Carl's Place DIY Enclosure Kit

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There are two types of sim builders.

The first type walks into Home Depot, buys six sticks of EMT conduit and a handful of corner connectors, spends a weekend cutting and deburring and assembling, and ends up with a frame that fits their room perfectly. Cost: about $150.

The second type buys the SIG10. Cost: $1,999.

Carl’s Place sits in the middle. They sell you the parts — the frame components, the screen, the connectors, the bungees — and you supply the labor. The result is a custom-fit enclosure that costs $999 to $1,499 depending on size and screen grade. It’s the right compromise for people who want a good enclosure and don’t mind building it.

The Screen Grades: Which One to Buy

This is the real decision with a Carl’s Place kit. The frame is always the same basic EMT design. The screen is where you make your choice.

Economy Triple-Layer (starting at $199 for 10x10): Three layers of woven polyester. The middle layer is opaque, which means zero projector light bleed-through. The outer layers provide the structural strength. It’s a good screen. Balls hit it and stop. The image quality is acceptable — not great, not bad. You can see the weave texture on close inspection. For budget builds where every dollar counts, this screen does the job.

Premium Triple-Layer (starting at $399 for 10x10): Same three-layer construction but with tighter weave and better material. The difference is in the image quality — the Premium screen shows less weave texture, better color reproduction, and better contrast. If you’re projecting a 4K image onto a screen, the Premium version lets you actually see the difference. Worth the extra $200.

Preferred Single-Layer (starting at $499 for 10x10): This is a different construction entirely. Single layer, high-density polyester with a proprietary coating. The image quality is excellent — close to a commercial-grade screen. The tradeoff is that the screen is less forgiving on ball marks. You’ll see impact shadows that fade after a minute. The Preferred is for people who prioritize image quality over maintenance convenience.

Tour Preferred Single-Layer (starting at $899 for 10x10): Carl’s Place top-tier screen. Higher-density fabric than the Preferred, better coating, better gain characteristics. The image is sharp at any projector resolution. The tradeoff is the same: ball marks are visible for a few seconds. The Tour Preferred is for sim owners who have invested in a quality projector and want the screen to match.

The pick for most people: Premium Triple-Layer. It’s the best balance of image quality, durability, and price. The triple-layer construction handles heavy use without showing wear. The image quality is good enough that nobody will complain. At $399 for a 10x10, it’s the smart money.

The Borderless Floor-to-Turf Option

Carl’s Place offers a borderless screen option that extends to the floor. The bottom of the screen sits flush with your hitting surface instead of stopping 6-12 inches above the floor.

This is a bigger deal than it sounds. Most enclosures have a gap between the bottom of the screen and your hitting mat. Balls that hit low on the screen can bounce back under the frame and roll behind you. The borderless design eliminates that gap. The screen continues to a pocket that meets your turf, and balls that hit low simply drop onto the hitting surface.

If you’re building a premium sim room, get the borderless option. It costs extra but it’s one of those upgrades you notice every single session.

The Frame: Standard EMT, Custom Fit

The frame components from Carl’s Place are the same 1-inch EMT conduit you’d buy at Home Depot. The difference is that Carl’s Place sends you precut lengths for your specific room dimensions.

Wait — they send you the conduit precut? Yes. You provide your room width, height, and depth when ordering, and Carl’s Place cuts everything to size. You assemble it with their corner connectors (heavy-duty metal brackets, not the flimsy plastic kind) and hang the screen with ball bungees.

This solves the two hardest parts of a DIY enclosure: measuring correctly and cutting straight. Carl’s Place does both. You just assemble.

The assembly process takes about 3-4 hours with basic tools — a socket wrench for the corner brackets, a ladder for the top frame, and patience for the screen tensioning. The instructions are good. The Carl’s Place support team answers questions quickly.

Where It Excels

Custom sizing. This is the killer feature. If your room is 9 feet 3 inches wide, you don’t have to buy a 10-foot enclosure and deal with the gap. Carl’s Place builds to your exact dimensions. Sim rooms are almost never standard sizes. This matters.

Screen choice. Four grades means you can match the screen to your budget and projector. No “one size fits all” compromise. You can also upgrade the screen later without replacing the frame.

Price. Starting at $999 for a custom-fit enclosure is excellent value. A comparable SIG10 is $1,999. The Carl’s Place kit requires more assembly, but the savings are real.

Extensibility. The EMT frame design is modular. You can add side curtains, projector mounts, cable management, soundproofing panels, or blackout fabric using standard EMT hardware. The platform grows with you.

Where It Falls Short

You build it. This is not a slight on Carl’s Place — they’re honest about being DIY. But if you don’t want to spend a few hours with a socket wrench and a ladder, this isn’t the product for you.

EMC conduit isn’t pretty. EMT is industrial conduit with a galvanized zinc finish. It works great but it doesn’t look premium. If you want your sim room to look like a commercial installation, you’ll need to paint the conduit or wrap it in fabric. Carl’s Place sells frame wrap kits for this purpose.

No foam padding. Unlike the SIG10, the Carl’s Place frame doesn’t come with integrated foam around the edges. You need to add pool noodles, pipe insulation, or Carl’s Place’s own edge padding if you’re worried about hitting the frame on your follow-through.

Side netting sold separately. The base kit includes the frame and screen. Side netting, throwback netting, and ceiling netting are all additional purchases.

The Bottom Line

Carl’s Place DIY enclosure kit gets a 9/10. The value is unmatched. The custom sizing is something nobody else offers at this price. The screen grade options let you choose exactly what you need.

The tradeoff is assembly labor. You’re building an enclosure, not unboxing one. But for the $700-$1,000 savings over a SIG10, most sim builders are happy to spend an afternoon with a socket wrench.

If your room has non-standard dimensions, or you want to control exactly where your money goes (nice screen, simple frame), Carl’s Place is the best enclosure option on the market. If your room is standard and you value turnkey convenience over savings, the SIG10 makes sense. Both are great products. They serve different builders.

Buy Carl’s Place DIY Enclosure Kit at carlsplace.com starting at $999. Custom sizes to your exact room dimensions. Four screen grades from Economy ($199) to Tour Preferred ($899). Free shipping on most orders. Assembly required with basic tools.

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