Do You Need a Sim Enclosure — or Can You Just Pad the Walls?

A customer called James asked us exactly this on WhatsApp while planning his golf room: “Do I need the net and enclosure at all — could I just pad the walls out?” It's a brilliant question, because on the face of it padding looks like the budget answer: foam on the walls, hit away, save hundreds. And I'll give you the honest answer I gave him rather than the one that sells the most kit — because padding the walls solves one problem, ignores two others, and creates a fourth. Here's the full picture, so you can decide which level of protection your room and your budget actually need.

The short answer I gave James

Padded walls alone don't work for a simulator, for one unavoidable reason: foam is not a projection surface. A golf simulator needs somewhere for the projected image to land and somewhere for a full-speed golf ball to be stopped safely — and that job is done by a tensioned impact screen on a frame. Padding can't do either. It won't hold a crisp image, and loose foam sheets aren't engineered to absorb a driver strike and drop the ball dead at your feet. So whatever you do about the side walls, you still need an impact screen and a frame in front of you. The real question isn't “enclosure or padding?” — it's “screen-plus-what?” And that's a question with three honest answers.

Your three real options

Option 1: full enclosure — screen, frame, and enclosed sides and top

A full enclosure is an impact screen mounted in a frame with side curtains or netting and a top baffle, forming a bay around the screen. It exists because golfers miss: thinned shots that squirt low and right, toe-strikes that go 30 degrees offline, and rebounds that come off the screen at an angle. The enclosure catches all of it. It also blocks stray light from the sides so the projected image looks better, and it gives the whole setup a finished, purpose-built look. This is what I fit for anyone hitting driver indoors, anyone with kids using the sim, and anyone whose room has windows, plaster or a TV within ricochet range. The full breakdown of what's in these systems is in our impact screens and enclosures guide.

Option 2: screen and frame only

An impact screen on a freestanding frame, no sides. Cheaper, lighter on space, and the projection and ball-stopping jobs are done properly. What you're giving up is mishit containment: everything that doesn't hit the screen face-on is now your room's problem. In a garage with bare block walls and nothing breakable, that can be a perfectly rational choice. In a spare room with plasterboard, radiators and a window, it usually isn't — one genuinely bad strike per hundred is all it takes.

Option 3: screen and frame plus DIY padding

This is the version of James's idea that actually works: buy the screen and frame, then pad the walls alongside it rather than instead of it. Interlocking gym foam tiles or hanging mats either side of the screen and on the nearest side wall will take the sting out of off-line shots and protect the plasterwork, for less than a full enclosure. We found it's a genuinely decent middle path for narrow rooms where an enclosure's footprint won't fit, or for handy owners who enjoy a DIY job. What it won't do is catch a ball — padding deadens impacts, it doesn't contain them, so balls still rattle around the room; it does nothing overhead, where a baffle would catch a skied wedge; and eight sheets of mixed foam never looks like a finished golf room. It protects the room, not the people and objects in it.

Enclosure vs screen-only vs padded walls

Rebound safety: the bit people underestimate

The reason I push back on bare-minimum setups isn't the clean strike — a decent impact screen handles a driver ball flat-out and drops it within a metre or two. It's the other shots. A ball that catches the frame edge, or hits the screen at a steep angle near the border, can come back at genuine speed — and with driver ball speeds for an average golfer running well north of 130mph (tour players over 170mph — see FlightScope's ball-flight data), even a fraction of that energy returned at you or a watching child is not a small thing. After years of installs, my rule of thumb is simple: the more the people using the sim miss the middle of the screen — kids, beginners, anyone swinging hard — the more the sides and top matter. An enclosure's side netting exists precisely to turn a screaming toe-strike into a soft drop. A well-struck simulator setup is safe; an enclosure is what keeps it safe on your worst swing of the night, which is the only swing that matters for safety.

Ceiling height: check this before you buy anything

This was the other half of James's planning, and it decides more purchases than budget does. Two heights matter. Swing clearance: you need to swing a driver without fear — I advised James at least 2.8m, which is the height where a full swing feels genuinely unconscious for most golfers; taller golfers with steep swings want every centimetre of it. Enclosure clearance: our 2.5m-tall enclosures need around 2.6m of ceiling clearance to physically fit and tension properly, so a standard 2.4m UK ceiling rules them out before swing mechanics even enter the conversation. If you're at 2.4m, you're not enclosure shopping — you're either finding a taller room, hitting irons only, or moving the whole project outdoors. James's room wasn't built yet, so the advice was easy: build it 2.8m-plus and every option stays open. Run your own numbers with our simulator room size guide before spending a pound.

What it all costs, honestly

Rough shape of the money, from cheapest to dearest: DIY foam padding is the cheapest line item on its own — but remember it's an addition to a screen and frame, not a replacement, so “just pad the walls” was never the whole budget. A screen and frame is the entry ticket for any simulator. A full enclosure costs meaningfully more than screen-only — you're paying for the frame extensions, side curtains and baffle — and on a £5k full build like James was planning (enclosure, mat, projector, launch monitor), the enclosure premium over a bare screen is a small slice of the total for the biggest safety and finish upgrade in the room. Where I'd never economise: the screen itself and the hitting mat, because those two take every single impact. Where you can economise: sides and top, if your room and your users genuinely tolerate mishits.

When each option is the right call

Buy the full enclosure if the sim shares a room you care about, if kids or guests will use it, if you're hitting driver, or if you want it to look like a golf room rather than a science experiment. Ceiling permitting — 2.6m clearance minimum for a 2.5m enclosure, 2.8m+ ideal — this is the recommendation I give most often, and it's what I'd put in my own house.

Go screen-and-frame only if you're in a garage or outbuilding with forgiving walls, you're a steady ball-striker practising mostly irons, and you accept the odd wall-thump as the price of the saving.

Add DIY padding to a screen if the room is too narrow for an enclosure's footprint or the budget genuinely won't stretch, and pad the highest-risk zones: either side of the screen first, then the nearest side wall at ball height.

Skip the indoor build entirely if the ceiling maths fails. A customer with a 2.3m garage ceiling asked me to make an enclosure work; the honest answer was that no amount of padding fixes a driver into a joist, and he ended up far happier hitting full shots outdoors in a heavy-duty garden golf cage and mat bundle with a launch monitor, keeping the indoor space for putting. If that's your situation, our net, cage and simulator setup guide shows how the outdoor route plays out, and you can add numbers to it with anything from our launch monitor range.

Frequently asked questions

Can I use padded walls instead of a golf impact screen?

No. Padding protects walls but can't display a projected image and isn't engineered to stop a full-speed golf ball safely. Every simulator needs a proper impact screen on a frame; padding is an optional extra around it, not a substitute for it.

Is a full enclosure worth it over just a screen?

If the room contains anything breakable, anyone besides a careful adult ball-striker, or a driver swing — yes. The enclosure's sides and top exist for your worst strike, not your best one. In a bare garage with irons only, screen-and-frame can be a rational saving.

What ceiling height do I need for a golf simulator enclosure?

Our 2.5m enclosures need roughly 2.6m of clearance to fit and tension properly, and 2.8m or more is ideal — both for the enclosure and for swinging a driver without holding back. A standard 2.4m ceiling generally means irons-only indoors or taking the project outdoors.

What's the cheapest safe way to build a home simulator?

Screen and frame plus a quality hitting mat, with DIY foam padding either side of the screen if the walls are vulnerable. That covers projection, ball-stopping and the most common mishit zones — then add enclosure sides later if the mishits find the gaps.