Does your family call it ping pong or table tennis? It shouldn’t really matter. The sport is a fun activity that the whole family can enjoy. Parents can play with their kids who are interested, or younger generations can use it to pass the time while staying out of their parent’s way.
The benefits of ping pong and table tennis include healthy competition, teamwork if you’re playing doubles, reducing stress, and of course hand-eye coordination. Still, you need a space to put everything together, even if you’re playing ping pong alone.
If you don’t have a big room in your home you’re willing to sacrifice to a single indoor sport full-time, then you might think about setting up your ping pong table in your garage. A lot can go into this decision, one being the cost of the ping pong table. The best high end ping pong tables may require a little more care and a climate-controlled environment, whereas budget ping pong tables may give a little more leeway. Here’s what you should know in terms of both potential problems but also why it can work.
Potential Problems
Putting a ping pong table in a garage does have some drawbacks. They include a lack of climate control, losing a space to park your car, and the possibility of losing balls.
1) No Climate Control: Your home is probably very climate-controlled between heat and air conditioning. Your garage probably isn’t. The ambient temperature in a garage might feel fine for a few minutes, but after a few rounds of intense table tennis, players start breaking a sweat and breathing hard. It might not be as easy as they thought, and that can take the fun out of things.
2) Car Parking: Unless your garage is huge, you might be giving up the comfort of an indoor parking space to put up a ping pong table. Even if the family is allowed to use the spot when that car isn’t there, everything has to be put away before the driver comes home.
3) Losing Balls: If your garage is like most homes, you have stuff all around the walls and even up and down them. Tools, home improvement supplies, bikes, car parts, and boxes full of holiday ornaments are all places where errant ping polls can get lost or destroyed. Moreover, depending on the amount of clutter, cleaning your ping pong table properly could prove to be difficult at times.
Why It Can Work
However, having your table tennis set up in a garage has some serious advantages. You get to enjoy plenty of space, you’re still indoors, and your noise and activity shouldn’t really bother anyone.
1) Plenty Of Space: Garages are sometimes the biggest single space in a home. A ping pong table can take up the whole center of a room, but players still need space around the table to move without knocking over lamps or tripping over things. A garage can accommodate them well.
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2) Still Indoors: Most garages are not climate-controlled. However, they’re still indoors, meaning players can play without having to worry about rain, snow, or even whether or not the sun is up. That makes for great schedule convenience because the weather doesn’t matter. If you are looking for a good outdoor game, read our reviews of the best spikeball set for a fun option.
3) Won’t Bother Anyone: Ping pong makes noise whether you’re playing singles or doubles. Even if it doesn’t seem like much to the players, the constant bopping and bouncing of the ball off the table, paddles, and sometimes other surfaces can aggravate the ears of people nearby. Play inside, and you disrupt others trying to work, read, or relax. Play outside, and you might bug the neighbors or just their dogs. A garage is an acoustic middle ground that means peace for everyone’s ears so players can truly relax and enjoy themselves.
In Summary
The only thing your family might debate more than the name of ping pong versus table tennis is who won the last game. Your garage might seem like an obvious place to set up your table, and it has both downsides and benefits.
You might regret playing in a space without climate control, and losing space to park your car can be inconvenient. It might also be possible to lose balls easily if your garage is filled with clutter at the edges. Then again, you get to play with plenty of space while still indoors, and players don’t have to worry about bothering neighbors or other occupants of their home with their noise and activity. Knowing all this, you should be able to make a balanced and healthy decision for your family.
