Reducing depth of Carl's Place enclosure

[Love2Golf]

I have a Carl's Place DIY enclosure with Premium Screen. It is 8 x 10.5 x 5 foot deep. My distance from ball to screen is 10 feet, so there's no real threat of hitting the enclosure with my woods, but mentally I adjust my swing. I know it's indoor swing syndrome with the woods - irons are fine inside and I hit driver great on the course, just hit it terribly in the simulator. Something about the pole on the left side messes with my full swing. I've had it for a year and want to shorten the depth of the enclosure as I'm not getting over the ISS with woods.

I'd like to cut the depth down to 3 or 4 feet by shortening the EMT, but the side and top fabric of the enclosure are built for 5 feet of depth.

Has anyone shortened the depth after-the-fact and have any tips on how you modified the side/top of the enclosure fabric? Chatting with Carl's they say they only sell custom size enclosures at the time of purchase.

[Tom Howarth]

I would check with Carl's Place. They are pretty helpful. I have a similar size enclosure to you, but I am 12'6 from the screen. The occasional "worm burner" with a 3 wood is what I don't like. But that is on me.

[M3Wrath]

I actually have the exact same enclosure size from Carl's, and have done exactly what you are asking about. I eliminated the side panels entirely simply by undoing the fabric, taking out the emt pipes, and slightly rearranging the emt fittings (I rotated the bottom fittings to extend backward rather than forward along the floor. The challenge was that the top lid is now unsupported. I solved this by hanging straps from eye hooks in the ceiling and wrapping the straps around the horizontal emt pipe at the front of the enclosure. Once that was done, I simply added curtains along the sides (curtains and channels were bought on Amazon), which allows me to have any amount of protection along the sides when hitting, while retracting them when I need more room for putting. I don't even pull them out when I'm hitting, but when friends come over I pull them ALL the way out! I hung the curtains above the top lid side pipes just so the curtain would make contact with the pipes and form a pretty tight interface so balls couldn't fly up through a gap.

One thing I didn't mention is that I cut the fabric away from the side panels, however, I left the top portion which wraps around the top lid side pipes. This section of fabric wraps around with velcro and makes it look nicer so I elected to keep it, but cut away everything that hung below it. Please don't think I'm telling you what to do - it is simply what worked best for my application. There may be a way better way of doing it that I hadn't thought of.

[coblue]

This looks really nice. Couple of questions if you don’t mind.

Do you have a link to the curtains you used?
Do they handle shanks or would you recommend something else on the walls to also suppress errant balls?

I have a similar shaped room. I was thinking of just using bunnies to attach my screen directly to the wall and eliminate the frame altogether. I would still need to figure out how to build the roof of the enclosure. You see any problems with this approach?

Thanks

[M3Wrath]

Here is the link for the curtains: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
They do handle shanks very well, as they are heavy duty velvet with a backing. However, I have them hung about 1.5 feet away from the wall. When they are held up against the wall and a ball is hit into them I can hear the ball smack against the wall. If you are hanging them right against the wall I would recommend using some type of foam tile against the wall first.

[spyder84]

M3Wrath what net did you use along the top of the enclosure? Would you happen to have a link?

[Love2Golf]

Thanks for sharing M3Wrath. You did a really nice job - it actually looks better than the original set-up. This is a great solution for what I'm hoping to do and will get me thinking of my options. I already have a couple questions for you....

- Since you removed the bottom and front/vertical EMT pipes that help support the enclosure, did you need the straps connected to the ceiling to stop the enclosure from falling forward?
- Is the unit any 'less stable' now? Do you see more vibration or shaking when hitting into the net?

Do you mind if I send you a PM with a few other questions?
Thanks again for replying - very helpful.

[M3Wrath]

PM away - no worries -we're here to help each other! To answer your question, yes, the straps do keep it from falling forward and down, which is why I attached them to the ceiling slightly behind the horizontal bar of the top lid. They sort of pull up and back. It was a little tricky, but I set the straps in place before dismantling the sides. Otherwise, it will absolutely fall forward, and hard! I was originally going to replace the bottom corner fittings with 90's, but realized that if I turned the bottom pipe fittings to face backward they kind of act as spacers so the screen doesn't slide backward toward the wall (pic included). Other than that, I have no other braces or brackets installed and the screen stays in place. I don't feel it vibrates or moves any more than it did as a freestanding enclosure. I used 1.5" emt, so it's still a fairly heavy structure. You can, of course, rig up any number of reinforcements or brackets to hold verticals against the wall and lid against the ceiling if you wanted to. All that being said, I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do if I ever have to move it - That will require some logistics beforehand!

[fortysixandtwo]

Bumping an old thread to see if anyone else removed the sides and added curtains or can you remove the sides and too, how is stability?