DIY Network

Building a Basketball Court Michael Strahan helps a family of basketball fanatics build the backyard court of their dreams. From "Backyard Stadiums" episode DBYS-102

The Schwartz family lives and breathes basketball. The oldest boys play on three different teams all year round, yet their home court is slightly undersized and not too attractive. Backyard Stadiums host and current NFL star Michael Strahan and carpenter Amy Wynn Pastor, along with contractor John Pacos, show the Schwartz crew how to turn their ordinary backyard hoops area into an exciting court, complete with an official foul line and 3-point designations.

In addition, the DIYers will complement the court with a ball rack to store their basketballs, a scoreboard that includes a shot clock, electronic scoring display and PA system to announce the games. And, finally, shooting mats with point values are created to place all around the court.

advertisement

DIY's Backyard Stadiums takes to the basketball court in this episode. Host Michael Strahan shows the Schwartz family how to create a dream backyard court.

Painting the Basketball Court

Michael Strahan and the DIY crew decided to use traffic paint on the court because it's meant to be applied to asphalt; it dries quickly and it's permanent. Andrew's (one of the sons) team colors are blue and yellow and along with white, they happen to be three of the colors available in a fast drying water based traffic paint. Since it's water based, you can clean up easily with soap and water.

Materials:

3 gal. of blue traffic paint
2 gal. of yellow traffic paint
1 gal. of white traffic paint
rollers
3" rollers for outside of box
roller poles
painting trays
duct tape

Tools:

measuring tape
T-square
chalk line

Figure A

1. Make sure the paint surface is clean. Depending on the condition of the area, you may wish to use a power washer instead of an ordinary garden hose to ensure that the surface free of debris.

2. Before painting be sure to locate the exact center of the court. Stand on a ladder and take the end of a chalk line or plumb line (figure A) and drop it down from the center of the backboard, but don't let it touch the ground. Let it hang there for a second to settle and then dab some chalk on the court. That is now the center of the court; the location of the baseline; and the point from which all of your other measurements will extend.

3. After the center point is marked, measure vertically 15' out from under the backboard. Make sure the tape measure is straight by using a T-square. Once it's straight, take the chalk line and stretch it out next to the tape measure. Have two people hold the chalk line at the ends and one person press down in the middle. Then have the two people at the end snap the chalk line down leaving a straight line down the center of the court.

Page  1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5