So today I got this itch to make a shock absorber thingy for volleyball in the spare room we use as a play space. Saw all those fancy sprung wood floors online and thought, nah, I can cobble something decent together myself. Cheaper and feels more satisfying, you know?

The Starting Point: Finding Stuff to Use

First off, needed materials. Scoured the garage leftovers and found a bunch of rough-looking old wooden sleepers. Kinda like railroad ties but smaller. Figured they’d give a sturdy base. Then raided the home improvement pile – grabbed some thinner planks meant for the deck we never built. Plus, remembered those thick, grippy foam baby-proofing floor tiles we stopped using when the little one got older. Huh. Maybe those could take the bounce?

Here’s what I ended up hauling together:

• Those chunky sleepers (really heavy!)
• Several deck planks (a bit warped, typical)
• A box of heavy-duty foam play tiles
• Wood glue that looked… kinda old
• A bag of wood screws leftover from building shelves
• Sandpaper blocks

Figuring Out the Layers

Looked at all that stuff piled on the floor and tried to picture how shock goes. Figured the soft squishy foam needed to be on the bottom to absorb the hit first. Then the sleepers on top for solidness. Finally, the planks screwing into the sleepers to make the actual flat bit you jump on. Made sense in my head, anyway.

Started wrestling the foam tiles down flat against the concrete floor. Damn things kept curling up at the corners! Ended up stacking some heavy toolboxes on the edges overnight to flatten ’em out. Worked, kinda.

Building the Beast

Next day, time for the heavy lift. Shoved the big sleepers into place on top of the foam. Took some serious grunting. Measured like ten times ’cause I knew I’d mess it up otherwise. Needed gaps for bounce. Used random little wood blocks as spacers. Measured again – still didn’t trust it.

Got the thick planks laid across the sleepers. Looked okay. Grabbed the drill. Started screwing the planks down into the sleepers. Bad idea. Split the first plank real easy ’cause the wood was dry and hard. Switched to drilling skinny pilot holes first – pain in the butt, but the planks stopped cracking. It got real slow. Drills got hot. Fingers got sore. Definitely took way longer than the YouTube videos ever show you.

Sanding & The “Almost Ready” Moment

Stood up. Looked proud. Stepped on it… felt rock solid? Huh. Where was the bounce? Oh yeah… forgot about the gaps between the planks! The sleepers were holding the planks too tight. Yanked out some of those spacer blocks between the planks. Left bigger gaps. Stepped again… felt a tiny flex. Better! Started sanding the top planks like crazy. My whole place got covered in dust. Used up half my sandpaper blocks. Total disaster zone. But the planks felt smoother.

Volleyball Shock Test: Kinda Worked?

Took an old volleyball. Thumped it down hard onto my new “floor”. First try: solid thud. Not great. Second try: bounced back okayish? Third try, aimed between the planks onto the foam underneath… bounced higher! Okay! So the shock thing actually worked when you hit the gaps right. Not exactly perfect, but better than concrete! Not bouncy like a trampoline, just… less harsh? Felt okay on my knees when jumping too. Not bad for scraps and leftovers!

It ain’t pretty, gaps are uneven, and it creaks in one corner where the sleeper sits funny on the foam. Would I buy it? Nah. But I made it myself with junk lying around, and it just barely works fine enough for a knockabout. Worth the dusty weekend.