I am adding on to my house, which is two-story. The home theatre will go on the second floor in an area that is already existing. The existing room is 15 x 23, but since part of that has to become part of a playroom, the theatre can only be 9.5 x 15.

I would like a theatre with two rows, projector and screen.

Next to the theatre upstairs will be a bedroom and playroom. Downstairs is the den.

A few questions:

1. Is the room too small? I have seen some theaters on here that are smaller, but can I do two rows in this small of a space?

2. Is it true that if I do GG, DD, staggered studs (all of which I consider pretty simple and realistic), but don't do suspended ceiling, floating floor, sealed outlets, baffle boxes, soffits on clips, heavy sealed door (all of which seems like way more trouble than I want), that the benefits of the GG and DD go away, or at least are greatly diminished?

3. What I would like to do: DD (possibly GG), staggered studs, dark velvet curtains, stage filled with something other than sand (too heavy, second floor of very old house), but leave ceiling, floor, soffits, HVAC, outlets, door, alone. What do you think? Wasting time, or not? Would adding one or two of the items in the "don't do" list make a tremendous difference?

4. I am leery of doing staggered stud, because I am afraid the room size will shrink. How much staggering do you need when doing staggered studs?

5. Does heavy velvet curtains hanging around room sound like a good idea? I think it'd be neat, but I want to know what y'all think. Would that be a good sound insulator?

Thanks for your help.

1. Is the room too small? I have seen some theaters on here that are smaller, but can I do two rows in this small of a space?

4. I am leery of doing staggered stud, because I am afraid the room size will shrink. How much staggering do you need when doing staggered studs?



A 15 ft room will be pretty tight to do two rows of full reclining berkline style theater seating. The back row needs 6 1/2 feet of space, forcing the front row to about 8 1/2 ft which is really limits screen size.

If the back row is upright seating you can do it in 4 ft. Putting the front row at about 10 1/2 to 11ft.

The simplest way to do a staggered stud wall is to use 2x6 bottom and top plates with 2x4 studs instead of 2x4 plates.

That takes the wall framing thickness from 3 1/2 to 5 1/2 inches. If you were to rip the 6s you could probably build a stagger stud wall with a 4 1/2 inch plate using just an inch of stagger.

I'm sure someone will suggest using 2x3s for studs to further reduce the thickness, but your building code enforcement might not approve.

Also, frames walls in front of the cement foundation do not need to be staggered. Foundation wall + new framed wall = double wall = great decoupling.

These walls will not benefit from other decoupling elements such as resilient channel, resilient clips, furring strip or staggered studs. Moreover, you can easily go 24" on center and save a few $$.