How do I set up a batting cage at home?

How much room a cage takes

Width: about 14 ft. Batting mats are 12 by 6 ft to match the official batter’s boxes, and as players grow they need the extra foot on either side so the net stays out of the swing.

Height: as tall as the space allows. Pre-made nets are usually 12 ft high, and the ceiling net hangs down in the middle and sags a foot or two over time, which can get in the way of a pitcher throwing from a mound.

Length: 70 ft is the most common, room for baseball’s 60 ft 6 in from the rubber to the back point of home plate, with space behind each. Little League pitches from 46 ft and high school and college softball from 43 ft, so their cages are often 50 ft long.

For tee work and soft toss alone, a 12 ft cube is enough: 12 ft wide, high and long.

The floor

In a garage or basement, the turf rolls out over the concrete slab.

Outdoors, clear and level the ground, lay several inches of 3/16 in gravel and compact it with a roller or a garden tamp; driveway gravel is too large to compact flat. Turf laid straight on grass has nothing compacted under it and becomes a tripping hazard.

ATX Turf gives several ways to hold the turf down: treated 2 x 6 nailer boards buried upright along the edges, 12 in metal stakes about every 18 in, the net’s own extra length, or, for less, railroad ties along the sides.

Leave extra net on the ground: a net that only touches it lets balls roll out underneath.

The turf

Padded turf has more cushion and suits indoors; at about 1 lb a square foot it lies flat on its own, but it drains less well, can soak up moisture and smell, and costs more.

Unpadded turf costs less, is lighter to move at about half a pound a square foot and drains through its holes, but it has very little cushion and must be held down or the wind will blow it away.

Turf runs from under $1 to $5 a square foot.

The net

Nets are polyethylene (poly) or nylon. Poly costs less and absorbs less impact, fine for occasional or home use; nylon is for heavy use, and it is what high schools and colleges mostly buy.

The gauge is the twine’s diameter, from #21 to #96: #36 is the most common for high schools and indoor facilities, and colleges and the pros often choose #42 or #60.

On Deck Sports calls #36 the most common choice for baseball and softball.

For a backyard cage, ATX Turf recommends #42 poly, or #36 nylon dipped in oil against the sun and weather.

Standard nets, such as 12 by 14 by 70 ft or 12 by 14 by 50 ft, are often in stock ready-made, all 5 sides sewn and usually one door at an end; other sizes are made to order and can take several weeks.

On Deck Sports’ premium nets have a flap door with a 3 ft overlap, and a backdrop net sewn into the top.

Hanging the net

Nets usually hang from quarter-inch galvanized cable, clipped to the net’s rope border with carabiner clips. Never clip to the netting twine: it is not made to take the tension.

Indoors, the cable can be fixed to the walls or tied around beams with cable clamps; outdoors, it runs between posts set in the ground.

On Deck Sports’ account of one home build lists the hardware for hanging its nets: cabling, clips, pulleys and turnbuckles.

ATX Turf says a cage really needs jaw-and-eye turnbuckles, and that local hardware and garden stores often do not have the right size.

The frame

A cage package may not include the frame: ATX Turf’s bring the turf, the net, the hardware and an L-screen, and say the poles or cage structure are not included.

ATX Turf says the most common pole is 3 in across and 14 ft long, which leaves 2 ft to set in concrete under a 12 ft high net, and that a 2 in pole is too thin.

ATX Turf counts 6 poles for a 35 or 40 ft cage, 8 for 55 or 60 ft, and 10 for 70 ft.

For 14 ft poles, ATX Turf suggests digging 2 ft and setting them in concrete; without concrete, bury about a third of each pole, so a 12 ft high cage takes 18 ft poles with 6 ft underground.

ATX Turf recommends metal poles over wood, which costs less but can warp and bend in the weather and draw termites, and says schedule 10 pipe is best if you can find it; schedule 40 works but is heavier and costs more.

Plan to buy poles locally: ATX Turf sells frames and poles only when it installs them, because the freight would cost too much, metal poles can be found locally, and they would come on a pallet that takes a forklift to unload.

A screen for the one throwing

Whoever throws batting practice works behind a protective pitching screen; On Deck Sports carries L-screens, field screens and replacement nets.

ATX Turf puts a 5 by 7 ft L-screen in its cage packages.