Indoor Simulator build challenge - Need Help!

[Joakester]

First of all, this forum is awesome. I've been wanting a simulator for a while now, but never had enough room. However, I just bought a new house and I MIGHT have a shot at this...but it's a challenge. As I try to solve this, I thought some of you might have some great ideas on how to resolve. First, what I'm working with:

- New house has a finished basement, and I'm fortunate enough that it comes with a projector and screen mounted to the wall.

- Height is only 9'. I'm 6'1". I swung my driver down there today, though, and easily cleared the ceiling. BUT, I wasn't standing on a pad. I had 6" easy, and when I raised it up high enough to hit the ceiling, it felt really awkward. As is, I'm not worried, but a mat is going to change that, I realize.

- The wife approved the simulator...ONLY if I could put it all away when not in use. This is the biggest trick, and I've yet to see a setup like this. Basically, I need the ability to put it all away when not in use. Not just hung from the ceiling or something like a lot of the garage builds I see, but truly out of sight. Is this even possible?

- I have a storage area in the basement. It's accessed by a normal size door, but once in, I have plenty of room to store stuff.

So with this in mind, a few initial thoughts:

- Can I just set up a net in front of the screen I have? Not sure if the lines of the net will show up in shadows on the screen in such a way as to defeat the purpose. I'm not trying to be a perfectionist, but has anyone put up a net in front of a screen? Can it work? And is that the best option?

- I've been daydreaming about some kind of rig using poles that can be folded using lockable joints at the mid-point. Feels like it's going to be more complicated and heavy than it's worth, though.

- I could install anchors in the ceiling and floor to hook a screen up to, but again, this is pretty involved. And would that even work correctly?

- Mat height. I have VERY little room to work with, so what would be the best mat that has the least height penalty to it?

That's kind of where I'm at. I feel like there's a lot of info/thoughts/knowledge that I'm missing, and I'm trying to go through all of the posts on all the builds, but to this forums credit, there is a LOT of ground to cover. I thought I'd mention my challenge to the group now and see if anyone was interested in helping solve it all with me.

[Dax]

I have a similar ceiling height to what you have and use a Truestrike mat, which definatley penalizes one on height. I’m about 1cm off of the 6foot mark if that helps. I would say that with your driver it may feel a little tight and you may catch yourself with a flat swing over time with your driver. However, I find myself only hitting my driver rarely when on my sim and in practice I spend more time with my irons.

A couple of ideas:

1. Remove the carpet in the room and put in sim turf that has a hitting zone that you can replace over time. This will penalize you the least in terms of losing height. Might be hard to convince your wife, but could be a good compromise. The mat will be tiring to keep moving and setting up again.

2. Netting is likely your only solution and it will need to be attached with hooks. The issue in this set up will be mis hits as your attachment points could be weak spots for drywall dings and dangerous bounce back. You could go with archery netting in white which will reflect some of the image back at you and will have a lot of light bleed back at your other screen. I don’t think you can get a good picture on this type of set-up. Why not just forgo the projector and add a 55 inch TV on the side wall?

all in all I think you have a hard task ahead of you and I am sure people will provide some better and more innovative ways to get you what you want.

[Sramp17]

I have a somewhat similar situation as you, that being my wife allowed me to have a simulator if it can be stowed away. We recently moved as well and are having a oversized two car garage added (24'x31') that they started digging for the foundation yesterday. This is where my sim will be, I already have some pieces (GC2, computer, CCE mat) that I currently just hit into a net return pro which I will be selling when my new setup is done.

Anyway my plan is to go with one of these https://www.thesportscreen.com/ not sure what size I'll be getting yet but I will buy one and attach a screen to it so it can be rolled up when not in use or we need the storage. Others on this forum have done this already and are happy with it

Once I actually get everything done I plan to make a thread but that wont be for some time

[bk1106]

A functional sim build should be able to take some serious beatings, and this makes it tough for a portable design. That movie screen won't hold a ball strike. To keep it, means you need to protect it somehow. On the other hand, some of the sim screens are also reasonably good movie screens. What I am trying to say is that, instead of making your sim removable to preserve the existing movie screen, may be there is room to blend your sim into a family movie corner with proper seating in the back, etc. Search the web for examples, you must see past the existing little screen and old projector to envision the whole permanent set up. Then, you can start designing a proper "family movie room", with wall to wall screen and a modern 1080P projector. Just my 2 cents.

[GolfSimUN]

I built a setup with telescoping poles that can be setup and torn down. However, it takes a little over an hour to set it up and then another hour to tear down. You want something that is quick to setup and put away. I agree with bk1106 that you should try to float the idea of turning it into a theater area. If that doesn't work then maybe cabinets (floor to ceiling) surrounding the current screen area where you pull out a net and then push it back in the cabinets when done. Maybe tracks on the ceiling like they might use for drapes.