Prairie gusts force unplanned upgrade

Living on the prairies can be a never-ending array of minor hurdles and set-backs. The winds of late seem gustier than ever, wreaking havoc on the property. Shingles have been torn from the roof, trees have been toppled, patio furniture adamantly repositioned in what must be nature’s version of a perverse feng shui. Most remarkably, to me, is that my stand-alone basketball net was hoisted into the air and slammed onto the court bending the post and tearing it from its base last fall, rendering it unusable and causing further damage to the painted court area as well.

The basketball court added to my property was previously featured in one of my columns. At the time it was being built, the question of whether to install a portable, free-standing basketball net and post, or countersink a permanent post into the existing concrete pad, was the primary dilemma. I chose the former, simply because it was cost effective, and quickly assembled — the wrong choice, in retrospect.

The wind's force flipped the basketball backboard (acting much like a sail) and base backwards and onto the topside of the post, which took the brunt of the hit. Luckily, the damage was isolated to the back of the assembly and rendered the main backboard and hoop unharmed — the top of the post was heaved, and the lower supports were torn from the base, which had been filled with wet sand which provides the weight necessary to keep the entire portable hoop system grounded (not enough to withstand winds gusting at 80 km/h, apparently).

To avoid future damage to my basketball court due to winds, it was time to implement the plan not chosen — countersink a new steel post into the existing concrete pad and reattach the backboard. To begin, I took the appropriate measurements of the existing assembly — the exact positions of the holes along the top side of the post where the salvaged backboard attached, and the length and diameter of the old post, incorporating the additional length required to adequately countersink it into the ground. I elected to install a square tube as a post to prevent any pivoting of the post, once it was erect.

The good folks at Metal Supermarkets supplied me with exactly what I needed — a three-inch rolled square steel tube, at a three-eighths thickness, cut to a length of 11 feet, allowing for 24 inches to be countersunk into the ground. The four backboard mount holes were drilled according to the measurements taken from the old post, and the new steel tube was given four coats of black, high-gloss Tremclad metal spray paint.

The post hole prep was a bit more of an undertaking, and included breaching the existing concrete in a tidy manner.

The begin the process, I rented a deep-breach, dual-blade wet saw from Home Depot to create the initial perimeter cuts. The 16-inch square area was first marked with a wax pencil, and the cutting began. Once the saw had penetrated to a depth of roughly eight inches, the area was cleaned in preparation for the next step — the jackhammer. A few days later, and when most convenient, the jackhammer was rented from J&M Rentals. Bit by bit the hammer chipped away at the concrete within the square. Surprisingly, it wasn’t until a depth of 12 inches when I first hit the rows of rebar. And then, finally, the hammer broke through completely. Once the broken concrete within the 16-inch-square area was removed, it was time to set the post.

The key to setting any vertical post in concrete is keeping the post level while the concrete sets. To ensure this occurs, temporary support is sometimes necessary. To achieve this, I used 36-inch two-by-eight boards, fastened together to form a square around the opening. The pre-painted post was set into the breach, roughly 24 inches into the ground. A tight fitting, wooden temporary collar, built with short sections of two-by-fours, was placed around the square post, and four 48-inch supports fastened along the square two-by-eight base were then affixed to the collar, allowing for accurate levelling as each support was attached. Once the post was level side-to-side, and front-to-back, the hole was ready to be filled with concrete.

The volume within the hole breach required six 30-kilogram bags of ready-mix concrete. Half a bag at a time, the appropriate amount of water was used to mix the concrete in a 20-litre bucket. The concrete was then poured into the hole and manoeuvred with a stick to ensure the concrete properly filled every nook and cranny of the hole. Midway through the sixth bag, the hole was almost full. Enough concrete was poured so the top of the newly poured concrete would settle just below the top edge of the existing concrete. Once the water had adequately evaporated from the fresh concrete, the top was trowelled smooth and left to set for a minimum of twenty-four hours. The next day, the temporary support frame was removed, and the post proved extremely rigid within the set concrete. The backboard was reinstalled at the top of the post, and the court was ready for action once again.

The basketball court outline had been repainted the previous weekend, damaged by moisture and humidity which rose up through the concrete beneath the paint during the winter thaw. Despite my best efforts initially to properly prime the concrete surface and carefully follow all the required steps to ensure the greatest success while painting concrete, there is never any guarantee! And, despite knowing it’ll likely be necessary to touch up areas of paint every other year, I never expected the basketball hoop would fail.

There’s enough expected property maintenance to keep me busy. Shooting hoops relieves stress. And, now that the post is set in concrete, I’m hoping my unexpected basketball hoop and post issues have been remedied for good!

bossenterprise@outlook.com

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