Raising Ceiling

[caiany777]

Hi all. Been lurking here for a while but finally going to take the plunge and put a simulator in my house.

The setup
I have a good spot for it in the basement that is 25' deep x 20' wide by 9' tall. I know 9' can work but I would prefer 10' for peace of mind with swinging free so I am having a contractor look at raising the ceiling. We have a bunch of stuff running through the ceiling (ducts, sprinkler, etc) that will need to be moved to the sides of the 20' width so that the part that is raised will not be the full 20' across.

My question
How wide should the raised part be if I want it wide enough for a center hitting position with room for lefties and righties? This would be for me but also friends to come and play, I don't have any giant friends but a couple of people who are 6'1" or 6'2"

• Uneekor Eye XO page says 13' minimum but 15' preferred for 6' and taller (https://uneekor.com/products/eyexo-view)
• The Foresight Sports Simulation Configurator says 13' with player-centered (https://www.foresightsports.com/simulation-configurator)
• I've seen posts on this site that say 16' is required for center position hitting but I couldn't verify that with photo's or video

I would assume that since a swing arc's the punched-up portion wouldn't have to be the full 13' or 15' above. Maybe 10'? or 12'? Have any of you raised this ceiling but not the full width of the room? If so how narrow do you think I can get away with and still not be worried about my swing?

Thanks in advance for all your guys thoughts and experience!

[Wormburner]

EYEXO requires unit to be 9-10 feet away from hitting surface. I have a 9 foot ceiling but after hitting mat and the unit hanging from the 9 foot ceiling, the actual height of unit to mat is 8'6'' inches which is lower than recommended but it still works. Support does not like to help as much when mounted below recommended height. I have thought about raising where the unit is but I don't have enough issues to spend time on it. Width wise 15 feet is minimum for a center striking position for righty and lefty but golfers may feel claustrophobic.

[preludesam]

I’m about the same height and I really don’t have any major issues. Every once in a while I get a weird reading but I mostly chalk it up to a really poor swing. Second what Wormburner said about the center position. 15 feet is the minimum width wise. Even at 20 feet no one will want stand at the golfers back while swinging.

[caiany777]

Thanks Wormburner

The area I'm punching up to 10' will include where the EyeXO is since that is directly infront of the tee area so I should be right into he middle of the mounting range for height.

My issue comes in how wide I can stretch that 10' punch up area since we need to run the ducting that is there somehow. The room will be at least 9' tall for a full 20' span the question is how much of that 20' I can get up to 10".

Based on your response it sounds like I should get that to at least 15' to feel fully uninhibited. My hope was that since we did have 20' wide at 9' height that you wouldn't need the punch up quite as wide.

[Wormburner]

I will say this, if someone hits ceiling at 9 feet they most likely have a swing flaw finishing too upright or being careless with their pose. I have had several folks over 6 ft tall with no issues with ceiling but rather with the wall behind them as my room is only 14 ft wide. More room the better if you have the ability to raise ceiling though!

[dwise2613]

I went through this process. Had to move HVAC, electrical, cut out ceiling joists and run steel. Went from 8'3 to 8'11 after the 4 inch steel beams were in. Minus the drywall and 1.75 inches for evo foam and putting green to match up to my FB insert, I really only have 8'10ish.

I have never hit the ceiling once, and I'm 6'3 with a 115MPH clubhead speed. I do have some folks who come over that have grazed it, but nothing major. it tends to be the better golfers that hit it too, and only on the follow thru, not the take away, and only when they over swing. You can text me if you want and I'll send you some more pics. I have a Quad.

[caiany777]

Thanks dwise2613 I really appreciate this post and the photos. Would you mind letting me know the dimensions of your punchout? It looks you went the entire width of the screen? And then it looks like you took out about 3 joists so about 9 feet deep? Would you change those dimensions if you could go back? What do you think the minimum width would be to make it worth while?

[dwise2613]

Pretty sure the beams are 16ft long. The length of where the screen is is 13'6, then another 12in on the left, and another 18in or so on the right. Will post a photo of the finished product shortly. It basically ends up giving me an additional 9 inches of height in a boxed out tray ceiling that is 14 feet wide and 10 ft long.

The only thing I would have done differently is take out one more joist, I only took out 3, because of some duct work that I didn't want to pay more for to move. You never really have to worry about people hitting it on the back swing, rather the follow thru. I would determine where you are putting your hitting matt/insert first, especially with where the tee goes, and work backwards from there. Because I only took out 3, I'm limited to only really one spot to place my tee that I feel comfortable swinging driver from at 113 MPH.

Now in retrospect, I got too far along in my build before realizing this. Had a placed my screen on the other wall, so I'm swinging WITH the joists instead of against, could have saved my self a lot of money and trouble by only taking out 1 if that makes sense. I believe there was a post in here that I saw where someone did just that.

[COgolfengineer]

Another option is to dig out the floor, some people here have done that.

[caiany777]

Thanks. I have in floor radiant heating so digging down is not going to be possible.

[Gresh12]

Sorry to go somewhat off topic but how much can you raise a basement floor typically? And ballpark what does it cost if there isn’t too much utilities to move?

I’ve got 8’ in the basement and digging isn’t an option so I had somewhat given up as I didn’t think there would be enough space “between floors” to gain much and even if I could gain close to 1’ would it be so expensive to not justify it.

I have about 4 locations in my house that are almost good fit my sim but none quite work (always one dimension is just off). So I’m stuck in my backyard which isn’t great with very rainy winters.

[dwise2613]

Yeah, I had to get a structural engineer involved and a GC. I could have done the construction myself if I had help once I saw how simple it was to do what they did. Just need a saw-zaw and some 2 X 4's and a nail gun and some muscle as those beams weren't light. I would also go with thin tongue and groove wood to put on the ceiling instead of drywall, as my drywall has been destroyed. There was a video of here I saw on someone who did that, name is CHip, he's a golf pro.

[Gresh12]

Thanks.

I guess I was hoping to hear “if you get lucky and there is nothing in the way it could be $5k” but if you’re moving services the sky is the limit.

What I’m reading is this is expensive even in a good scenario. I’ve got no sense what home reno’s cost and where I live contractors are so busy even getting a quote is unlikely (especially for what I’d hoped wasn’t a huge deal but knowing the floor needs supporting felt it would be a huge deal).

I’ll keep working on how to protect myself from the rain outside in the winter.

[caiany777]

Gresh12 for what it is worth my contractor is saying $10k to $15k depending on what we have to move. That includes demo, construction and then finishing it back to a drywall finish.

[dwise2613]

[Gresh12]

Thanks I may try to get someone in to do a quote.

[caiany777]

dwise2613 I attached a couple of photo's of a very crude top view and sectional view of my layout. I probably should have included this to start with. Anyway, what it amounts to is, as you described, a tray ceiling that is raised 1-foot for a 12' wide by 10' deep section. The GC is saying it will be quite a bit cheaper to make this tray 12' wide than say 15' wide given the types of things that need to be moved in the ceiling. However, it can be made a lot more than 10' deep for minimal extra cost. We just picked 10' because I figured 6' behind and 4' in front was ok. So a couple questions:

1. If I read your last post correctly you wish you had more raised ceiling between the tee position and the screen? How many feet do you think would be good?
2. Is it even worth it to go through this process if I can only get 12' wide? Or will this really end up just acting like a 9' ceiling because the corners where it comes down to 9' will be what is getting in the way of a follow-through?