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Thought I'd share some of the work on my garage golf simulator build so far. I literally sold my other home for the sole fact that the ceiling height was not high enough to swing a full driver in there. lol. I have placed my order for the screen, projector, turf, baffles and more that should be here within 2 weeks for final completion. I will be using this with the Skytrak and have also purchased the Armour Protection for it as well. Let me know your thoughts, good or bad. Thanks again!
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Hello all. I have had a few questions about what I have put into my particular build so decided to share that with everyone.
The build was a little more than I wanted to spend originally but is something you can piece together over time. I went through Par2Pro for everything minus a few items but for the baffles that hang from the ceiling I would go another route now. Same could be said about getting some of the other items cheaper but ordered most through Par2Pro for convenience and because I didn't necessarily know what exactly I needed at the time to be honest as I was new to all of this.
Par2Pro Items
WUXGA Projector- $1,995.00 (Looking Now could probably find slightly cheaper elsewhere but for same projector not by much)
Custom HQ2 Impact Screen (/lf) 8'9"h X 14'w Attachment Bungees Included - $1,119.85
Custom Super High Impact Mesh Backstop - Black (/sf) 8'9" X 14' - $535.50
Impact Screen Premium Trim (Double-Sided) - 9" X 15' for top; 6" X 9'6" for sides - Covers mounting area - Frames out projected image -
Reduces bounce back - Connects to hook Velcro- $315.00
Custom HQ Ceiling Baffles (/lin ft) - 14' long, 18 inches wide. 6 Items - Covers 12" Of Depth Per Baffle - Hangs Down About 7" - Attaches To Ceiling Via Velcro - $1,134.00 (Would Not Recommend These! They ended up only hanging down about 4 inches and did not protect ceiling. Look below for additional notes on the baffles and what I would recommend instead.
1" PSV (sticky-back) Hook Velcro (/lin.ft.) - $49.50
2" Double Sided Hook Velcro (/lin.ft.) 32 3.00 96.00 2" PSV (sticky-back) Hook Velcro (/lin.ft.) - $269.50
Putting Turf - PRO15 (per LINEAR foot) •Great to complete any golf simulator studio •Can be used indoors or outdoors •15' seamless width 18ft x 15 ft- $1,800.00
Total Par2Pro Cost: $7300.00--Including Shipping (Excellent products for the most part minus the baffles. Maybe I got a bad batch, but was a bit pricey for that item.)
Other Costs:
Laptop I already had but it is an MSI Gaming Laptop. I use it for work so it serves a double purpose. Runs The Golf Club just fine.
3/4 inch metal conduit for frame and all attachments- Rough Estimate would be around $500.00 or so total for everything. Lowes
Under $100 dollars for lumber. Bought two 2x4x16 boards for support for metal conduit. Bought 1 2x4x8 that I cut up for support for side railing.
Side Curtains- 2 of the 10x10 Heavy Canvas Curtains ordered from an awesome company called Peaks Tarps for $225.00 total including shipping. These are heavy duty and awesome quality. Comes with grommets on the top and they even added Velcro to the sides for me for attaching to the impact screen premium trim later. ***Order the baffles through this company instead. The size of the baffle I ordered were 14ft long x 18 inches wide. Par2Pro charged me 189.00 for each baffle. If you know the dimensions you want you can tell Peaks Tarps to custom make them for you and the one additional I had to order came out to 38.00 total with around 12 dollars for shipping for what I felt was a superior product. 50.00 total for 1 baffle. If you look at the pictures I had to actually use four of the baffles to hang from the ceiling vertically instead of looping them 12 inches apart as Par2Pro recommended because they did not end up hanging down anywhere near 7 inches and did not end up protecting the ceiling that way. In my pictures what you see is a total of 7 baffles, 3 of which are looped and 4 which hand vertically down 18 inches to catch the golf balls. Works great this way and I have not hit the ceiling once.
Order 3 black curtains from Target.com for around $60.00 total which I used to hide the area that houses my water heater and water softener in the garage.
Bought 6 Heavy Duty Moving blankets with grommets that I hung behind the golf impact screen and mesh netting. I was told to use a mattress topper because it would extend the life of the screen but actually saw on here that some others had used moving blankets. I hung them from the frame before hanging the mesh and the screen. Bought online through MoversSupplies.com for $209.00 including shipping. The blankets came with grommets for hanging so worked very well. Here is actually a video link of us hanging the blankets so you can get an idea of how we did it. https://youtu.be/N_h0gcLD1Wg
Bought an awesome HDMI Splitter that I use so I can project either DirectTV or laptop image to the projector and television separately. Bought it through a company called Altex for around $100.00. It is a 4x2 splitter so you can have 4 items going in to the splitter that projects out to two separate devices such as a TV and/or a Projector. Right now I have my laptop and the DirecTV as inputs only but late may add a PS4 or something for gaming.
HDMI cords and other miscellaneous items totaled under $100.00 or so.
Other Potential Expenses-
I did insulate my garage door with panels from Lowes that ran me under $100.00 but made a huge difference with heat reflection from the sun and even without the AC on in there it never really gets above 85 in the garage and that is with South Texas Heat!
Ductless HVAC Unit-- Invested in this right off the bat as my garage before the insulation and AC would easily get into triple digit heat. Even at night it was unbearably hot in there when starting off the project. I had a two ton ductless mini split put in my garage installed for $2400.00 which was an excellent price. Had to call around a bit to comparison shop.
Total Other Costs for My Individual Build (Will vary based upon individual needs): $3834.00
Launch Monitor and Simulation (Depending on What Route You Want to Go. I Use Skytrak so I Have Included Those Costs Here):
Lastly I already had the Skytrak Launch Monitor which is what I currently use but think you can find those right now for around $1800.00. You need to purchase a package through Skytrak that allows you to play simulation for another $99.00. Lastly you would need to choose a simulation package you want to go with. I went with The Golf Club and bought the package outright for $795.00 so I own it but there are other options some of which are cheaper.
Total Potential Skytrak and Simulation Expenses: $2700.00 or so
Definitely not a cheap process and something I saved up a long time to be able to build but I am happy with the final product. Things will be tweaked as I go along but everything is working out well.
Hope this helps. If you have any other questions feel free to reach out to me. I'm going to post this on my post as well to help others that may have similar questions to you. Thanks again!
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You definitely could've sourced a lot of these items yourself and saved a few thousand dollars. Looks like it came out nice though.Comment
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Understand DFdubb. Please feel free to share on this post with any advice on ways to save vs where I bought the items. Im sure other new members would like that info as well. If I had something like that when was ordering it would have been very helpful.Comment
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Projectors
BenQ 2150 ST.......$1000 or less
Optoma 1080 GT...$700 or less
Impact Screen
Lots of options here, but for example you can get the Carl's premium screen (which is arguable the best out there), 14' x 9' w/ finished edges, grommets, bungees, etc......$750 right now.
Mesh Backstop
$500+ for "mesh backstop" seems crazy. I've built 2 SIMs and just used a less than $100 net behind my screen, but even if you wanted the same product, you could buy the West Coast Netting PR20 archery netting in black. 14' x 9' finished edges and grommets......$282.00
You might have been able to save a few bucks on the turf and like you've already found out, the ceiling baffles were definitely not worth the $1100.
Like you said, just in case a newb reads this, these are some ideas to keep the costs down for the ones that jumped out at me. Definitely requires more time and precision on your part to hunt all of this stuff down and make sure it's all the right sizeComment
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Awesome post DFDubb. That is some good info. Thanks.Comment
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Underdog6
I know exactly what you're saying as I went a similar route to you. After a poor first attempt at a sim, I decided to let Par2Pro do all the work for me, and pay a premium for it. They supplied screen, backstop, ceiling net, curtains, curtain tracks, premium side / top trim... plus all Velcro / zip ties / bungees etc.
All I did was supply them with the size of my frame.
They shipped to to the U.K, and I simply put it together. It all fitted, and all works together perfectly! The down side is that it's very expensive. It's not until I looked at the invoices again a few days ago and see that I paid $50 for zip ties (which I get from work for nothing!) I realised how expensive some parts of this were!!
I think the Par2Pro screen is top notch, and have no complaints. I can only compare to an archery net and supertex, but the image quality of the Par2Pro HQ is much better.
If if I was to do it all again, I'd still go down the same route for simplicity. The only 'consumable' I have really is my screen, so when that wears through then I might look at other options... however the Par2Pro is well finished and I'm really happy with it.Comment
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Agreed P3eps. They just made it easier. Even though I know that now some of the items are overpriced I still feel I went the best route for the most part by going through them because they are experienced in the business and by far had the best setup online for reviewing most of these things and looking at them. The customer support I also received from them has been top notch. I am not saying anything bad about the company as I feel they were great. However now knowing what I know some of the items I would buy elsewhere. I can definitely say I'm happy with the screen as well and even if I have to buy another one I probably would still buy it through them especially because they would offer a 50% discount the next time around on the screen. They made it very easy in regards to making my finished product look amazing even though I did not know what I was doing going into it. I don't think I would have had the same outcome if I would have purchased items from different companies without knowing for sure how they would tie in.Comment
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Is a 50% discount on a second screen a standard thing that Par2Pro do? If so, then I'd definitely take another HQ screen from them.
I have no complaints either - super helpful to deal with, great knowledge of their products, and good suggestions on how to do things. Expertise comes at a cost, and I was willing to pay the costs to ensure that I ended up with everything fitting together and working as it should.
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