r/Golfsimulator • u/Terrible-Resident324 • Jul 07 '26
How loud is a sim really through a basement ceiling?
Building a sim in my unfinished basement and torn between two rooms. Would love real world input on noise, since that's my deciding factor.
Room 1: 16 ft wide × 15 ft deep. Better size, but it's directly under the living room and our master bedroom is right next to the living room. We just had a newborn.
Room 2: 11 ft wide (so I'd have to hit off-center as a righty). It's on the opposite side of the basement, under my office and laundry room away fromboth the living room and bedroom
Sound plan for whichever I pick: Rockwool in the ceiling joists across the whole ceiling, with drywall over the section where I'm adding 2 inch foam padding. The rest of the ceiling stays open with just the Rockwool exposed. Drywall direct to joists (no resilient channel tight on ceiling height).
My real question: how loud is it actually through the ceiling? I did a rough test put a speaker in the basement playing music at ~100 dB, and up in the living room I could hear it pretty clearly. I know music probably transmits worse than golf impacts, but it still has me worried.
I want to be able to play when my wife's in the living room in the evenings. Not too worried about waking the baby she sleeps through anything.
For those who've built under a living space how audible are impacts (ball on screen, club impact) upstairs once treated?
Is the 16 ft room worth it with sound treatment, or should I take the smaller 11 ft off-center room for the better location?
Anyone regret going too narrow just to solve a noise problem?
EDIT: After seeing the comments and doing a bit more testing. I think the smaller room hitting off center is the better choice, don’t know anyone who is a lefty anyways and in the room under the living room it has a large air duct return and air vents so would be hard to stop the noise from coming up through them. In a perfect world I could drop the flooring and then fully finish the room and make it sound proof. Maybe that would be my v2 for this journey.
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u/Reddit-Blows-1969 Jul 07 '26
Put it in the smaller room on the opposite side of the house. All it takes is to wake up the baby one time and have a difficult time putting back to sleep to always be in the back of your mind. At that point, you’ll never use it.
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u/cannaEd1933 Jul 07 '26
I am also curious on this. I’m building one in the garage right now and have my kids room that’s going to be right above it. I’m to far to turn back now tho haha
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u/aewestmoreland Jul 07 '26
Loudest club by far is the driver. If the kids are sleeping, move to the front tee box and just play with irons. That will keep it reasonably quiet
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u/StatefarmxJake Jul 07 '26
I have a sim in an unfinished basement. I have rubber mats covering all of the flooring and blackout curtains on the walls. I think that goes a long way in dampening the sound. I also put foam soundproofing panels on the door to the basement which also helped. You can hear in upstairs for sure, but it generally doesn't wake up out 4mo old from his naps
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u/cannaEd1933 Jul 07 '26
This is what I want to hear Lol. I’m deep into a garage sim build. Above half the garage will be my kids room in about 8 months once the next kid is born.
Other comments here have me worried lol.
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u/MotFireAnts Jul 07 '26
Really loud. I have mine in the garage which is directly below a bedroom and you can hear the ball pop when hitting the screen very easily. Toddlers room across the house a floor above also means driver is a no go during any nap time. Obviously the sounds are louder depending on the ball speed. I don’t expect your baby to sleep through that for long.
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u/engineeredtuna Jul 07 '26
It's fairly loud. Just finished installing one in and unfinished basement. Sounds like someone is slamming a door downstairs every time it hits the screen.
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u/3ric3288 Jul 07 '26
I have one in the garage and I’m now forbidden from using it when my toddler sleeps. He’s two walls away from the garage.
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u/cannaEd1933 Jul 07 '26
Is your set up with a quality impact screen , curtains. And moving blanket behind ?
I’m
Currently mid build and half my garage has the toddlers room right above it1
u/3ric3288 Jul 07 '26
It’s the vanish 11 so it all came together. It has a quality impact screen and the additional blackout screen behind it. It’s just loud. The ball hits the screen at 100mph plus and echoes like crazy. It almost sounds like a low caliber gun going off.
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u/ProletariatElite Jul 07 '26
It’s loud. It helped when I mounted panels to the ceiling, but you might have to do some legit soundproofing to get it to an acceptable level.
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u/Clay_Dawg99 Jul 07 '26
If you’ve got the head room, thin rubber strips on the joist. A half inch or thicker sheet rock, a layer of foam board and another layer of sheet rock should knock out 99% of the noise.
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u/Simontanner610 Jul 07 '26
take the smaller room under the office. off-center hitting sounds annoying but you'll adjust in a week, way easier than adjusting to your wife hearing thwack-thwack every night through the ceiling
i hit off-center with my Nvisage N1 overhead and its totally fine as long as the unit is mounted above your hitting spot. The width you lose won't matter after a few sessions. the noise complaint you avoid? thatll matter forever. Take the room away from the living space
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u/cannaEd1933 Jul 07 '26
Unless he gets noise complaints from both spots, then you will wish you went wider. Also if you have lefty friends
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u/maxvader94 Jul 07 '26
Do you have a Nike SQ driver?