Garage Enclosure Build / Ideas

[423Dave]

First off, thanks for your feedback...after a few weeks of creeping the forums Ive came across a lot of great info that has influenced my plan for an upcoming enclosure build in my garage.

I have ample room (in my opinion) in my garage with 12' ceilings, plenty of width (could stretch it over 10' wide, although not the plan), and enough depth for a fair sized enclosure to be used with an Approach R10.

This is a relatively budget minded setup to allow my daughter to practice through the winter and giver her a chance to see a rough ball flight on the TV (no plans for projection currently. That being said, I have considered a pop up net in place of an enclosure, but feel the enclosure provides a bit more protection from rogue shots, etc....however the net isnt completely out of the question if you all feel it would be sufficient.

My initial thoughts are using a 7.7x10 enclosure (DIY) with 1" EMT and alll locally sourced fittings that is 5' deep. While I could go bigger (and open to that idea) Id like to still keep some space in the garage for a car to be parked without too much trouble. My idea was to construct the enclosure (to the sizes above) and utilize a Carls screen with ball bungees, and then source my own canvas with eyelets to secure to the sides and top of the enclosure, finishing up with foam (thinking pool noodles) to cover the exposed EMT of the enclosure.

Carls does offer the "DIY" enclosure kit for under 1k, but I still feel like that is steep considering it is only the impact screen, a few fittings, and the side / top canvas...ideally I feel like I could come in well under their price sourcing materials myself...but that is where your opinion really comes in. My main concern is not being able to find properly sized canvas for the sides / top.

My other plan was to use gym floor (foam / rubber) tiles inside the enclosure up to the hitting mat, covered in turf to help dampen balls that fall from the screen, in addition to a side extension net to protect one of the garage windows in the event of a shank.

From my rough drawings I am thinking around 70 feet of 1" EMT conduit should be sufficient, plus the + and T fittings should come in under $100 and $250ish for the impact screen from Carls...the side canvas is what has me worried but from a few searches it doesnt seem overly expensive, just a matter of finding something of OK quality that is the correct size with eyelets. Add on the ball bungees and a handful of pool noodles and I feel as if this is doable for under $650 or so.

What are your thoughts here, any suggestions, am I way off?

[ChiGolf22]

If you really have no intention of projecting an image, then you don't need to shell out the money for an impact screen (unless you want to future proof for if you change your mind to add a projector down the line). You can still build the enclosure, but use netting or some other material in the DIY frame that will not be as loud, prone to bouncebacks, or as expensive.

[Tom Howarth]

Use Archery netting. It works great and could stop any drive by Bryson DeChambeau. I used it for an outdoor set up and also have some as a backup behind my Carls enclosure.

[423Dave]

Alright, so plans have changed over the last couple of months. Feel free to tell me I am going about this wrong, or I am an idiot, etc....or if by some small chance I am on the right track, even better!

I have decided to utilize ceiling mounted EMT (8 feet deep, 10 feet wide) and hang heavy curtains directly from the EMT. I have 11' tall ceilings and considered dropping the top of the curtains a bit, but figured I would go ahead and use all 11'. The plan is 11' curtains on each side (coming out around 8' from the wall) and another 10x11' curtain as a back drop that will sit behind the impact screen.

I am aware I will need to build some sort of stand alone impact screen frame and am leaning towards using EMT for this, and just allowing the frame / screen to sit inside of the side curtains to help contain everything. Is this logical?

*The ceilings are actually at 10'8"so 11ft tall curtains will give me around 4" or so of pooling at the floor to stop the potential topped ball from escaping under.

[GullLakeMi]

You'll want to think about how far from screen ball position will be. At 10' wide with 8' depth on sides, the sides may be in range of club on follow through. I tee ~11' away from screen, 10' wide, and my upper sides are 5' deep. Driver probably comes within a foot of touching. I'm 6' tall.

I used netting off amazon for sides and top. Then bought black denim from fabric store and had it sewed to dimensions to cover netting and act as black out curtain.

Pool noodles ARE NOT ENOUGH cushioning to protect from dangerous ricochet of EMT. Please investigate this further before letting people hit. Plenty of threads on forum about serious injuries and DIY to bought solutions that provide considerably better protection.

[Bob Ferguson]

I found this setup perfect Cimarron Sports : Best prices on Cimarron Tour Simulator Golf Net Bundle

[Bob Ferguson]

If you don't need a mat or the ball tray this is a real bargain,buy 10 pcs of emt from Home Depot and for 500$ or so you're good to go. The frame corners are really nice, they have hooks that line up with the netting.2 hrs and you're done. Plus there's 2 pieces of conduit at the top rear and you can separate the net and screen as much as you want. And contrary to popular opinion you can put these 6 inches from wall for another 75$ with my secret hack lol
Cimarron Sports : Best prices on Cimarron 5x10x10 Tour Simulator Archery Golf Net with Frame Kit

[423Dave]

I appreciate all the feedback thus-far!

I fixed 3 lengths of EMT to my ceiling with EMT Hangers. First picture below was the tube hung for the first iteration. This left me with a 10ft wide x 9 ft deep base to hang curtains (around 11' high).

[423Dave]

After testing some fabric from my local hobby lobby...I concluded that it was going to be pretty pricey to use a duck / canvas material for the sides / backdrop...being 11' tall nearly eliminates using normal blackout curtains so my options for off the shelf (cheap) was basically non existent. Per a recommendation on Facebook I sourced some 12x10 privacy "tarps" that are a pretty nice mesh material. While this isnt ideal for aesthetics and projection, it fits the bill now and should work well to kill a rogue ball. I hung all 3 sections of the material and was left with this:

[423Dave]

At this point (yesterday) I had planned to build a 10x10 "frame" that was basically stand-alone inside the curtains to hold a screen...but after some more thinking I made the decision that I should just move the backdrop forward a bit to get it off the wall (it was originally only around 3" from the back wall). This would cut into my depth a bit, but would allow me to use the existing top (back) EMT rod to mount the top of the screen. I moved up the rear rod to sit around 14" off the rear wall (and removed the side rods / barriers for now. This is what I am working with currently:

[423Dave]

So at this point I could use some ideas. In my mind, the next step to give myself a decent 'frame' for mounting a screen is to:

Add 'T" connectors (3 way EMT connectors that usually come with the DIY enclosure kits) to the top rail (at the back). This will allow me to connect the back and side rods together, while also being able to add a new length of EMT that comes from the top (back) down to towards the floor to another 90* and over to the other side). This will give me a square / rectangular tube frame to hang a screen that sits directly in front of the back drape.

Unfortunately due to the size of the space I am working with, I will most likely have to work with a 1:1 projection (or close to it). Assuming I do go with the 3 way connectors, the screen would end up needing to be 10x10 or smaller (width). Since the top of the screen will be suspended from the top rail, there will be a void between the screen bottom and the floor that I will need to fill but I havent gotten that far.

Just trying to gather some ideas / feedback on where I am / my ideas, and use this as a way to document my thoughts as I continue throwing money at this thing.

[423Dave]

Quick question. How are you all hiding the bungees / tarp clips in the space between your frame and the screen edges (or are you hiding them at all). My frame should end up being around 10.5x10 and I had intentions of going with either a 9.5x9.5 or 10x10 screen. Id prefer the screen to be oriented closer to the floor (with the most blank space at the top). My plan was to use loose (longer) bungees or clips at the top to space the screen down a bit, using the sides to keep most all of the tension (there will be no bottom to the frame, the screen will just rest at / near the floor level.

[wbond]

To hide the bungees and clips, I wrapped my emt with strips of velcro and then i got black marine carpet from Menards, it sticks right to the velcro strips.

[423Dave]

Small update, instead of going with 3 way connectors from the top, I just added some 90* elbows at each back corner. This will let me run EMT down to floor flanges on each side as side mounts for the screen.

[423Dave]

Since I didnt use 3 way connectors (flat corner fittings) I will need to figure out a different way to mount my side rails for the "curtains" (Side barriers). The 90" elbows added around 16" of total length to the back rod, so I shortened the rod to end up at an exact 10' width at the elbows. (Planning on a 9.5x9.5 screen). Im either going to need to add T connectors off the elbows to add 2 more sticks of EMT for the side curtains to slide across.

[423Dave]

Ditched the mesh backdrop. I guess this is going to be a lot of trial and error. What seems like a good idea at the time ends up being less than ideal after a bit more thought. Added a 16mil blackout tarp this morning that will serve as the backdrop to the screen. This is 10x12 so will be the perfect width to meet up with the side barriers, and will tuck under the flooring when its installed. This should look much "cleaner" than the mesh. Im sure it will be loud even with a screen in front of it, but I may toss a moving blanket into the center portion of the screen to dampen the majority of shots.

[ASnatchA]

Looks like things are coming along. I'm doing a build myself and just noticed that your not putting anything for ceiling protection. I've been in the same boat myself thinking about my build and am leaning towards a 10' x 30' netting and hanging it over the top of both side emt poles so it leaves 10' down the sides and the 10' in the middle are covered.