Does building a DIY golf simulator actually save money?

On the enclosure, yes — about $2,238 between a framed 7.7'×10' DIY kit at $1,853.89 and a complete Pro enclosure at $4,091.95, both verified 08/2026. On everything else, no. The monitor, mat, and projector cost the same whoever assembles the frame, and those three lines are roughly half of a full build. DIY is an enclosure decision, not a simulator decision.

What does the Carl's Place DIY enclosure kit actually include?

Your choice of impact screen, the black nylon enclosure, ball bungees, zip ties, and steel fittings. Not the pipes. The product page states it plainly — 'Pipes sold separately' — and the pipe framing kit is listed as optional and not in standard packaging. The $1,385.94 sticker for a 7.7'×10' Standard build is a kit that cannot stand up until you add framing.

What pipe do I need to frame a DIY simulator enclosure?

One-inch EMT — electrical metallic tubing, sold in 10-foot lengths in the electrical aisle. That is the size the pre-cut kit ships, so it is the size the steel fittings are bored for. Rigid conduit and PVC are not compatible. Sourcing it yourself is the cheapest route to a standing frame; buying Carl's pre-cut set for a 7.7'×10' enclosure is $467.95 and skips the cutting.

Is a DIY enclosure worth it over a net?

Only if you want a projected image. A net gives you the same ball data from the same monitor for a fraction of the money — our $1,465 garage build proves it. The enclosure buys course play on a screen, and it costs $1,853.89 and a weekend before a single other component. Decide whether you're buying practice or buying golf, then price accordingly.

The DIY Golf Simulator, Priced to the Pipe

"DIY golf simulator" gets used for three different projects with three different receipts, and the gap between the cheapest and the dearest is roughly $3,800. Sorting out which one you're actually building is most of the work.

The three things "DIY" means

Screen only. You buy an impact screen and build everything around it — frame, surround, side netting, fittings. A Carl's Place Standard screen starts at $215.95 and runs to $705.95 depending on size and finish; the 7.7'×10' Classic is $275.95.³ This is the genuinely cheap path and the genuinely hard one.

The DIY kit. Screen plus a black nylon enclosure plus the hardware that joins them. Carl's version is $1,199.94 at base and $1,385.94 configured as a 7.7'×10' with the Standard screen.¹ You supply labor and, as we're about to get to, structure.

A complete enclosure. Built, framed, sized, done. Carl's Pro kit with the Premium screen at 8'×10.5' and 5-foot depth is $4,091.95.⁴ Nothing about it is DIY except carrying the boxes.

The line the DIY kit doesn't include

Read the DIY kit's own included-items list and the fourth entry ends with three words most write-ups skip: Pipes sold separately. The pipe framing kit sits below it, marked optional and not in standard packaging.¹

A $1,385.94 enclosure kit does not stand up

The kit ships the screen, the nylon enclosure, ball bungees, zip ties, and steel fittings. The fittings are the connectors. The pipes those connectors join are yours to find. Budget the frame as a separate line or you will have a very expensive tarp on your garage floor.

Carl's pre-cut set is $467.95 for the 7.7'×10' size — $419.95 to $497.95 across the range — and arrives as black powder-coated 1-inch EMT cut to length.² That is the honest ceiling on framing, and it makes the real number for a finished DIY enclosure $1,853.89, not $1,385.94.

The floor is lower. One-inch EMT is stock electrical conduit sold in 10-foot lengths at any home center, and the kit ships a cut list for exactly that purpose.² We don't price that line, because we can't verify a hardware-store shelf price the way we verify a retailer's product page, and a number we can't date isn't a number we'll put in a receipt. Expect it to be well under the pre-cut set, and expect to own a pipe cutter by the end of it.

One inch, and only one inch

The pre-cut kit is 1-inch EMT, which means the steel fittings are bored for 1-inch EMT. Rigid conduit and PVC are not substitutes — they're different outside diameters wearing similar names in the same aisle.

Enclosure, four ways

7.7'×10' unless noted · verified 08/2026

7.7'×10' unless noted · verified 08/2026
Path	What arrives	Price
Screen only	Standard impact screen, Classic 4:3	$275.95
DIY kit	Screen, nylon enclosure, fittings — no pipes	$1,385.94
DIY kit + pre-cut framing	The above plus 1" EMT, cut to size	$1,853.89
Pro complete kit	Built enclosure, Premium screen, 8'×10.5'	$4,091.95

Screen only

What arrives: Standard impact screen, Classic 4:3
Price: $275.95

DIY kit

What arrives: Screen, nylon enclosure, fittings — no pipes
Price: $1,385.94

DIY kit + pre-cut framing

What arrives: The above plus 1" EMT, cut to size
Price: $1,853.89

Pro complete kit

What arrives: Built enclosure, Premium screen, 8'×10.5'
Price: $4,091.95

The $2,238.06 between the framed DIY kit and the Pro kit is the number people mean when they say DIY saves money. It's real, and it isn't quite like-for-like: the Pro kit is a bigger enclosure with a better screen and a 5-foot depth the DIY kit doesn't offer. Compare a Standard 7.7'×10' against a Premium 8'×10.5' and you're pricing two different rooms, not two ways of buying one.

DIY is a decision about the enclosure, not about the simulator. Everything that measures, projects, or absorbs a golf ball costs the same whoever bolts the frame together.

The full receipt

Here's where DIY lands as a complete, playable room. The monitor is the Square Golf at $699.99 — camera-based, so it fits the 10-foot depth a 7.7'×10' enclosure implies, where the radar-based R10 at $499.99 wants about fourteen feet and would be fighting the room you just built.⁵⁶

Square Golf launch monitor — $699.99
DIY enclosure kit, 7.7'×10' Standard, with pre-cut framing — $1,853.89
Optoma ZW350ST short-throw laser projector, 3,600 lumens at 0.521:1 — $909
PlayBetter SimStudio 5×5 hitting mat — $599.99
Software, year one — $0

$4,063 all-in. On this site's standing conventions that's $8.68 a round by year three and about fourteen months to break even against a $65 green fee played weekly. The cost breakdown shows how that compares to the three builds we price in full, and the accessories guide covers the screen, mat, and projector tiers on either side of these picks.

Note what DIY did and didn't do to that total. The enclosure is $1,853.89 of $4,063 — about 46%, and the only line your labor touched. Framing it yourself instead of buying pre-cut saves a few hundred more. Nothing you do with a pipe cutter moves the monitor, the mat, or the projector.

Measure before you order anything

A 7.7'×10' enclosure needs the ceiling to clear it, and a screen you can't swing a driver in front of is a $1,853.89 mistake with a 30-day return window. Run the numbers in the space guide first — it's the cheapest step in the whole project and the only one that's free to undo.

When not to build one

If what you want is ball data and a winter's worth of reps, an enclosure is the wrong $1,854. The garage build does the same measuring job with a net for $1,465 all-in, total, monitor included. The enclosure exists to hold a projected image — course play, visible ball flight, something to look at. That's a real thing to want. It just isn't the same thing as practice, and the receipt shouldn't pretend otherwise.

Read next: how to choose a home launch monitor for the four questions that pick the sensor this room is built around.