what. Took me half a freaking day just to make space. Laid out some of that thin foam underlayment stuff everyone uses for laminate floors. Figured, well, if the wood won’t absorb much, maybe this will. Rolled it out. Taped the seams. Felt sort of professional for a minute.

The “Assembly” Part… Or Not

Started clicking the first row of planks together. Easy-peasy. Nice tight clicks. Felt pretty good about myself. Got the first few rows down fast. Then… hit a snag. Literally. Garage floor ain’t exactly level. Had to shim under the foam here and there to stop that annoying clicking sound when you step on a plank edge. Annoying.

Tried to keep going. Butting planks together. Slamming the seams with a tapping block. The beech stuff looked sturdy, but man, it wanted to chip at the edges if you hit it too hard. Got frustrated. Had to run back to the store for a rubber tapping block because the plastic one felt like it was gonna crack the tongue off.

Hours passed. Back started aching from bending over on the concrete. Finally get to what I thought was the halfway point. Looked up. The planks were drifting. Like, the whole floor wasn’t staying straight against the wall. Shit. Looked like a banana. Had to pull up the last three rows, trying not to break the click-lock tabs, which felt super delicate. Used bigger spacers this time. Still fiddly. Pain in the ass.

Is This Even “Shock Absorbing”?

Finally got the sucker down. Sweat pouring. Called Jake out. “Give it a bounce!” Kid jumps. Lands.

The Result?

• Sound: Definitely quieter than raw concrete. Instead of a sharp “slap,” it was a softer “thump.” Improvement? Sure.
• Feel: He jumps again. Looks at me. “It’s harder than the gym floor.” Yeah. Yeah, I know, kid. Pushed down with my hand. Could feel a tiny bit of compression where the foam underlay was thickest. But mostly? It felt… solid. Beech is a hard wood. This stuff wasn’t thick planks floating independently. It was a whole rigid sheet glued together by those clicks.

It wasn’t the magic shock absorber I pictured from the online hype. Mostly, it just made the landing less brutally loud. Better than nothing? I guess.

Now What?

Cost a bunch of money. Took a whole damn weekend plus evenings. Looks alright. Certainly better than concrete for Jake to mess around on at home. Garage still smells like wood and sweat.

Did I build some fancy sprung floor? Hell no. Did I build something slightly better than what I had? Yeah, barely. Would I call it “shock absorbing volleyball beech assembly wooden flooring”? Feels a bit grandiose now. Maybe “slightly less noisy laminate garage patch.”

But hey, the main thing? Kid appreciates the effort. Mostly. Even if he did say “It’s still pretty stiff, Dad.” Gotta win some, lose some. Maybe next time I’ll just buy kneepads. Cheaper.