Beginning of Garage Build, looking for help (diagrams inside)

[GeoffTK]

I have been lurking this site now for over half a year, and I think I am finally ready to take the plunge and begin building my garage simulator. This will not be a permanent fixture, so I will be taking it down while not playing so my wife can still use the garage as a... well... garage!

Anyways, I have attached 5 different images.
The first image is a picture of my garage so you can get a sense of the space. Do note that for this to work, I will be moving the garage door opener as close to the ceiling as possible. The ceilings are 10' 8", and the garage door opener is about 7" tall when including the track. So to be safe, in the drawings and estimates I am assuming the bottom of the opener will sit 1 foot from the ceiling.

The second attachment is an overhead of the garage as it currently sits, with measurements to show you the current lay of the land. The garage door is exactly 16' wide, and the tracks on the side site about 2" past that.

The third attachment is the same overhead view, but how I am imagining the build out to look. The purple represents the curtains that will be used as protection, the white is the impact screen, and the green would be the hitting mat. As mentioned in the 3rd image, I am giving myself 20" of spacing between the impact screen and the garage door. I also plan on running the protective curtain behind the impact mat as well, just for added protection.

The fourth attachment is a view from the side of the garage looking across the hitters body.

The final attachment is a view from behind the hitter looking at the screen.


I have a lot of questions.... so let's start simple. Does the overall design seem sound?

One big question I have is around the size of the impact screen. I was thinking of going with 16' wide by 10' tall since it seems to fit the space pretty well. However, that does leave 8" of height unaccounted for, which is where I hoped the curtain behind the screen could come into play.

The next big question is around the curtain. My thought was to buy 13-14' black curtain (form the sounds of it commando cloth) to use as the surrounds protection instead of using some kind of netting. I assumed the weight of this curtain would make it eat up any balls that were hit into it. And when it came to securing the curtain and impact screen, my thought was only to secure it from the top using some form of hooks. My assumption was the weight and length of the curtain itself hanging down would be enough and I wouldn't need to strap it to any walls. Am I wrong on this?

Initially I was worried about the garage door opener being in the way. Sitting at 9' 8" it would still concern me a bit, but with it sitting directly in the middle of the hitting mat, I think the swing follow through will always be to the side of it anyways and thus not prove to be any problem.

Is 10 feet from the screen optimal? I am thinking that I will need ceiling protection, and I was thinking adding 2" thick acoustic foam to the ceiling along might be good enough. But if not, I also had seen people put some vertical pieces of carpet (maybe 6" long) hanging every 6" to a foot to help knock down any high lofted shots.

I have countless other questions, but the ones above are the big ones on my mind. Am I missing anything important? Anything obviously flawed?

My plan is purchasing either Uneekor or SkyTrak for my launch monitor, but I figure before I can even thinking about buying that I should get this garage into shape.

If you have made it this far, recommendations on hitting mats would be great.

[Kevin_C]

[Kevin_C]

Try a side mount garage door opener eliminating the overhead opener. Best move I made

[GeoffTK]

For the time being, I am not to worried about the garage door opener being in the way as its at 9' 8" and won't be in the swing path. If that proved to not be true, I will certainly invest in one of the site mount openers!

Any input on the rest of the build?

[Celeras]

I am in a similar space, except I hit away from the garage door. You won't need to worry so much about the door opener if you stand under it. No different than it being a projector in that regard. My projector is a few inches in front of the door opener and I'm underneath, ezpz.

Commando cloth is not protection. It's aesthetics for a finished look and blocking light. Its heavy but will not take impacts well. If your screen is 16' you probably don't need side nets though. Mine is 12' wide and I've never come close even with shanks. I used no-rip nylon instead of commando cloth (also just aesthetic) because it's lighter/cheaper and I was able to just use Velcro strips to attach it to my EMT and hide some of the tarp clips. It didn't go 100% to plan though and the way I covered the frame I had to forego completely hiding the clips on the top edge (the nylon tucks behind instead of in front to prevent sagging), but I ended up not minding and I'm pretty OCD.

10 feet from the screen is fine. I am 9ish. Keep in mind you stand where your projector let's you. Don't say 10 feet before you have a projector. For example in order to fill the screen mine needed to be mounted 8'2'' away IRL and the calculator website said itd be 7'7'' (which I found didn't stretch enough). If you stand in front of the projector you might get a shadow, if you stand too far behind you put it in harm's way if you sky one.

You should plan on blocking the window panels on your garage door for a better picture. I used white foam panel insulation.

[GeoffTK]

When you say commando cloth isn't protection and it won't take impact well, can you elaborate on that a bit? Will a shank blow right threw it? I assumed it was fairly heavy duty and it would knock a shank down and keep it from hitting a wall a few feet behind it.

[Gman17]

Just a few comments:

1) Curtains installed with baffles will stop shanks.
2) You will only need them for 4' or so from the impact screen unless you want to block out light.
3) You definitely will need ceiling protection. Maybe 5' out from the screen. I can't believe how many times my friends (who tee it up high) have hit my ceiling!
4) Figure out a system to cover up your windows. The light coming in will wash out the projectors throw.
5) If you are hitting from underneath your opener, leave it there and find a short throw projector that will mount in front of it. If you will go with a Uneekor, it will mount 3.5' behind your hitting area. You should check with them (Austin) and see if your opener track will interfere with the readings. If it does, you will have to relocate your opener.
6) If it's in your budget, the Uneekor unit and the customer service is second to none!

[GeoffTK]

Just a few comments:

1) Curtains installed with baffles will stop shanks.
2) You will only need them for 4' or so from the impact screen unless you want to block out light.
3) You definitely will need ceiling protection. Maybe 5' out from the screen. I can't believe how many times my friends (who tee it up high) have hit my ceiling!
4) Figure out a system to cover up your windows. The light coming in will wash out the projectors throw.
5) If you are hitting from underneath your opener, leave it there and find a short throw projector that will mount in front of it. If you will go with a Uneekor, it will mount 3.5' behind your hitting area. You should check with them (Austin) and see if your opener track will interfere with the readings. If it does, you will have to relocate your opener.
6) If it's in your budget, the Uneekor unit and the customer service is second to none!

1) When you say curtains "with baffles", what exactly do you mean by that?
2) While 4' makes sense.... I don't trust my friends and family enough to not pull that curtain all the way out to where we are teeing off from!
3) Will do, see comment 2! I am not sure if acoustic tiles alone will be enough.
4) I plan to have the black commando cloth installed behind the impact screen as well. That should prevent light from the windows, right?
5)
6) I am not sure if its in my budget, so I am leaning toward skytrak. I will probably upgrade in a couple years though, and I think the skytrak should be sufficient in the mean time... but I would absolutely love to go Uneekor.


Do you have any recommendations on mats? Do you think the 16x10 screen is the right choice for this space?

[Gman17]

1) Baffles are the waves that movie theater curtains have as opposed to just hanging a flat sheet. I would recommend adding 30 to 40% to what ever length you plan on spanding. These baffles will absorb energy from errant shots.
3) I think I have read in this forum that people are using acoustic tiles for sides and ceilings.
4) If there are windows behind your screen as well, correct.

I swear by my Fiberbuilt mat. I have had no elbow or wrist injuries all winter long.

The bigger the better for the screen! You will feel more immersed on a course when playing. One thing I did with my 10' tall screen was mount it at 9' 6". The last six inches lays on the floor and keeps low shankers from going to the backside of the screen.

[GeoffTK]

Since you mention your setup being very similar, I have another thing I am curious about. Assuming your garage floor also has a slight slope, do you notice it affecting putts at all?

Also, outside of the hitting mat (I'll for sure look at Fiberbuilt) do you have any recommendations for putting turn that can fill the space around the hitting mat? Do I want it to be level with the hitting mat, or is it fine if its thinner?