Living Room Apartment Build

[patrickleeleep]

Hello All,

I currently live in an apartment and want to get to a sim build going. I had a very budget build with the optishot 2 in the living room before that consisted of a homebuilt mat, optishot 2 that was hooked up to a PC putting the video onto a tv and was hitting Foam balls into a net. As much fun as this was, taping your clubs and moving things around in the living room was not ideal as was not being able to hit real balls.

Fast forward to now, I have the budget optishot setup in the empty 3rd bedroom of the apartment which is a very confined space for a full swing of anything longer than say a 4 or 5 iron. My idea is swap that around and move the living room furniture into the 3rd bedroom as I know it fits and my roommate and I (both golfers) wouldnt mind this at all and then build the setup in the living room area that has much more space and vaulted ceilings.

I'll attach a picture but my concerns are that this is a apartment so I cannot build a projector mount off the ceiling and cannot mount much to the walls unless I plan to repair them which may happen with a ball anyways at some point. The other concern would be the large sliding glass glass door to the balcony and saving it from a ball hitting it.

Plans: Build a frame for an 8'(H)x8' or 9'(W) impact screen with sides and top that extend out to protect potential shanks or mishits. Would use a short throw projector that would be encased on the floor. I'll most likely build my own enclosure for that. The sliding door is what needs to be protected the most as shattering that would be expensive. I was hoping maybe some of you might have an idea of what to do for that. Would building an extension with netting out to cover the sliding glass be enough?

Thank you in advance for any and all help/ suggestions.

[wbond]

Can you hit from the couch to the right in the first picture? Also what about noise bothering the neighbors, hitting a real ball inside with a driver is pretty loud. You could setup a wall mounted unit which would only require patching the holes when removed, which is quite simple. For side netting, you could build a PVC frame with a net that could breakdown very easily when needed.

[patrickleeleep]

Can you hit from the couch to the right in the first picture? Also what about noise bothering the neighbors, hitting a real ball inside with a driver is pretty loud. You could setup a wall mounted unit which would only require patching the holes when removed, which is quite simple. For side netting, you could build a PVC frame with a net that could breakdown very easily when needed.

Once built, the living room would be solely used for the golf sim and have no furniture in it. So any furniture in the pictures would not be there once setup. I just didnt want to move everything for the picture. Thats what I figured with just building an extension connected to the screen that would be covered with netting. Not sure of spacing or anything like to protect the glass though. I'll attach of really bad "drawing" of what I had in mind. I'm no photoshop expert or anything. Back wall would be the impact screen and on both sides extending out would be frame with netting.

The noise will be something I deal with as needed but I only have one neighbor on the back side of me. The downstairs unit is actually just show model luckily.

[wbond]

Do you have to hit towards that wall? If not you can remove the potential of shanking one into the sliding door. I have a setup just like you drew in my garage, and if you shank one into a loose net, you need to have a lot of depth behind the net. The tighter the net, the less deflection it will have.

[patrickleeleep]

Do you have to hit towards that wall? If not you can remove the potential of shanking one into the sliding door. I have a setup just like you drew in my garage, and if you shank one into a loose net, you need to have a lot of depth behind the net. The tighter the net, the less deflection it will have.

Hitting the opposite way could potentially work but having the setup on the opposite end of the room would block the access to the office area and would block most of the glass door that would still be used as we go out there to smoke and bbq. Thats why it would be important to do it on the wall in pictures.

The back wall is 129" so if the frame and hitting enclosure was built to 84" (8 feet) there would be 2+ ft in between the glass the netting.

[kalcormier]

I did exactly what you are talking about. I had a 2 bed 1 bath apartment. It was more of a mother in law suite so I didn't need to worry about noise. I moved all my furniture out of my living room. My space was 15 x 10 x 8. I was still able to swing driver even though I would hit the ceiling from time to time and was a little offset from center because of the width. One thing my golf coach always works on is getting my to swing more upright. I wonder if swinging that small of a space actually made me start swinging flat. Anyway, I built an EMT frame to hang the screen. I didn't put up any netting. So when I moved out I had to repair a few holes in the ceiling and right wall from shanks. But in your case would definitely protect that door. Maybe a sheet of plywood you could slide in place and then when done hitting golf balls store it behind the screen? Or netting like you suggested. Maybe a mattress in place of the plywood. I think it is doable. And you have many options.

[patrickleeleep]

I did exactly what you are talking about. I had a 2 bed 1 bath apartment. It was more of a mother in law suite so I didn't need to worry about noise. I moved all my furniture out of my living room. My space was 15 x 10 x 8. I was still able to swing driver even though I would hit the ceiling from time to time and was a little offset from center because of the width. One thing my golf coach always works on is getting my to swing more upright. I wonder if swinging that small of a space actually made me start swinging flat. Anyway, I built an EMT frame to hang the screen. I didn't put up any netting. So when I moved out I had to repair a few holes in the ceiling and right wall from shanks. But in your case would definitely protect that door. Maybe a sheet of plywood you could slide in place and then when done hitting golf balls store it behind the screen? Or netting like you suggested. Maybe a mattress in place of the plywood. I think it is doable. And you have many options.

Funny you mention mattress as my and I kicked that idea around as we have an extra since I recently purchased a new bed. So thought to lay the mattress against the glass and still have netting sitting in an EMT frame. Just not sure what happens with a shank into the netting and possibly bouncing off the mattress? Maybe I am over thinking it.

[kalcormier]

I would think the mattress would absorb the impact. But I have zero experience with hitting at a mattress. I have read some guys on here mount them behind their screens to minimize noise and bounce back.