Starting my garage buildout...

[jetergr]

With the Mrs. giving me the green light for Christmas, I've begun planning a simulator for my garage. I've decided to start by getting my enclosure & impact screen built out first, but am running into a few logistical issues I was hoping people on this board may be familiar with.

First off, we have a 1 car garage that has our water heater & storage space in the very rear. So I can't put an enclosure up all the way in the back, as these aren't movable. So my plan was to place my enclosure about 12"-18" from the water heater. However, the kicker is that I still need to be able to access the area behind the net from time to time, so the enclosure can't be permanent or difficult to move.

I initially was thinking of copying a few other users here and have the net swing up to the ceiling so it can get out of the way. However, due to my garage door opener, that's not possible. So now I'm thinking of having the enclosure essentially be on a hinge, so I could rotate the screen so that it stores up against the side of the wall (where the driver's side door of the car would be - see attached diagram).

This, by itself, wouldn't be a problem. However, I'd like to also include side netting around the enclosure. And if I build extensions on the front of the screen to accommodate side netting, it won't be able to store flat against the wall. So I'm now thinking of putting these side extensions on hinges, which could then fold in towards the center of the screen when the whole enclosure needs to be rotated to the side of the wall (think how French Doors work... but the french doors would stop at 90 degrees from the wall and serve as side netting).

Has anybody on this forum every encountered anything similar? Or done a build similar to this, where as the entire enclosure needs to be easily movable?

Lastly, the Mrs. has requested that if I do this, that it has to look polished and not just like something was thrown together haphazardly.

Also, a few more questions I've stumbled across are:
- Do I need to use netting for the sides? Or can I just use black drapes?
- Can the enclosure be made out of PVC? Or does it have to be metallic conduit? Is there a difference?

Any advice/input/help would be much appreciated!!

GR

[Ironstrokes]

As for the drapes and pvc. Unless you glue the pieces together at the connection points the pvc pieces may pop out every now and then depending on where you place the connectors. Having said that, I have a pvc frame built that is working pretty nicely for me with no glue used, and if I do manage to hit one of the bars the ball doesn't fly back at me as fast as a metal frame would. You may get the occasional cracked piece if you hit it dead on, but that is easy to repair in a minute and overall pvc is much easier to build with in my mind. I would also like to say that any of the pvc that ever popped out for me were always just extra supporting pieces that I put in and never the main screen holding ones and never really affected too much on the overall stability of the screen.

And I would definitely go with long black drapes for the sides, didn't realize how much I would love how well it made the whole room look and feel and has done well for me on stopping balls on the occasional shank.

[wbond]

Simple solution would be to run a steel cable from one side to the other and have your screen and netting hang from it on carabiners. You can then slide the net and screen to the side when needed. Easier than building an enclosure. You can then put pieces of angle iron on each wall to attach bungees to for tensioning the screen. You can do the same for side netting as well, attach an eye bolt to the ceiling and run it towards the front of the garage where the door is. Good luck with your build.

[Gamble Gamble]

i can attest, this is a great idea

[luv2golf]

Ya, you need to be creative here. If you want to pm me your email, I'll send you some pics of my setup. Keep in mind though we are custom installers, so I used earthquake wire (fly wire), eye hooks into trusses/floor joists, and crimps. I'm also using a 1" diameter iron bar as a tensioner at the bottom. My screen is 10" from the wall and ZERO issues. I also raised my mat to balls that bounce back won't hit my GC2.

Total cost was maybe $350 for mats and screen (plus install time of course).

[jetergr]

Thanks. I"ll PM you my e-mail now.

[jetergr]

Simple solution would be to run a steel cable from one side to the other and have your screen and netting hang from it on carabiners. You can then slide the net and screen to the side when needed. Easier than building an enclosure. You can then put pieces of angle iron on each wall to attach bungees to for tensioning the screen. You can do the same for side netting as well, attach an eye bolt to the ceiling and run it towards the front of the garage where the door is. Good luck with your build.

Thanks wbond. Would sliding the screen to the side be bad for the impact screen? Would that wrinkle/crease it at all?

Also - what would I do about the back netting? Would I hang it from the same wire, or run a second wire about one inch behind the original wire?

[wbond]

I'm currently using pr20 and it leaves no creases whatsoever when it's slide out of the way. You can either use it on the same wire or run another a couple inches or so behind it, i don't think it will make a difference. You have many options, just need to be creative and get the most out of your space.