Okay, so I’ve been wanting to redo the flooring in my little home gym for ages. It’s been carpeted, which is just awful for, well, anything. I finally decided to go for it and install some proper volleyball flooring – you know, the kind they use in actual gyms. I found this LVL stuff, soft maple, looked pretty good, and the price wasn’t insane. So, here’s how the whole thing went down:

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Getting Started

First, I ripped out that nasty old carpet. Man, that was satisfying! Underneath was just plain old plywood subfloor, which was in decent shape, thankfully. I made sure to clean it up really good, getting rid of all the staples and dust bunnies.

The LVL Arrived!

The flooring arrived on a big pallet. Each plank was pretty long and surprisingly heavy. I enlisted the help of my buddy, Mark, to help me carry them inside. We stacked them in the garage to let them acclimate to the room’s temperature for a few days. This is supposed to help prevent warping later on.

Laying the Floor

• I started by laying down a moisture barrier. This is just a thin plastic sheet that helps protect the wood from any moisture coming up from the subfloor.
• Then, the fun part! I began laying the first row of planks along the longest wall. I made sure to leave a small gap between the planks and the wall for expansion.
• These planks had a tongue-and-groove system, so they clicked together pretty easily. I used a rubber mallet to tap them into place and make sure they were snug.
• For the ends of the rows, I had to cut the planks to size. I used a circular saw for this, and it worked pretty well. Just had to be careful to make straight cuts.
• I continued this process, row by row, until the entire floor was covered. It took a couple of days, working on it here and there, but it wasn’t too bad.

Finishing Touches

Once all the planks were down, I installed some baseboards around the perimeter of the room to cover up that expansion gap. I just nailed them into the wall, nothing fancy.

The Result!

Honestly, it looks amazing! The soft maple has a really nice, clean look, and it feels great underfoot. It’s so much better than that old carpet. Now I can actually do proper workouts without worrying about slipping or ruining the floor. Plus, it just looks way more professional. I’m super stoked with how it turned out!