Starting my build

[lhahn]

Hello everyone!

First off wanted to thank Drew, Dorn for answering my questions and countless unnamed others who have unknowingly helped and inspired me to build my winter practice sim.

Some background info, I plan on being in this house for 3-4 years more max and building a dedicated shed (demo work, building a slab, etc) was going to run me into the five figures, NOT including cost of the sim and launch monitor itself. So with that out of the question, and no usable space in the house, I've been forced into the garage. Fortunately, I have an extra long garage, but unfortunately my floor to joist height is only 7 foot 11 inches. Therein lies my first problem.

I figure I only need a small rectangular area with increased ceiling height so I wanted to ask those with more building expertise if this plan I drew up in my mind yesterday was feasible. Could I cut out part of one joist and add two headers onto the neighboring joists for support. Would I have to double up the joists going lengthwise as well? Hopefully I make some sense and my picture helps clear it up.

That would give me a small area where the club would hit the ceiling with 8 feet 10 inches of clearance.

Thanks in advance!

PS - Looking for a used Flightscope Xi

[aja]

Wondering what exactly is above the garage? Answer to that affects your "cut-out" idea for the joists. If it's an area that's in use then there will be different loading on the floor / ceiling, than if it's unused or storage.

Also, I'm not sure that making a small area in the ceiling with increased clearance will actually work. The range of motion of a golf swing is surprisingly large and also surprisingly unpredictable. The larger, more open space you have the better. Damaged clubs or damaged ceiling are not fun outcomes.

Someone else might want to chime in if a radar based system can be used in your space.

[lhahn]

Sorry, dumb of me not to mention. It's a flat garage with nothing on top. So no real load bearing concerns.

In your experience then, how large of a cut out would you guess I would need to be safer?

For radar, I would have about 9 feet from ball to screen and 8 back to the unit so I think I should be good. I don't have one purchased yet anyway so that's not set in stone.

Thanks for your feedback!

[aeroburner]

what part of the country you live in first off looking at your load factor of this and cutting out above ball is not the issue it would be to the rear of you and to the left and right of you.your back swing and the follow thru

[lhahn]

I live in Vancouver so it snows one day a year on average. We only get dumped on every 7 years or so and that dump was last year

Yes! The cut out will be over the back of the mat. Hard to tell on my MS Paint layout

I was also seriously considering building a half wall in front of my car where the side net would go. Not sure how much that would help with the load as well.