JonH's Simulator

[Pickled]

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'.

Don't think your going to put a hole in your floor and "hit water" won't happen. But, it could be wet and you don't want moisture getting in. Thick vapour barrier and good silicone and you will be find. Where I live there's water. Everyone has sump pumps in their basement. There's a lot of sand and shale and with a big rain, it will catch my weeping tiles and can collect in the gravel under the house. So a pump just send it to the road. Not all areas are the same so if you don't have that to worry about your fine. Even with that, I could still go right through the floor but my concrete pad is a little over 4" and with 1-¼" mat, I only need to go 3" into the concrete.

I have radiant heat in my basement as well but I didn't put it in the sim room. I still haven't done it yet but that's the plan.

[JonH59]

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

[JonH59]

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.

[JonH59]

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.

[jc523]

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.

[GoldenSim]

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.

[Brettster]

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'.

[Brettster]

Thanks Pickled - good info on the footings... appreciate it. It's hard to find accurate information on footings, apparently there are all kinds of them that can be built: a.) standard footings, b.) bench footings, c.) monolithic footings, even under my 12x15 shed, the concrete guy was talking to me about footings that have to be matched with what is under there now.

I had no idea that even sheds beyond 10'x10' often require footings and not just a poured cement pad to build on.

[sulli182]

Yes Brettster, mine was a new build so everything was poured at the same time

[Pickled]

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

[JonH59]

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

[Brettster]

sulli182 - thanks for that info, so when they did the dig an extra 2 feet, were the footings lowered too, or had they not poured any footings yet, and just dig the extra distance and put footings at that new lower level, and the 12” walls? I wonder if that is what the ledge is for that I keep hearing about, as that would then basically give you a much thicker wall coming into the interior from where they start the dig and going down?

I will not be over 10’ deep total because I have about 2.0’ now at my ceiling area (and with 7’ ceilings, puts me at 5’ deep currently), so digging out another 3’ of depth should put me at around 8’ deep (underground)... I’ll have to see what the concrete guys say, or consider finding a general contractor that can estimate it for me, I tried calling a structural company and they wouldn’t touch it!

[Brettster]

SkeetShooter - thank you for that! Yes the ledge, or shelf often has to do with not underpinning, from what I’ve read about the process. That’s good to know that they have codes for that in every area of the country, as I’ll soon be having someone out to do an estimate and since they are a concrete guy they should know.

I’ve heard from others that it’s typically 6”-8” out from the current outer wall, and I believe the ledge only has to be there on the outer walls (that are load bearing weight from your house). I can live with that in my area, so that should save me some money doing it that way, instead of not having the ledge (which is a monster of a job: called underpinning as it requires them to jam rebar into the old concrete walls as they are extended down, and to work in alternating 4’ sections).

Regarding the water table good to know also, as I see mine is over 200’ here, and that I am a good 20’-30’ from any septic drainage, I really doubt we’ll hit water, even with a 3’ dig, as the house seems to have been built in an elevated area anyway, and a hill that slopes where the house is.

So, with all that being said, it looks like it will be the labor for jackhammer, and removing dirt through a conveyor belt out the window, and then several concrete pours, probably on the lower end of $4k-$6k?

[Pickled]

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.

[JonH59]

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