How to remove an in-ground basketball hoop, and what to do with the footing

First: which kind do you have?

Everything about this job follows from one look at the bottom of the pole.

Bolt-down means a steel anchor plate with four J-bolts was cast into the footing, cured, and the pole bolted onto the studs that protrude. You will see four nuts, usually with levelling nuts beneath the pole base plate, and a plate roughly flush with the slab. Goalrilla's 9-inch kit, Escalade's 7-inch Silverback and Goaliath kit, and Lifetime's bolt-down systems all work this way. Anchor kits explained covers which plate is which.

Direct-bury means the pole itself went into the hole and concrete was poured around — and often inside — it. The pole emerges from the concrete with no plate and no nuts. Escalade's NXT line and several Lifetime in-ground systems are direct-bury, and so are most older hoops.

Removing a bolt-down pole

1. Lower the rim to the bottom of its range. Less weight up high, and the board comes off at a reachable height.
2. Take the net, rim and backboard off first, in that order, with the board supported before the last bolts come out. A 60-inch glass board is a two-person lift minimum and a 72 is a four-person one — the makers' own assembly instructions say three to four adults, and removal is the same job backwards.
3. Remove the extension arms and the pads. Keep the hardware in a labelled bag if the hoop is being reinstalled.
4. Support the bare pole — ratchet straps to a vehicle or two people — before touching the base nuts. Even a bare pole is tall and heavy and will go over.
5. Undo the four nuts and the levelling nuts. Expect them to be seized after a few winters; a penetrating spray, a long socket and patience beat rounding them off. If a stud shears, that is survivable — the studs stay in the footing anyway.
6. Lift the pole clear and lay it down. Done. The plate and studs stay in the concrete.

Two or three hours with two people, most of it the board. Then cap the studs or cut them flush and grind them, because four threaded studs standing proud of a driveway are a genuine hazard.

Removing a direct-bury pole

There is no clean version of this. The pole is encased in concrete, and the published figures tell you what you are up against: Lifetime's assembly guidance for direct-set in-ground systems calls for a hole 21 to 24 inches deep and 18 to 24 inches in diameter with 420 to 640 lb of concrete, and its 54- and 60-inch bolt-down listings quote at least 1,040 lb of mix. Goalrilla's guide specifies a 16-inch hole 48 inches deep with eleven 80-lb bags.

Three realistic routes:

• Cut the pole at grade. An angle grinder with a metal cutting disc, or a reciprocating saw with a bimetal blade. Fast, cheap, and leaves the footing and a steel stub in the ground. Grind the stub below the surface and patch over it. This is what most people actually do.
• Cut below grade. Excavate 6 to 12 inches around the pole, cut it there, and backfill. More work, but nothing is left at the surface and the patch is invisible.
• Break out the footing. A rotary hammer or a jackhammer, several hundred pounds of rubble to dispose of, and a hole to backfill and patch. Only worth it if that exact spot has to be clear — for new concrete, a planting bed, or a utility run.

The pole itself is scrap steel either way. A cut direct-bury pole cannot be reinstalled: it is shorter than designed and has no base plate.

What to do with the footing

If you cut the pole and leave the footing, the concrete is inert and will not cause a problem — it is a block of concrete below your driveway or lawn. The things to deal with are at the surface: grind any steel flush or below, and patch.

If the footing sits in a lawn, a few inches of soil over the top will take grass. If it sits in a driveway, a bagged concrete patch over a ground-flush stub is a 20-minute job — and if the removal is part of resurfacing the slab anyway, breaking the footing out is easier while the contractor has equipment on site.

Relocating it to a new house

Only a bolt-down hoop can genuinely move, and the move is a second install rather than a transplant. You need: a new anchor kit (the old plate stays in the old footing), a new hole dug to the manual's dimensions, the mix for it, and the 72-hour cure before the pole goes back on.

That is three or four hours of labour plus the price of a plate and nine to eleven bags of concrete — against several hundred to several thousand dollars for a new system. It is also the strongest argument for buying bolt-down in the first place: nobody plans to move, and people move. How long an install takes has the day-by-day, and how much concrete has the bag counts by brand.

Critically, the plate pattern is not interchangeable. Goalrilla's kit has 9 inches between anchor-bolt centres and fits the DC, CV, GS and FT systems; Escalade's Silverback kit has 7 inches between centres, fits the SB and SBX systems, the Ignite and the Prodigy, and its own product page states it is not compatible with Goalrilla. Order the one that matches the hoop you are moving, not the one that is cheaper.

Before you start

• Call 811 if you are digging. Free, and the markout matters as much coming out as going in.
• Eye and ear protection for any cutting. An angle grinder on a steel pole throws sparks a long way, and a driveway is a hard surface to catch a kickback on.
• Get the glass down before anything else. Tempered glass fails all at once. Do not grind or hammer anywhere near a mounted board.
• Three or four adults for a 60- or 72-inch board. The makers' own numbers for putting one up apply to taking it down.

What a relocation needs