What wall padding does a golf simulator room need?

What padding is for, and what it is not

Wall padding is foam fixed to the walls and ceiling that the enclosure leaves exposed. It does three jobs. It takes the shanks, toe hits and ricochets that leave the bay sideways, so the ball marks foam rather than plaster. It protects the people standing beside the golfer, because a ball coming off foam drops rather than rebounding. And it takes a little of the crack out of each strike, which the noise page covers properly. If a term is new, the glossary explains it.

What padding is not is a substitute for the enclosure. Foam cannot show a picture, is not made to stop a full-speed drive, and does nothing about a skied shot heading for the ceiling. GolfBays says the same of its own tiles: they shield walls and absorb noise. The impact screen takes the full shots, the velour side and ceiling panels of the bay catch mishits inside it, and padding deals with what gets past both. Our SimSpace room packages include the enclosure with its velour side and ceiling panels. Side netting is an add-on for every bay and package except SIM 0, which comes with its own. Padding sits on top of all that, never instead of it. How do I stop balls escaping? sets out the full set of layers.

Where it goes

• The side walls beside the mat, outside the bay. This is where most strikes land: a shank or a heavy toe hit goes out at an angle and meets the wall beside the frame or beside the golfer.
• The wall behind the golfer. Ricochets off the frame and the odd club head on the backswing reach it in a short room. It is the second job, not the first.
• The ceiling line above the tee, in a 2.7m room. The club at the top of the swing is the usual culprit, and a skied shot that clears the back of the bay.
• The base bar of the frame, where topped shots hit. That is a separate product, the SimSpace bumper pack, which fixes to the bar with velcro.

Anything under the mat is a different product again. The GolfBays turf underlay is 20mm interlocking EVA foam for the floor, for the room below and for the knees, not for the walls. Do I need a base under my mat? covers it.

The ladder, from cheapest to the fitted-studio look

1. Interlocking foam gym tiles

The budget route: EVA jigsaw tiles sold for home gyms, fixed to the wall or ceiling. They take a ball and quieten the room, but the jigsaw edges show, the colours are usually grey or chequered, and the foam is softer than purpose-made wall tile. We do not sell them for walls; our one EVA jigsaw product is the floor underlay above. Cost band: low.

2. Bevelled premium foam tiles

The tile we put in our room packages when a wall needs covering. GolfBays' Premium Wall Foam Tiles are high-density foam, 50 × 50cm, ten to a pack covering 2.5 square metres; the 1.0 × 0.5m large-format tile covers 5 square metres a pack and goes up faster on a long wall. The bevelled edge is the point: each tile's edge is cut back at an angle so the joins read as a grid of shadow lines rather than a patchwork, and the matt black lifts the contrast of the projected picture around the bay. GolfBays says the foam absorbs full-speed ball impacts without deteriorating. Neither GolfBays nor our product page publishes a fixing method; on our proposals we specify spray adhesive or velcro strips, fitted by your builder. Brush off dust and wipe marks with a damp cloth. Cost band: low to medium.

3. Leatherette-faced padded panels

A step up in finish rather than protection: the same sort of foam core, 50 × 50 × 5cm, with a leatherette face in black or grey, so the room reads as upholstered rather than padded. The face wipes clean, which matters on a side wall that takes a dirty ball. Foam-backed, so the fixing is the same as the tiles. These are not in the store yet; we offer them on request when a room is being specified, and the fit check at the foot of this page is the place to ask. Cost band: medium.

4. Upholstered fabric-faced panels

The fitted-studio finish: fabric upholstered over foam on a wooden backing, hand made to order in grey, red, blue or black as standard, or any colour you send. Being wooden-backed they are screwed or glued by your builder, so they are a build-stage item, and they take four to six weeks to make, which suits a garden room or lodge still being framed. Fabric cannot be wiped, so keep them off the wall that takes the dirtiest strikes and let the foam tiles do that job. On request only, as above. Cost band: high.

How much you need: a SIM 2 in a 3.5m-wide room

A SIM 2 bay is 3.0m wide inside with a 3.1m outer frame, so a 3.5m room leaves about 0.2m of wall showing either side of the frame, with the full side wall exposed from the back of the bay to the golfer and beyond. Count it like this:

1. Side walls. Pad from the back of the frame to a metre behind the golfer, 2.5m along, and up to 2.5m high: 6.25 square metres a side, 12.5 in all. That is 50 of the 50 × 50cm tiles (five packs) or 25 large-format tiles (three packs, with five spare).
2. Rear wall. The full 3.5m width to 2.5m high is 8.75 square metres: 35 small tiles (four packs) or 18 large-format (two packs).
3. Ceiling line. In a 2.7m room, one row of large-format tiles above the tee, 3.5m across, is seven tiles, which the spare from the side walls nearly covers.

So the whole room is about 21 square metres: nine packs of the small tile or five packs of the large. Most rooms do the side walls first and add the rear wall later if it starts collecting marks. Measure your own walls rather than copying mine; a radiator, a window or a door changes the count.

Plasterboard, block and new builds

On painted plasterboard, spray adhesive bonds well but takes the paint with it when the tiles come down, so if you might redecorate or you rent, use velcro strips and accept a slightly less flat finish. On block or brick in a garage, dust and damp defeat adhesive: brush the wall, let it dry out, and if the wall is cold and sweats in winter, batten a sheet of ply or OSB first and fix to that. Damp and condensation explains why garage walls do that.

In a garden room or lodge, agree the padded zones with the builder before first fix, so no socket, switch or light sits where a tile will go, then fit the padding after decoration and before the second-fix faceplates go on. Upholstered panels on a wooden backing want fixings into the studs, which is easier to plan while the walls are open. Garden room golf simulator has the rest of the build order.

In summary

The enclosure does the containing; padding protects the walls the enclosure leaves exposed and quietens the room a little. Bevelled foam tiles are the right answer for most rooms, the leatherette and upholstered panels are a finish upgrade we price on request, and nothing on this page replaces the screen, the side and ceiling panels or the side netting.