Okay, here’s my attempt at a blog post, following all your instructions:

Alright, so I wanted a portable volleyball court. You know, something I could set up in the backyard, maybe take to the park, without it being a huge pain. I’d seen those fancy sprung floors, and thought, “I could probably make something like that… maybe?” So, I started messing around with this idea.

The Brainstorming & Scrounging

First thing was figuring out what I needed. Obviously, plywood was the main thing. I figured I’d need some kind of cushioning underneath, to give it a little bounce and save my knees. I started looking around online, checking out what other people had done, but mostly it was just a lot of confusing stuff.

I ended up going to the local hardware store. I Just wandered the isles, touched materials and finally found some rubber floor mats, the kind you put in a garage or workshop, and they looked thick that clicked! I figured I could cut those up and glue them to the bottom of the plywood. Cheaper than those special athletic flooring options, that’s for sure.

Getting My Hands Dirty

I grabbed a few sheets of plywood, nothing too fancy, just regular stuff. Then I got those rubber mats, and a whole bunch of construction adhesive – the heavy-duty kind. Back home, I started by cutting the plywood into smaller, more manageable squares. I think they were about 2 feet by 2 feet, makes sense to handle them by myself.

Next up, the messy part. I flipped the plywood squares over and started cutting the rubber mats to fit. It wasn’t perfect, a little bigger, a little smaller, but close enough. Then I slathered on that adhesive, spread it around with a putty knife, and stuck the rubber onto the plywood. I did this for all the squares, and let me tell you, my garage smelled like glue for days!

Putting it All Together

After the glue dried (I gave it a good couple of days, just to be sure), I laid out the squares on my lawn. It looked… okay. Kinda like a giant, bumpy checkerboard. But when I jumped on it, it actually felt pretty good! It had some give, definitely better than just playing on the grass.

The Problem: The squares weren’t connected. They slid around a bit when I moved. My initial solution was to try duct tape and it was not as good as my imagination.

Then, I tried to improve it and use some metal brackets and screws on the underside to hold the squares together. I Just lined up a few squares, flipped them over, and screwed the brackets on. It worked to an extent! It held them together way better, but it was still a little wobbly in places.

Lessons Learned

• Measure twice, cut once! My cuts weren’t perfect, which made lining things up a little tricky.
• More support is better. I probably should have added more brackets, or maybe even some kind of frame underneath.
• It’s a work in progress. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely usable. And hey, I made it myself!

So, that’s my portable volleyball court story. It’s not the prettiest thing, and it’s definitely not professional-grade, but it does the job. And it was a fun project! Maybe I’ll keep tweaking it, adding some improvements here and there. For now, though, I’m happy to have a bouncy surface to play on, wherever I want.