Goalrilla assembly
A Goalrilla is a concrete job with a basketball hoop on top.
Sixteen inches across, four feet deep, eleven eighty-pound bags of concrete, and a manual that asks for four capable adults on the day you stand it up. This is not a Saturday.
What the installation actually involves
Goalrilla are refreshingly honest about this: the job happens over two days, about five days apart. Day one is the hole and the concrete. Then the anchor sits and cures for a minimum of 72 hours, and Goalrilla themselves recommend not erecting the system until day five.
The hole is 16 inches in diameter and 48 inches deep. It has to be below your frost line, which in Kentucky is not a formality. Goalrilla call for eleven 80-pound bags of concrete and suggest buying twelve or thirteen, because a bag tears and concrete is not something you want to be short of halfway through a pour.
And then the part almost nobody reads until the boxes are already open. The anchor kit manual says, in capitals: REQUIRES AT LEAST FOUR CAPABLE ADULTS to stand it up on the anchor bolts.
The Goalrilla timeline
From Goalrilla’s own installation guide.
| Model | Time | People |
|---|---|---|
| Day 1: dig16in diameter, 48in deep. The hardest part, and it depends entirely on your ground. | 1 to 3 hours | 1 to 2 |
| Day 1: pourEleven 80lb bags. Set the anchor and rebar, level it. | 1 to 2 hours | 2 |
| Days 2 to 4: waitNothing happens. This is the part you cannot rush. | 72 hours minimum | 0 |
| Day 5: assemble and raiseGoalrilla’s manual, in capitals. Not a suggestion. | 2 to 4 hours | FOUR adults |
Each active stage is only an hour or two. The calendar is what makes this a job, not the labor: you cannot compress a 72 hour cure, and standing a glass backboard up on a green footing is how people end up with a leaning goal.
What goes wrong, specifically
Standing it up alone, or with one friend
The manual asks for at least four capable adults, and it is not being cautious. You are lifting a heavy steel pole with a tempered glass backboard on the end of it and landing it on anchor bolts. Two people can dig the hole. Two people should not be the ones raising the goal.
Overhang, decided before the hole is dug
Where the hole goes determines the overhang, and overhang determines how the goal plays for the next twenty years. Goalrilla recommend two to four feet. At five feet, the weight of the glass backboard hanging that far out makes the whole system shake after a dunk, and once you add the rim it eats more than seven feet of your court. This is the decision that cannot be undone, and it is made with a shovel.
Concrete in the cold
Goalrilla say do not pour below 40F, and never into frozen ground. Concrete in frozen ground cracks, crusts and settles unevenly, and your footing is the one part of this you can never fix later. In Kentucky that rules out a chunk of the winter, and it is worth knowing before the goal is sitting in your garage.
The warranty does not cover getting to it
Goalrilla warrant the components, but read the rest: labor, travel, and the cost of removing and reinstalling a defective part are the purchaser’s responsibility, and return shipping is prepaid by you. A lifetime warranty on the parts is not a lifetime warranty on the work.
Before anyone digs
Call 811 and have your utilities located. A 48-inch hole is deep enough to find a gas line, and this is free, legally expected, and not optional.
Think about where you actually play, not where the goal looks tidy. The pole wants to be as close to the playing surface as it can be without touching it, and the overhang decision above is made at the same moment.
Delivery is curbside and you have to sign for it. The boxes are heavy, and a Goalrilla is not something you carry across a lawn by yourself.
Goalrilla will tell you themselves what to ask an installer
Their own installation guide says the most important question to ask is how many of these somebody has actually done, and suggests looking for a gallery of their work. That is good advice and we would rather point you at it than pretend otherwise.
Make sure a quote covers the concrete AND the assembly AND the materials. That is Goalrilla’s advice, and it is worth saying twice, because the gap between "install the goal" and "supply eleven bags of concrete, dig a four foot hole, and come back on day five" is where people get surprised by a bill.
Installers here quote you directly, so you can ask exactly that, of somebody local, before anybody picks up a shovel.
What an installer does
- Works out the overhang and the pole position with you before digging, because that decision is permanent.
- Digs a 16 inch by 48 inch hole, below the frost line.
- Supplies and pours the concrete, sets the anchor and the rebar, and levels it.
- Comes back after the cure. Not before it: that is the whole point.
- Assembles the system and raises it, with enough people to do it safely.
- Squares the backboard, sets the height mechanism, and takes the packaging away.
Get it built by someone who has built one before.
Tell us your ZIP and what you bought. Installers near you will quote you directly, and you deal with them, not with us.
Questions people ask
How long does a Goalrilla installation take?
Two visits, about five days apart. The digging and the pour are a few hours on day one. The concrete then needs a minimum of 72 hours, and Goalrilla recommend erecting the system on day five. The assembly itself is another two to four hours.
How much concrete does a Goalrilla need?
Eleven 80-pound bags for the standard anchor, into a hole 16 inches in diameter and 48 inches deep. Goalrilla suggest buying twelve or thirteen, because bags tear and running short mid-pour is not a recoverable mistake.
Can two people install a Goalrilla?
Two people can dig the hole and pour the footing. The manual asks for at least four capable adults to stand the system up on the anchor bolts, and that is a heavy steel pole with a glass backboard on the end of it. This is the step to take seriously.
Can it be installed in winter?
Not below 40F, and never into frozen ground. Goalrilla are explicit about it: concrete poured into frozen ground cracks and settles unevenly, and the footing is the one part you cannot fix afterwards.
How far from the court should the pole go?
Goalrilla recommend an overhang of two to four feet. Beyond five feet the backboard shakes after a dunk, and the goal eats into more than seven feet of your playing surface. The hole location decides this, so it gets decided first.
Installers.org is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Goalrilla or Escalade Sports. Goalrilla is a trademark of its owner, referred to here only to describe the installation services that independent installers on this directory provide.