Why I Started This Messy Project

Okay, so a few weeks back, I had this itch to do something big for my home gym space. See, my old floor was all lumpy and creaky, like walking on a bunch of rotten logs. I play volleyball with friends once a week, and every time we jumped, our knees felt like they got smacked with a hammer. It was plain awful, and I figured why not swap it out for something soft and bouncy? That’s when I stumbled on those fancy shock-absorbing volleyball floors made of hard maple wood and assembly kits. Sounded cool, so I decided to jump in headfirst without thinking too much, like my usual style.

Digging In: Gathering the Stuff and Tools

First off, I had to round up everything. I headed to the local hardware store and grabbed this shock-absorbing underlayment thing, which is basically a thick spongy pad, plus a bunch of those hard maple wood planks that snap together. They came in boxes, and man, were they heavy – felt like hauling bricks uphill. For tools, I threw a level, a measuring tape, a saw borrowed from my neighbor, and some rubber mallet into my rusty old toolbox. Thought it was simple, but nah, nothing’s ever that easy in DIY land. Almost forgot, I also grabbed some cheap sticky tape to keep things from sliding around. Set it all out on the cleared-out floor space, and I was ready to rumble.

The Actual Building Part: One Step at a Time

Okay, so here’s how it went down. I started by rolling out that shock-absorbing pad over the old floor. Had to cut it to fit the room using my measuring tape and a box cutter. Kept messing it up, like cutting too short or not straight. Then, I laid down the first row of maple planks along the wall, snapping them into each other with the mallet. At first, it felt good – click, bang, click – but soon, some planks wouldn’t lock in right. I ended up forcing them, and cracked one edge. Whoops! After that, I had to stop, grab my level to check if it was flat. Spoiler: it wasn’t. Had to pull a bunch out and redo it all over, sweating like crazy. Added more pad under the low spots to even things out.

• Then I did the second row, lining up the tongues and grooves real slow. Used the tape to hold them in place temporarily.
• Halfway through, my borrowed saw blade went blunt, so I switched to a sharp knife for trimming. Big mistake – nearly sliced my finger, but hey, didn’t bleed much. Patched it up with a band-aid.
• For the corners, I measured carefully with the tape, but still botched it. Cut some planks too short, wasted a few.

Kept at it for hours, snapping planks and banging with the mallet. The room was a total mess, wood scraps everywhere, and I was crawling around on my knees. Towards the end, I hit a wall where the planks felt loose no matter what. Realized I forgot to lock the final piece properly, so I shoved it in hard. Done! Well, mostly.

Finished It Up: Testing and What It Feels Like

After all that sweat and cursing, I stood back and looked at my handiwork. Not perfect – some gaps here and there, and the floor looks a bit crooked if you stare close. But who cares? Time to test it. I jumped around like a wild kid, slamming a volleyball down. And wow, it actually worked! No more jarring shocks to my bones. It felt springy and soft, like bouncing on a trampoline but without flying off. Knees thanked me, and my buddies came over to play – they didn’t complain once, which is rare. So yeah, it’s a keeper. Might need to tweak it later if it starts squeaking, but for now, mission accomplished. Next time, I’ll try not to rush so much.