Hello - and I am beginning my simulator build

[Jay28]

I am taking the plunge on a golf simulator. I've held off for now because I have not had the headroom anywhere in my home and my garden just isn't big enough. So, I decided to change my double garage roof and make it a vaulted ceiling. Builder has been engaged, quote in, structural engineer and building inspection engaged.

Once complete, my garage space will be 5.4m wide, 5.2m deep. At the walls I have 2.3m height, but a metre in from the wall this jumps to 2.9m because of the roof pitch.
My plan is to have an enclosure that is 2.7m high at the screen (back) and 3.4m high at the front. The enclosure will be 2.7m deep, and I will be hitting from 2.4m from the screen, leaving me 2m behind. The width of the enclosure is 3.8m.

This will give me a hitting area side profile that looks like this - rough drawing. The blue lines representing the pitch of the roof is at the bottom of the rafters. The hitting enclosure is in black with the top sloping from the wall to the hitting area. The image of the golfer is representative of my height.







I am going with a 16:10 1920*1200 and the brightest projector I can get - I have just found a used Panasonic EZ590L for £1600 and I bought it (it has the short throw lens included) - pictured above is the exact position it needs to be based on throw ratios and screen size. Bit of a risk buying it unseen from Ebay - especially as I have yet to get started on the build work!... Still the retail price for that projector and lens is nearly £5k so perhaps the risk is worth it.

The back of the bay will be 2.7m high by 3.8m wide - so my screen size will be 2.7m high and 3.6m wide (exclduing bezels)

Projection screen will look something like this (again my size represented and about the offset I will hit from.



I am looking at an enclosure that is built to have the screen 1ft away from the back metal.
Have not decided on the simulator unit yet.

Here is the floor plan:



Quite a tight area - but seems to be big enough - 2.4m from the screen is close but will have to do, otherwise I will not have enough room for my backswing.
The blue box in the middle is the projector which will be 3m above my head and the blue boxes at the sides are small chairs. The wavy black line is a curtain.
Everything to the left of the enclosure is garage stuff and there will be a ceiling over that small area for storage. Behind the sim is some shelving.
The black rectangle on the right will be a cupboard for the PC and a flat screen to sit over it on the wall.
The black rectangle on the upper left is the back door into the garage.
The red squares are solid concrete / brick that protrude into the space.

The vaulting of the ceiling should be done by the end of Feb - I will be posting pics of progress.

Any advice very very welcome.
One area I need to think about is the sloped of the enclosure rook and what it might do to the ball on wedge shots that go over the screen or richochet off high up on the screen - I have read about baffles and foam but still looking into it. I want the roof to slope because I want no chance of a skied shot hitting the front metal bar, so have I planned to be completely under the enclosure and thus made it 3.4m high where I hit.

many thanks

John

[Jay28]

Getting rather excited... despite a lot of Covid-19 delays my roof on the garage is complete and the plasterer finishes up this thursday allong with the electrics being finalised that same evening.
My space will then be complete and I can get on with building the enclosure, sub floor and putting down the mats.

I reckon I am 2-3 weeks away from first hit!

[Jay28]

Pic of new ceiling height after roof replaced. goes from about 8ft at the edges to more like 12ft in the middle.
There's plenty of room to swing a driver as freely as I like.


I am getting the walls plastered tomorrow, then will be sealing the concrete floor with a roll on DPM.

[abirdie4me]

Looking great! Have you started building your panels for the side walls yet? I've decided against padding for my side walls, anything that hits there will just bounce into screen anyway. Should be a rare occurrence (hopefully), so I'm planning to keep it a bit simpler. Your idea will look sweet though, can't wait to see the finished product!

[Jay28]

Not yet - that will be one of the last jobs.
I decided to get my walls plastered too.
That is now done and the entire interior is painted.
I am building the hitting frame from wood this week - as well as the subfloor.
Once that is done I can hang my screen, fit the turf and mats and then will fit out the interior of the frame (walls / ceiling) with padding (or carpet tiles).. not quite made that decision yet!

[Jay28]

Plastering on the wall and painting is now done. Thats the wall in front that I will be hitting towards - the wood frame I am building will position the screen 80cm from the wall and gives a height of the frame of 2.8m. The width of the frame is 3.9m, which will span from just off the right wall and about the the light switch on the the left.
Screen will end up being a shade over 3.6m after the thickness of the wood frame and the side padding is accounted for.




I also built some shelving to the left for storage. Still in the middle of painting. Think I will also add 30cm selving behind the screen, which will still give 50cm free space for screen give.

[Jay28]

Clearing out to fit the dpm to the floor and start the frame build.

[Jay28]

Frame going up...

[Jay28]

Slow going but the floor is going down... so many screws!

Another row to do and some more cross supports to make sure the floor has no bounce at all.
There will be 18mm ply going on top, 4mm padding and then putting turf.

[Jay28]

Sub floor is finished - levelled and insulated.
Also fitted a new metal security door at the back of the garage.



3/4 inch ply will go down next... obviously cut to make sure all edges sit on floor joists.

[dudley286]

That build is coming along VERY nicely!!!!

[John @ Glasgow]

I am new to this Forum (my first posting) and I am currently looking at options to convert my garage such that it can house a SIM. Whilst I wait for an architect and engineer to advise on whether the changes I need to do will work, I am doing as much research as I can in order that I build something really functional. I have a question for you in regard to the approach you've taken to flooring. At the moment I also have a concrete floor but plan to lay something on top of it. You've gone with a 'joist' approach whereas I was thinking of laying an insulated board material (Kingspan) straight on to the floor and then laying a layer of chipboard. In effect it would just sit there, basically floating but held down by its own weight. I also like your approach to the hitting and standing mat. Are you working to ensure the hitting mat will be exactly level with the general turf area such that you can putt seamlessly between the 2 surfaces? Would be great to see some photos of the finished mat set-up.

[Jay28]

I am new to this Forum (my first posting) and I am currently looking at options to convert my garage such that it can house a SIM. Whilst I wait for an architect and engineer to advise on whether the changes I need to do will work, I am doing as much research as I can in order that I build something really functional. I have a question for you in regard to the approach you've taken to flooring. At the moment I also have a concrete floor but plan to lay something on top of it. You've gone with a 'joist' approach whereas I was thinking of laying an insulated board material (Kingspan) straight on to the floor and then laying a layer of chipboard. In effect it would just sit there, basically floating but held down by its own weight. I also like your approach to the hitting and standing mat. Are you working to ensure the hitting mat will be exactly level with the general turf area such that you can putt seamlessly between the 2 surfaces? Would be great to see some photos of the finished mat set-up.

Yes a board straight down on the floor could work. The only thing I would watch out for is movement (I don;t think there are boards big enough to kust have 1 - might be wrong) and whether or not insulation board would indent/compress over time around the area of the floor where your feet are planted (?).
I decided on joists because it's easier to level. I decided not to level the floor beforehand with self levelling compound. If you go the board route, I would recommend you do that.
As far as the hitting and stance mats, I am thinking through whether I will have them exactly level. I can, by cutting out the plyboard (leaving joists in tact in that area). That would sink the mats 18mm and my putting turf is 15mm, plus I am putting down 4mm padding - so from joist to top of putting surface will be 37mm. Thats enough to level up all the surfaces exactly.
Only problem is I will then have to add a solid surface between the joinst under where the mat will sit.

Yeah - I will be posting progress pics on this thread.
I've just completed the ply floor and am in the process of adding side supports to the frame. Will probably add a latest pic tomorrow.
This is taking quite some time to complete - more than I thought, partly due to Covid-19 and partly to do with me underestimating effort (a common thing when building simulators I reckon).

[Jay28]

The plywood is down for the raised floor, have cut in 3 golf holes and added side supports the frame. (Top braces tomorrow to stop any sag of the wood... also going to build in a small channel along the top to accomodate a baffle)
I also screwed down a surround for my stance and hitting mats to stop them moving.

Notice the little homage to Augusta National in the form of some Azaleas and Magnolias

[Jay28]

The frame ceiling is almost done - just a couple of additional metal joints to add, before fitting out with the internal material - either padding or carpet, or even a mix of both.

The small channel running across the top of the frame gives me the option of putting some material through as a baffle - or I can connect a baffle directly to the wood.

The structure is very solid - I can apply by full weight to the beams so should be easily strong enough. Very little bend or shake.

[Jay28]

Putting turf, stance mat and hitting strip now down.
The putting turf rolls well - haven't measured stint yet, but I would say its similar to my club green - medium to fast.

[John @ Glasgow]

Looks great and I have a few questions if you don’t mind. Based on previous posts you’ve gone with Ryder Pro turf and Amtech mats. Did you use an underlay for the Ryder Pro? Is it glued down or just laid into position? Can you confirm you didn’t buy the Amtech anti shock frame? How easy was it to get the ‘tight fit’ between the Ryder Pro turf and the hitting/standing strips? What did you buy for the putting holes? If I ever sort my garage conversion (architect delay) I intend to follow your approach for the floor area - hope you’ve not gone for a copy-write!

[Jay28]

Hi John...
Yes, Ryder Pro turf and Amtech mats. I like them a lot.
Here is what I did.

The ryder pro turf is stapled (lots of them) along the sides (vertical edges mainly, but there were a couple of places I had to staple near the edge of the surface) .. did one side.. stretched, did another.. stretched again..etc. There is no glue.
Underneath the ryder pro is 7mm artificial turf shockpad underlay. https://expressgrass.com/expweb/arti...-shockpad.html
I still have not decided whether to put fine silica sand all over the top of the putting surface and brush it in... I probably will.

For the mat and strip , here is what I did.
I decided NOT to cut into the plyboard to sink the mats down.
Instead, PRIOR to the putting turf going down I laid both the stance matt and the hitting strip down and then placed 9mm thick plyboard beading around all four sides (about 5cm wide). I then nailed down this beading. You can actualy see the beading on the floor on one of the pictures above.
Then when laying the underlay and turf, I cut them to the inside edge of the beading.
What this did was create a 9mm (plyboard) + 7mm (underlay) + 15mm (turf) (total 31mm) 'tray' for the mat and hitting strip. Turns out the stance matt and the puttng turf were prety much exactly level and no impact on roll from stance to putting turf when putting.
The hitting strip is 5mm higher, but for me that is ok. It still putts fine in transition. I actualy bought 4 different hitting strips - one of them is the same height as the stance matt.
No problem getting the matt and strip tight because they are locked in by the beading, underlay and putting turf.

The overall effect is that the hitting area sits on a 9mm high 'mound' (the height of the 9mmm beading). It's looks pretty neat and again has no impact on any roll of the putt from stance matt to putting turf.

The other way I could have done it was to cut out the 18mm ply floor board sitting on top of the 2*4s, but that would have meant putting a thinner ply under the stance and hitting strip... not as solid... which would have meant filling in between the floor joists under the ply.

One word of warning.. when your turf arrives take it out of the packaging and roll it out ASAP. I left mine rolled for weeks as I was preparing and it got moved around a lot. When I unrolled it was very creased in places. Took ages getting the creases out with plyboard weighted down with pavement slabs and then teh stretching). Even now some are still visible but I managed to get them even enough to not effect roll... hoping they disappear further over time.

So to confirm - no Amtech antishock frame.

For the putting cups I bought some white tubing - like this https://www.toolstation.com/100-roun...RoCH18QAvD_BwE

I cut c100mm diameter holes (with a 102mm holesaw - important as the tubing measurement is usually an inside diameter and was in this case too) and measured from the concrete sub floor to the top of the putting turf (note: the holes were cut BEFORE the underlay ind turf went down,,, then the underlay and turf - carefully and slowly - were cut round the edges when down). This is about 47mm 2*4s + 18mm plyboard + 7mm underlay + 15mm turf = 87mm.

I then cut the tubing to the desired height so it came up to about 15mm below the height of the turf and pushed into the hole, banging it down until it reached the concrete floor.
For the bottom, a simple sheet of white plastic then cut 100mm diameter pieces and slotted them in.

100mm is slightly smaller than a normal golf hole (which is 107.95mm) - which was the intent.

[Dax]

Everything is looking fantastic. I am sure at this point you are really itching to hit!

[Jay28]

Everything is looking fantastic. I am sure at this point you are really itching to hit!

Thanks and yes, you bet I am itching for the first strike!
I've got padding, screen, projector set up, pc and montior set up to do... then I am good to go. My materials for padding and the screen should arrive in the next 10 days or so.
I reckon first hit is somethime near the end of June, which is about 3 months later than I thought when I set out! I decided to do everything as I wanted and try not to cut corners.