Okay, folks, let’s dive into my little project of putting together a keel basketball soft maple assembly wooden flooring. It’s not as fancy as it sounds, trust me.

First things first, I cleared out the space. This was probably the most boring part. Just moving furniture, sweeping up dust bunnies, and making sure I had enough room to work without tripping over everything.

Next, I laid down a moisture barrier. This is basically a big plastic sheet to keep any dampness from the subfloor from messing with the wood. I just rolled it out and taped the seams. Pretty straightforward.

Then came the keel system. Think of it like the skeleton of the floor. I got these pre-made keel pieces, and basically, I just followed the instructions for spacing them out. It’s like putting together a giant puzzle, but way less fun when you’re doing it solo. Lots of measuring, marking, and double-checking to make sure everything was level and even.

• Checked the level a million times. Seriously.
• Made sure the spacing was consistent.
• Used shims where needed to get things perfectly flat.

Once the keel was down, it was time for the actual flooring. I had these beautiful soft maple planks. I started laying them down, making sure to stagger the joints. That just means you don’t want all the ends of the boards to line up in a straight line – it looks better and it’s stronger if they’re offset.

I used a flooring nailer to secure the planks to the keel. Man, that thing is loud! But it made the job a lot faster. Bang, bang, bang, and the floor started to take shape.

The trickiest part was around the edges. I had to cut some of the planks to fit, which involved some careful measuring and sawing. I’m not gonna lie, I messed up a few cuts, but thankfully I had some extra boards.

Finishing Touches

After all the planks were down, I filled any nail holes with wood filler and let it dry. Then came the sanding. Oh, the sanding. I rented a big floor sander and went over the whole thing a few times, starting with a coarse grit and working my way up to a fine grit. It created a ton of dust, but the floor felt super smooth afterward.

Finally, I applied a few coats of polyurethane finish to protect the wood and give it a nice shine. I had to wait for each coat to dry before applying the next, which took a couple of days. But it was worth it! The floor looks great, and it’s ready for some serious basketball action (or, you know, just walking around).

So, that’s the story of my DIY basketball floor. It was a lot of work, but I’m pretty proud of how it turned out. And hey, I saved some money doing it myself!