The SwingBay
Minnesota · Garage and basement builds

Does your garage actually fit a golf simulator?

Almost everyone starts by asking what it costs. The better first question is whether your ceiling clears a driver, because that answer is free and it decides everything after it. Move the sliders.

9′0″Clears most adults
$9k–35kMost home builds
7–8Months you can play outside here
Where is it going
Ceiling height 9'0"

Measure to the lowest thing in the swing path. Garage door tracks, joists, a light fixture. Not the highest point.

Depth, front to back 20
Width, side to side 14
Who is swinging
SCREEN9'0"20′ 0″WIDTH 14′ · RIGHT
Works

This builds without compromises worth worrying about.

  • Nine feet clears a driver for most adults. This is the height most builds land on.
Most likely range for this build

$18,000 – $35,000

Framing, turf, finish work, better optics, and a room designed around the bay rather than a bay dropped into a room. Most garage conversions land here once prep is counted.

Garage numbers assume the space is already insulated and heated. If it isn’t, add prep before anything golf-related. In Minnesota that is not optional.

Nothing is sent until you fill in your contact details on the next step.

Where the money goes

Seven line items, one of them local

National sites quote gear. They leave out the part that decides whether a Minnesota garage build works at all.

Launch monitor
$700 – $22,000

The widest swing in the whole build. Consumer units start around $700. Photometric units used in most home builds land in the $3k to $12k range. Trackman is $20k and up.

Enclosure and impact screen
$1,200 – $6,500

A DIY kit with a frame and screen is the low end. A finished built-in with padded side walls is the high end.

Hitting mat and turf
$400 – $4,500

A stand-alone mat is cheap. Wall-to-wall turf over a subfloor, cut around the hitting strip, is not.

Projector and mount
$600 – $4,000

Short-throw is almost always right in a home bay. Ceiling mount and cable runs add labor.

PC, display and software
$900 – $5,000

Simulator software runs on a gaming PC. Course package subscriptions are ongoing, not one-time.

Garage prep (Minnesota)
$0 – $15,000

The line item that blows up budgets here. An unfinished, unheated garage needs insulation, a heat source, electrical, and usually drywall before a simulator is usable in January. Finished basements skip this entirely.

Design and installation labor
$0 – $9,000

Zero if you build it yourself. A full custom build with framing, finish carpentry and calibration is the top of the range.

Full cost breakdown

Four ways this goes

Builds cluster into bands

DIY build

$3,000 – $9,000

A kit enclosure, a consumer launch monitor, a mat, and your own labor. Real and it works. You are responsible for the room being usable in winter.

Value install

$9,000 – $18,000

Someone else measures, orders, and installs. Mid-tier launch monitor, standard enclosure, mat. The most common first build in a finished basement.

Custom build

$18,000 – $35,000

Framing, turf, finish work, better optics, and a room designed around the bay rather than a bay dropped into a room. Most garage conversions land here once prep is counted.

Premium build

$35,000 – $80,000

Top-tier launch monitor, built-in cabinetry, lighting design, seating, sometimes multi-sport. Doubles as a theater and an entertaining room.

Next step

One builder, matched to your budget

We send your numbers to a single builder who works at that price point. Not five. The whole reason installers work with us is that they only see jobs they actually want, which is also why you get a real reply instead of a form letter.

Get a real number

Tell us what you’re working with

Budget you have in mind

A range is fine. This decides who we send you to, since builders specialize at different price points and nobody benefits from a mismatch.

When

One builder, matched to your budget. We don’t sell your details on.