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  • JonH's Simulator

    Hello all.

    My simulator is finally up and running, just in time for winter. I want to thank all the forum members who helped out with answering my questions and DBgolf for the impact screen. I ended up with a Foresight Sports GC Hawk and it's awesome. My daughter helped me with making a website...blog....whatever it's called and I invite anyone to go and see it. There's lots of pics and also a parts page with links to all the parts that I put into the build. After the pics, there's a (long) diary about the adventures in getting this thing finished.

    If there's any questions, please ask away. I would be happy to help out anyone that I can.

    Thanks again to the forum and the members.
    Jon in American Fork


  • #16
    Thanks for the response Jon. When my foundation is and framing is done I will take a look at my remaining height. I would ideally like to do a subfloor for proper cups in the green but I may just go with the net return cup. I tried one today when I was looking at Rymar turf and it might be good enough for the kids to play around with. I have heard of a lot of people putting a net behind the screens, I will definitely investigate more. Happy hitting!

    Comment


    • #17
      Hey Pickled,

      The net behind the screen is something that I'd recommend if your budget will allow it. From what I've read it will (should) extend the life of your screen as well as sharpen the image due to the black color. And my sub-floor served the two purposes of getting my slab flat AND allowing me to put in 'real' cups (when I finally do it). I think it will be more satisfying to see the ball drop in a cup. Plus, the hole being 1/4 inch smaller in diameter may make the holes out on the course look huge. Well....maybe larger.

      Jon in American Fork

      Comment


      • #18
        For RJBoogie and docsmilez, I finally got the putting green material name. It's Park Central Oasis Indoor-Outdoor Premium Artificial Grass Turf. I put a link to a place to buy it in the parts page, NOT the place that I used. The guys that did the install for me are local and only have a couple shops around me.

        Hope that helps,
        Jon in American Fork

        Comment


        • #19
          Originally posted by JonH59 View Post
          Hey Pickled,

          The net behind the screen is something that I'd recommend if your budget will allow it. From what I've read it will (should) extend the life of your screen as well as sharpen the image due to the black color. And my sub-floor served the two purposes of getting my slab flat AND allowing me to put in 'real' cups (when I finally do it). I think it will be more satisfying to see the ball drop in a cup. Plus, the hole being 1/4 inch smaller in diameter may make the holes out on the course look huge. Well....maybe larger.

          Jon in American Fork
          Good to know about the net. I have a call with par2pro on Wednesday so I will add it to my list of questions. There's no question a real cup would be ideal. I will have 10' if there needs to be a duct run through the simulator or 10' 7" if I don't so it will be a game time decision for that one. I'm 6' and my golf buddies are even taller so the more height the better at this point. I actually just got a brilliant idea as I typed this... Someone must have done this before. I wonder if I can put 3 "mock" drain holes in the concrete floor. If I can get them even 3" deep that would suffice. I can do 1" high density foam under the turf. That might work to save some height. Seeing the ball drop would be so much better. Thanks for sparking the idea.

          Comment


          • Dax
            Dax commented
            Editing a comment
            Can you see if there is a way for them to run the duct through the joists? 10 feet for a six footer shout be plenty though.

          • Pickled
            Pickled commented
            Editing a comment
            Dax, I will definitely see what we can do to avoid any ducts. My theater is next to my basement furnace room and runs will need to go to the other end of the house. I think 10' should be fine but any chance I can get steal a couple inches I will.

        • #20
          Originally posted by Pickled View Post

          Good to know about the net. I have a call with par2pro on Wednesday so I will add it to my list of questions. There's no question a real cup would be ideal. I will have 10' if there needs to be a duct run through the simulator or 10' 7" if I don't so it will be a game time decision for that one. I'm 6' and my golf buddies are even taller so the more height the better at this point. I actually just got a brilliant idea as I typed this... Someone must have done this before. I wonder if I can put 3 "mock" drain holes in the concrete floor. If I can get them even 3" deep that would suffice. I can do 1" high density foam under the turf. That might work to save some height. Seeing the ball drop would be so much better. Thanks for sparking the idea.

          As in drill into your floor? Now there's an adventure. I would think your slab is 4ish inches thick so you'd be getting close to dirt. Plus you'd be playing the lottery for running into rebar or something like that....maybe a screen of some type?

          Would the high density foam be in the form of the interlocking tiles that a lot of members used for their floors? You can get different thicknesses, I think, and that would assist in getting your desired 3 inch holes.

          Jon in American Fork

          Comment


          • #21
            Originally posted by JonH59 View Post


            As in drill into your floor? Now there's an adventure. I would think your slab is 4ish inches thick so you'd be getting close to dirt. Plus you'd be playing the lottery for running into rebar or something like that....maybe a screen of some type?

            Would the high density foam be in the form of the interlocking tiles that a lot of members used for their floors? You can get different thicknesses, I think, and that would assist in getting your desired 3 inch holes.

            Jon in American Fork
            Interlocking foam is exactly what I'm thinking. As for the holes in the floor, I'm building a house and they are just starting the footings. They will likely be pouring the floor within 2 weeks. I know precisely where my cups would go so maybe there's a way to do it now. I'm going to talk to my builder about it. It would be way too risky after the floor is poured.







            Comment


            • #22
              Pickled - good idea about talking to your builder and doing something early...but... I don't want to be a pessimist ALL the time but the builders probably have two things in mind: 1. Getting your house built as fast as they can (so they can move on to the next one) and 2. Making sure everything is to code so the inspector doesn't cause them any grief and hinder #1.

              If your're thinking about putting in sewer pipe (or any pipe) for cups before the pour, your builder will have to get the idea past the concrete guys who REALLY want to get done fast and move on. In our area, the inspectors really don't like to see pipe that doesn't go anywhere or wiring that doesn't terminate at the box and a fixture, so there's that too.

              I wanted to put some PVC in my garage floor so I could later run electric to the center of my floor to run my tablesaw, jointer, etc but it was no bueno when I asked. I think the stumbling block was that the pipe would have been empty and not going anywhere. Maybe I should have bribed them?

              Jon in American Fork

              Comment


              • #23
                Not sure how I missed your post. I am building a custom home and it took me 6 months to find a builder and I'm fairly confident mine isn't like you said but I know I have definitely met some who are.

                I did talk to him about my idea and he's an avid golfer and loved the idea. At first he laughed when I told him 4" because that's he depth of the slab and it wouldn't make sense to go right through. Although he said it could be done properly with a closed steel pipe, a wrap and some heavy duty waterproofing. With the foam and the my putting surface I will need to go a little less than 3" and that's a non issue. He will go the full 3" and waterproof just as well as he would if he went straight through. The foundation guys are at the house now and they see no issues with what he was proposing. It will all be done after the floor is poured and that won't be don't until the second floor gets started.

                I am doing radiant flooring throughout the basement but not in my sim and that was the only concern.

                When it comes time to cut the holes, I will make sure I'm there to document the entire process for others. Although, if I wasn't building the house in didn't know for certain what was underneath, I definitely wouldn't do it.

                Attached Files

                Comment


                • #24
                  Wow. It sure looks like you thought this thru all the way. AND, you found a builder who's a golf fan. That's a good thing. I hope that all your plans work out and everything ends up like you're expecting them to.

                  Jon in American Fork

                  Comment


                  • Pickled
                    Pickled commented
                    Editing a comment
                    Thanks Jon, I hope so too. Who doesn't need a little extra stress in their life. Golf sim planning helps with the insanity.

                • #25
                  Dang Pickled , I wish your builder lived around here! Every time I talk to any contractor about what I'm wanting to do they don't have a clue, and you have to spend a lot of time explaining it to them, at which point I'm sure they still think WHY?

                  I'm curious about the waterproofing, you said he did that when he cut your cups into the basement floor? Is there really some concern anyone should have with cutting 3" out of a basement cement floor and hitting water? I guess I live in a dry area, on a hill, so it doesn't seem to be much of a problem, even with a septic and a water well in my yard, I don't think I'll have to worry about water and when I looked at GIS survey website it said my water table was at 200'.

                  Comment


                  • #26
                    Hey Jon - this is the first time I've seen your post and linked to your website and write-up. What an amazing job (both the build and the write up)! Like you, I got a lot of help from people on this forum (our final solutions ended up looking remarkably similar, likely in part to consistent feedback from people on GSF!), and it is so nice to see people like you "giving back" and sharing what you learned with the people building behind you. Great job - I'm sure you'll have years of enjoyment, and good luck with the projector issues.

                    Comment


                    • #27
                      fantastic write up and fantastic space!

                      which fiberbuilt mat did you choose? I was under the impression that the fiberbuilt mats with the separate nylon hitting strips were the best ones to prevent injury. Yours looks to be a one piece model.

                      Comment


                      • #28
                        Brettster,
                        You didn't ask but I'm going to butt in, anyway. If you're in a dry area, which it sounds like you discovered that you are, I would still be nervous about breaking thru your concrete. The possibility of critters of any kind having a nice big door into your nice, warm house is what I'd fear.
                        Jon in American Fork.

                        Comment


                        • #29
                          GoldenSim,

                          Thank you for the kind words. It's interesting that our sims look alike. I copied mine from a lot of pictures that I looked at while in the planning stage.

                          Next project will be cutting into the floor for some putting cups.

                          Jon in American Fork.

                          Comment


                          • #30
                            jc523,

                            Thank you for the kind words. Yes, the space is great but, and I'm going to sound super spoiled here, if I were doing it again and starting from scratch again, I'd make it several feet deeper - as in more space in the impact screen direction - so I could have a sofa/couch against the wall, looking at the screen. 20 feet is not quite enough space for that.

                            If I remember right, I got my Fiberbuilt mat from Par2Pro. It was not on their website so I called and talked to someone and they checked the warehouse and they had it. I just looked again and the same mat is still not listed. The link that I put in the parts page is for Foresight and I think P2P was a hundredish dollars less with free shipping. The good news is that it gives lots of wanted cushion, that bad news is that I cannot replace a section. (Actually, there's no reason I can't cut out a piece and fit in a replacement piece.) I will say that (supposedly) the mat will last a very long time as Foresight has their own guarantee that it will last 300K strikes. And, unless I do end up cutting into my floor and making the mat flush with the surrounding floor, I can always move the mat around as an area gets worn.

                            Jon in American Fork

                            Comment

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