Anyone built a home basketball gym??

[jpierce]

With two active kids and a family that loves to play sports, we were looking into building a home gym on our property. I was looking for it to do several functions:

1. House a basketball court (1/2 or 3/4 court) - How high should the ceiling be??
2. Practice baseball (need at least 60 ft to practice pitching and temporary batting cage)


While the kids won't be with us at home forever, we were thinking it would be nice to eventually convert this to a stable in the future.

Any ideas on what type of building or where to start?? I am guessing it will be about 48' x 72' x 20' high (again not sure on height..)


Thanks for any input or direction...as most folks these days, we are looking for the best bang for your buck when building this...

 

[davygp38]

I would look into a pole barn. You need a large space, and nothing is as economical as a pole barn. I bet if you brows through some of the bigger manufacturers web sites, you might find one that was already built for someone else, with the same idea.

 

[JDGreenGrass]

I would lay down a slab of either concrete or asphalt, put up a couple of hoops and if you feel it needs to be enclosed....build a structure around the court.

Your project sounds big and expensive, of course both of those terms are relative.

We here at TBN would love to see a project like that come to fruition.:thumbsup:

Go for it.....

 

[BeezFun]

Guy down the street turned the old barn on his property into a basketball court, it's beautiful. It's hard to guess barn sizes, this is the classic mansard roof wooden barn so it looks huge but I think it's more tall than long. He put the court on the second floor where the loft used to be, so it has a wooden floor. That's a lot of concrete to pour, and if you call it a basketball court it might be taxed as a habitable structure, ouch. Or if you're sure you will make it a stable, build it as a barn with a loft and do the same thing as this guy, make the loft the court. If you use the right kind of trusses you'd get the extra height you'd need to make it practical, and a wood floor would be the best.You might explore building it as a barn from the tax collector/building inspector's perspective. Maybe put in an asphalt floor, or something more like a playground surface. A lot cheaper and probably a better surface for basketball.

 

[radioman]

This sounds like a great project. No doubt you will be in center of jealousy :laughing:

Having a pole barn IS the cheapest way to go, and if you insist on making look like a real court, install the cheapest laminated oak flooring that can be had at 99 cents a sqft installed over a concrete floor. This way in the future you can convert to a tractor shed by just pulling up the floor and resell/donate to needy family.

How big/yay high? are you going full court or half court wide? many times half court is good enough.many kids play touraments on half courts on a very limited space. Many small rec centers appears to have at least 16-20 ft high ceilings.( I havent actually measured one but from my memory collections it seems that high). A pole barn is a perfect fit I reckon.

 

[MarkV]

A 20' ceiling is considered the minimum for a recreation facility and 25' is the minimum for an NCAA court.

MarkV

 

[jpierce]

Thanks for the info and suggestion.. I have never thought about putting the court on the 2nd floor of the Barn. I think that would be pretty cool and the bottom could be used for other things..

I think starting with a pole barn would be the way to go. I would classify it as a Barn as I could park my Kioti in it also. An NCAA court is 50' wide and 94' long. We don't need quite that big, but want it to be long enough to be able to practice pitching when my son gets older (60ft..)

Just need to figure out standard pole barn size to fit that layout coupled with a 20' ceiling height if possible...

 

[MarkV]

Don't eliminate commercial steel framed building from your research. When you get into a wood pole barn that tall the price goes up disproportionately and steel structures become much more competitive from what I have priced.

MarkV

 

[D33r3 6r33N]

Just throwing this into the mix. Check out farmtek.com they have big buildings, sound reasonable $ and go up quickly from what I understand.

 

[myyaz33]

Don't eliminate commercial steel framed building from your research. When you get into a wood pole barn that tall the price goes up disproportionately and steel structures become much more competitive from what I have priced.

MarkV

I agree 100% on this. I've priced just about every pole barn building company in the last 2-3yrs and found prices to be completely whacked. Ultimately I choose an all steel building right in the middle of all those prices. When I see everyone saying pole barn is the way to go, I just don't get it.