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Regular readers of these forums may have noticed something of a pattern with these builds. North Americans are building their sims in the basement, or in the garage, while us UK guys nearly always build our sims in the garden. For those of you outside the UK I'll explain. For the most part in this crowded country, we live in tiny houses that have, if we are lucky, tiny garages and rarely have basements. What we do have, usually, is a garden. So, when the golf simulator bug bites, an Englishman turns to his garden. Unfortunately, while many brave people undoubtedly live in the UK, it is not truly the land of the free. We are subjects of Her Majesty, and Her Majesty's government has decreed that if any subject wants to build a tall cabin in the tiny garden of their tiny house, then we have to get permission from the local council first. Yes, 2 words that can strike fear in the heart of any Brit with ambition to build anything: "Planning Permission". The dreaded planning permission is the reason why, having the idea to build a golf sim cabin in May this year, it is only yesterday that I actually have a completed cabin to build it in. It was in May, during lockdown of course, that I had the idea to build a sim, and I knew straight away that I would need to get permission to build it. Now many people I'm sure never get past this point, feeling its not worth the trouble, but being a golf addict in a lockdown is a powerful motivator, so in late May I initiated the conversation with the local planning department. To cut a long story short, permission was granted in early September (to our North American readers, yes, 3 and half months, it really can take that long. To British readers: 3 and a half months, not bad eh!). Of course, during the first UK lockdown every man and his dog hatched a plan of some sort to improve their humble abode, so getting a decent builder (for the concrete base) delayed matters a bit, then delivery and build of the cabin, then electrics. All of which added up to a total 6 months of planning, scheming, organising, painting and a bit of pleading, but now the cabin is here, and it is ready to accept a sim build. Behold, the mighty shed!
Now, I know what you are thinking: "It's not very big, is it?". Yes, that's true, it is on the compact side. Internally its 4.75m by 3.85m (15'7" by 12'7"), but the height is plenty: 2.9m rising to 3.1m (more than 10' where I'm swinging). Obviously its a little narrow for width, so I'll be hitting off-centre, and a little tight for length, so I went photometric rather than radar. I'd have liked it to be a bit bigger, but this is what I could get through planning, given the size of my garden.
Over the many months of waiting there was a lot of planning, re-planning and planning again on how to fit it out, but the good part of that was I had plenty of time to think through the electrics. Hopefully I've got it right:
The PC will be in that back left corner, with plenty of sockets. Plus, you can see next to the window four switches for the sockets on the ceiling.
Only 2 of those ceiling sockets are required initially, one for the projector and one for the Uneekor (at one point I was going to have a sound bar too, but decided against it).
The lighting strips you can see hold detachable GU10 light sockets, so once the enclosure is built I'll remove the lights from the tracks at that end, so nothing to break. In addition to the 4 lights strips there is an extra individual GU10 socket over the teeing area. While playing that will be the only light on. The screen goes in front of that end wall in the 3rd photo. There will be an archery net behind the impact screen. I'll attach both screens directly to the walls and joists using "boat eyes" and ball bungees. The original plan was a metal pipe enclosure. I had a fancy design all planned out which would have maximised my screen size, but it would have been a nightmare to do any maintenance on it. Behind the archery net will be 6 inches of memory foam (so the screen is just over 6 inches from the wall, to minimise the amount of "lost" space). Hopefully that will work out! With shortish ball bungees I should end up with about 3.55m of screen width (about 11'8"). I originally planned that I would go with a 4x3 screen shape (maximising use of the screen), and position the projector accordingly, but at the last minute I have decided that sometimes I might want a 16x9 ratio, so I will be putting in a sliding rail system for the projector (my own design, fingers crossed).
The sides will be heavy curtains, the top will be golf netting covered by black cloth. For the floor I have some synthetic putting turf, and a Truestrike for the stance and hitting mat. I have been accumulating these materials for months, and everything is ready to go, except the golf net for the top of the enclosure (due next month). So, this is it, this weekend we roll up the sleeves, plug in the power tools and get sim-building. Wish me luck
Now, I know what you are thinking: "It's not very big, is it?". Yes, that's true, it is on the compact side. Internally its 4.75m by 3.85m (15'7" by 12'7"), but the height is plenty: 2.9m rising to 3.1m (more than 10' where I'm swinging). Obviously its a little narrow for width, so I'll be hitting off-centre, and a little tight for length, so I went photometric rather than radar. I'd have liked it to be a bit bigger, but this is what I could get through planning, given the size of my garden.
Over the many months of waiting there was a lot of planning, re-planning and planning again on how to fit it out, but the good part of that was I had plenty of time to think through the electrics. Hopefully I've got it right:
The PC will be in that back left corner, with plenty of sockets. Plus, you can see next to the window four switches for the sockets on the ceiling.
Only 2 of those ceiling sockets are required initially, one for the projector and one for the Uneekor (at one point I was going to have a sound bar too, but decided against it).
The lighting strips you can see hold detachable GU10 light sockets, so once the enclosure is built I'll remove the lights from the tracks at that end, so nothing to break. In addition to the 4 lights strips there is an extra individual GU10 socket over the teeing area. While playing that will be the only light on. The screen goes in front of that end wall in the 3rd photo. There will be an archery net behind the impact screen. I'll attach both screens directly to the walls and joists using "boat eyes" and ball bungees. The original plan was a metal pipe enclosure. I had a fancy design all planned out which would have maximised my screen size, but it would have been a nightmare to do any maintenance on it. Behind the archery net will be 6 inches of memory foam (so the screen is just over 6 inches from the wall, to minimise the amount of "lost" space). Hopefully that will work out! With shortish ball bungees I should end up with about 3.55m of screen width (about 11'8"). I originally planned that I would go with a 4x3 screen shape (maximising use of the screen), and position the projector accordingly, but at the last minute I have decided that sometimes I might want a 16x9 ratio, so I will be putting in a sliding rail system for the projector (my own design, fingers crossed).
The sides will be heavy curtains, the top will be golf netting covered by black cloth. For the floor I have some synthetic putting turf, and a Truestrike for the stance and hitting mat. I have been accumulating these materials for months, and everything is ready to go, except the golf net for the top of the enclosure (due next month). So, this is it, this weekend we roll up the sleeves, plug in the power tools and get sim-building. Wish me luck
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