How I ended up using larch wood for my volleyball pad

Got this annoying email last week. My home volleyball court pad was rotting again after just two years. Same crap as before – warped boards, splinters everywhere, that gross black mold creeping up the sides. Felt like pouring money down the drain replacing these stupid planks every couple summers.

Went full detective mode online. Typed “cheap court flooring” first – big mistake. Those bargain pine suggestions? Total garbage. Remembered my cousin’s deck collapsed from termites last fall so I searched “rot-proof timber”. That’s when larch wood popped up everywhere. Clicked through like ten forums where builders swore by it for boat docks and wet areas.

The messy installation process

Drove three towns over to this lumber yard that smelled like Christmas trees. Sales guy kept pushing pressure-treated junk until I showed him my phone pics of the destroyed court. He finally admits: “Yeah the Scandinavians build whole damn marinas outta larch”. Bought twenty planks that weighed like concrete – nearly wrecked my truck suspension hauling it home.

Day one installation sucked:

• Sweated buckets trying to cut the dense boards – burnt through two saw blades
• Needed special coated screws cause normal ones just snapped halfway in
• Cussed nonstop when drilling pilot holes – this timber’s harder than my ex-wife’s alimony demands

Almost quit when it started raining. Just threw a tarp over the mess and got hammered watching basketball highlights instead.

Why this stubborn timber’s worth the struggle

Woke up hungover to finish the job. After pounding the last board down, I actually laid on the court staring at clouds. Smelled like fresh-cut wood instead of that chemical stench from pressure-treated crap. Three months later? Zero warping despite kids leaving wet towels everywhere. Even left muddy shoes on it during monsoon season – no black gunk growing underneath.

Real advantages slapped me in the face:

• Takes daily punishment without splintering like that birch junk I used before
• Rain soaks right in then dries fast – no more warped planks playing seesaw
• No toxic crap leaching out when it gets scorching hot in August

Yeah it cost 50% more and nearly broke my tools. But when that volleyball smacks the pad now? Makes this satisfying THWACK like it’ll outlive my mortgage payments. Worth every damn splinter in my hands.