Alright, so the other day I had this idea to give my backyard basketball area a bit of an upgrade. I’ve been shooting hoops on plain old concrete for years, and it was starting to feel, well, a little blah. Plus, the concrete wasn’t exactly the smoothest surface.

I started thinking about different options. I didn’t want to go full-on professional court or anything crazy expensive. Then it hit me: sleeper timbers! I’d seen them used for garden borders and stuff, and they’ve got that nice, rustic look. But could I actually make a basketball surface out of them?

The Sleeper Timber Idea

My initial plan was pretty simple. I figured I could just lay the timbers down side-by-side, maybe secure them somehow, and then… play basketball? Seemed easy enough in my head.

First, I measured out the area I wanted to cover. It wasn’t the whole court, just the key and a bit of space around it. I wanted to leave some grass around the edges. Then, I went down to the local hardware store and picked up a bunch of pressure-treated sleeper timbers. These things were HEAVY, let me tell you. Got a good workout just loading them into my truck.

Back home, I started laying them out. Right away, I realized this wasn’t going to be as straightforward as I thought. The timbers weren’t perfectly uniform, so there were gaps and unevenness. Also, they were really hard to move around once they were in place.

The Laminate Twist

I was staring at this jumbled mess of timbers, feeling a bit defeated, when my neighbor, bless his heart, came over to see what I was up to. He took one look and said, “Why don’t you put some laminate flooring on top?”

Laminate? On outdoor timbers? It sounded crazy, but the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. Laminate is pretty durable, it’s relatively cheap, and it would give me a smooth, even surface. So, I scrapped my original plan of just using the timbers as the surface.

I headed back to the store (my arms were already killing me) and grabbed a few boxes of outdoor-rated laminate flooring. I made sure to get the kind that clicks together, thinking that would be easier to install.

Putting it All Together

First, I spent a good chunk of time getting the timbers as level and even as possible. I used a long level and a rubber mallet to adjust them, adding gravel underneath where needed. This was probably the most tedious part of the whole project.

Once the timber base was solid, I started laying down the laminate. The click-together system was definitely a lifesaver. It went pretty quickly, and it was actually kind of satisfying to see it all coming together.

I used some construction adhesive to secure the laminate edges

The Finished Product

It’s not perfect, but I’m pretty happy with how it turned out! The laminate provides a much better playing surface than the concrete, and the sleeper timbers give it a cool, unique look. It’s definitely an upgrade, and it was a fun little project to tackle. The kids really like to play on it!