The whole messy story

Alright, so my garage concrete floor was eating up my volleyball every time it bounced. Hurt my knees too. Needed something softer, cheaper than those crazy expensive gym mats.

Remembered seeing those thick rubber tree slabs people sometimes use. They’re pretty dense. Started researching if folks actually used ’em for sport floors. Found a few forum posts hinting at it. Decided to gamble. Found a local supplier selling offcuts for cheap – basically big, thick slices like weird countertops. Grabbed a bunch. Stunk like crazy, had to air ’em out in the yard for like a week.

That concrete floor wasn’t gonna cut it. Needed something stable underneath. Knew interlocking wood flooring panels existed – the click-together kind people put in living rooms. Figured that could be my base layer, smooth and level. Ordered a big batch online. Man, that pallet delivery was heavy. Dragged it all into the garage piece by piece, muscles screaming.

The assembly day was chaos:

• First, had to sweep the garage floor super clean. Even a tiny pebble would mess things up.
• Started clicking those wood panels together. Felt like a giant jigsaw puzzle. Knees got sore crawling around snapping them. Used a rubber mallet to bang the stubborn ones tight.
• Then the real fun began: placing the rubber slabs. They were uneven in shape and thickness. Took my trusty jigsaw – blades hated it, got super hot – and started trimming slabs to fit roughly together. Got rubber dust absolutely everywhere. Looked like a tire factory exploded.
• Tried just laying them down on the wood, but they slid around. Total nightmare. Had to get heavy-duty double-sided carpet tape. Stuck strips all over the wood panels, then pressed each rubber slab down hard. Like wrestling greased pigs. Did a lot of stomping.
• The seams weren’t perfect. You could feel tiny bumps. Forgot about that.

Finally got it all down. Stood on it – definitely softer than concrete. Then I bounced the volleyball. Felt good! Different sound, a deeper thump. Played for about 20 minutes. My knees thanked me. The ball bounced well, no crazy unpredictable skids like on concrete. Not perfect – you can feel it’s a bit lumpy in places and it smells faintly like rubber trees still – but man, it works. Cost way less than official sport flooring too. Jury’s still out on how long this tape holds, but for now? Solid win.