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I just put a pit in my back yard, I dont want an elevated runway and cant lay anything permanent like concrete, any suggestions on what i should use?

Raised board runway sunk to the level of the grass. Make sure your drainage situation is taken care of and don't expect the runway to make it more than a few years at a time.

wooden boxs on Rail Road Ties to make it level

used 2x4 treated in 8' sections, with 16" 2x4 joists, 3/4 inch plywood, painted it with oil base deck paint, with non slip goop added to it, tied it together with piece of plywood at each joint leveled it on the grass with shims, works fine and is portable.... put the box on one section with reinforced 2x4 around it, dug a little dirt to adjust for the depth of the box and my pit is on tires..................works great

Why wouldn't you want an elevated runway? They're easy on your body compared to a normal runway and very easy to repair...not to mention moveable.

dad dont want me to have one, that way we can mow right over it instead of having to trim around it, i know it's lame, but it is his yard afterall and i'm lucky to have gotten the ok to put the pit there

You should be mowing the lawn for him anyway. Easy enough solution.

I said WE i do cut the grass, but he doesnt want one so i dont argue

i should say that i have no experience with back yard runways, but wouldnt anything other than a raised board runway KILL all the grass under it? of course, if you had a nice 100' sidewalk that ends in the middle of your yard you could just rollout a runway, dig a hole, throw in a box and be ready.

what works besides building a runway? fine gravel with a rollout? running on the grass? make an old school cinder runway?



anyway, sometimes the best idea is convincing the athletic director and coach at your school to let you leave the mats out over the summer, and occasionally practice at school(make sure it is supervised though)


good luck

pool_man_007 wrote:dad dont want me to have one, that way we can mow right over it instead of having to trim around it, i know it's lame, but it is his yard afterall and i'm lucky to have gotten the ok to put the pit there

If you have any kind of rubber out there, mowing over it is going to end up taking chunks out of it.

i've used plywood cut length wise before, but you have to keep checking the seams to make sure there are no gaps. I'd recommend picking it up and storing it someplace dry after each vaulting session to prevent warping. Not an ideal solution, but works well if you don't need afull runway and are looking to do it on the cheap.

I can't vault at school this summer, its too far away, i live in the styx (get it, like the band, eh, eh) Plus i'm just an "angry young man" who's "fooling himself" and my dad is a good old fashioned "blue colar man" and we've both got "too much time on our hands", we might as well build a runway. (if this make no sense to you dont bother figuring it out, i dont even make sense to myself half the time) *Thnx for all the help everybody*