All,

I'm looking to make my downstairs family room into a theatre/media room/hangout area for the kids. At one end of the room is a brick fireplace that covers the whole wall. I'm looking at using this wall as my screen wall in a FP setup. Wondering if I can get some opinions on the best way to build a false wall to cover/hide/deal with the fireplace without doing any permanent damage to it (in case the next owners want it for whatever reason).

The room is 19x12 give or take an inch. The hearth currently extends 10" into the room. The wall is about 50/50 above and below grade, as this is in the lower level of the house.

The two options I had thought of are:


Build the false wall up against the fireplace, following the general contour of the hearth. This would allow me to extend the hearth section out a bit and add a seat there if needed for additional capacity. I'd fasten the wall to the floor, ceiling and side walls in order to protect the brick.

Build the wall out in front of the fireplace completely and just screen it off.


If I chose option 1, would I need any vapor barrier or insulation between the brick and the wall?

Pic of the wall is below.

http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/1749/familyrooma.th.jpg (http://img135.imageshack.us/my.php?image=familyrooma.jpg)


Thanks,

Mike

Build the false wall up against the fireplace, following the general contour of the hearth. This would allow me to extend the hearth section out a bit and add a seat there if needed for additional capacity. I'd fasten the wall to the floor, ceiling and side walls in order to protect the brick.

Build the wall out in front of the fireplace completely and just screen it off.


If I chose option 1, would I need any vapor barrier or insulation between the brick and the wall?


1. Why would you add a seat directly below your screen?

I'd build the wall out in front of the fireplace completely. This will allow you to accoustically treat the wall and will also give you room to put your speakers and sub behind the false wall. Just build it out 18" or so from the brick (from the top part of the brick).

1. Why would you add a seat directly below your screen?

I'd build the wall out in front of the fireplace completely. This will allow you to accoustically treat the wall and will also give you room to put your speakers and sub behind the false wall. Just build it out 18" or so from the brick (from the top part of the brick).

Stew,

Sorry, you're right, doesn't make sense necessarily to build seats below the screen. I was thinking that if I was going to use this as a multipurpose room, I'd have seats there in case there was other stuff going on (not really sure what that would be at this point) that didn't utilize the projector.

18" out from the top part of the brick will give me roughly 17.5' to play with. Is that enough room for a couple of rows of seats if I end up with theatre seating? I guess 18" probably isn't make or break either way.

Thanks again,

Mike

Yep, plenty of room.

My room is 20' X 12.5'. I have seating at 13' and 19' with a 126" screen. However, I'm currently in the planning stages of adding a false front wall (2' in depth) that will reduce my room length to 18'. I'll be keeping my seating in the same spot (so it will be 11.5' and 17.5' - screen will be sunk 6" into the false front wall) and will be putting in a 124" wide 2.40:1 screen (16:9 material would be the equivalent of a 106" screen). You have lots of options with that space.

found something about removing a similar fireplace.

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_TCc2tImzp1I/SL4fVcv7Y6I/AAAAAAAAAH4/Sxqez_SqujE/s320/fireplace%2Bdemo.jpg&imgrefurl=http://doyourgenealogy.blogspot.com/2008/09/removing-brick-fireplace.html&usg=__4HF665wDA01apylT_aJNH-6QdxI=&h=320&w=240&sz=14&hl=en&start=23&tbnid=LnrqahBtCMLdvM:&tbnh=118&tbnw=89&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dremoving%2Bfireplace%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D21%26hl %3Den%26safe%3Dstrict%26client%3Ddell-usuk%26channel%3Dus%26sa%3DN%26ad%3Dw5%26start%3D21

You could probably take out everything except the firebox and flue. If future owners want a fireplace they just need to add a surround, mantle and hearth. Something they would probably want to do anyway you just made it easier.