Only 7.5" to make it happen

[Ducati07]

My screen placement is hindered from an attic ladder when open, only gives me about a 7.5 inches between the screen and drywall. I've read a foot is minimal space needed but that's just not an option unless I block off or move the attic ladder.

I was thinking I could just attach some insulation (or something else) to the wall (or the screen) in the hard hitting area of the screen and hope for the best.

Hitting area is about 9' from the Carls 9x12 premium screen.

Should I plan on moving the attic ladder to give myself that foot needed or just attach something to help soften the ball hits so I don't end up loosing my teeth from a hot rocket coming back?

Any thoughts on this?

Thanks

[Travrav40]

I have 10” behind the screen and that is fine but my ball speed is 140 with a driver so may depend a bit on that.

[Ducati07]

Good point 40!

I'm old and broken...my driver club head speed is around 98 (on a hardest swing) if I remember right. My drive average is around 250.

I'm thinking about just moving the ladder just to be sure. A lot easier to do that first.

Unless that is...someone on here pipes in to say they've done it with minimal space like mine.

Thanks for the reply.

[Tom Howarth]

My screen is about 10" from the wall. I hung archery netting behind my screen just in case. I have 160mph driver ball speed. No issues with bounce back.

[Godfather]

That is about the distance I went from screen to wall in my updated build after the initial build at 12 inches seemed like overkill. I have it maybe 7.5-8 inches to the drywall.

To make it work, I recommend a really thick, soft impact screen with a net pulled taut behind that. I also have another sheet between the screen and net. I then hung 1” memory foam on the wall just in case. My screen is 11 feet wide (I image width can make a difference with how far in the screen deflects).

I haven’t had any issues once I got the net tensioned correctly with enough attachment points.

It holds up to 155-160 MPH ball speed and is tensioned to keep the rebound distance to 5 feet on hard shots. Part of that short rebound is also due to the thick, soft impact screen.

link to pics of how close it is:

[colinjm18]

When I had my simulator room set up I had approximately 8” from screen to wall.
I had screen , 2 painters cotton sheets ( used as projector screen) and a net.
Never had a issue with balls impacting wall behind. And had zero bounce back.

[Ducati07]

Thanks a lot you guys! I really appreciate the feedback and am stoked that I can move forward with confidence without moving that ladder.

I think I'll try the netting behind the screen and see what happens.