Thinking about updating my theater with wallfabric but dont want to spend a fortune doing it. Im looking for the best place with the cheapest prices for wallfabric, I remember a few years back I helped a friend install wallfabric in his theater, cam out great and he said that he got the non-acoustical fabric meaning it wouldnt make his room sound dead which is what I am afraid of when using wall fabric to do a whole room, anyone have any insight into this? any info would be appreciated

I'm not sure what he meant by "non-acoustical". Do you mean something thicker and more reflective? In that case a lot of things will work well...synthetic fabrics, for example. Pretty much anything shiny...but I don't know if you really want to cover all your walls in sateen. Is there anything you're interested in specifically? There's always Guilford of Maine fabrics, of course...

Frank

I think they actually make wall fabrics for theaters, thats what I remember helping to install. Thats the fabric Im interested in and yes I mean more reflective in nature as to not deaden the room. I remember having to put special glue on the wall then we carefully placed it on the wall. There must be a company that specializes in theater wall fabrics made to be mounted on the wall...thanks for taking the time to reply

http://www.guilfordofmaine.com/

FR701 and Anchorage fabrics are common.

Frank

I called Guilford of Maine's office in Michigan, man these people are clueless. I explained to them that I did not want to make acoustical traps I wanted Wall fabric. They referred me to someone in Illinois, she was very nice and I explained to her that I wanted to place either the FR701 or the Anchorage on the wall and needed to know if it was appropriate to use either of these as wall fabric to line my theater walls and if so what glue should I use or should I just staple. She said that the Illinois location was just a mill that makes different fabrics and she could not really give me any support on this. AARRRGHHH why is this so hard? I see theaters online all the time with wall fabrics I just want an acoustically transparent fabric that is suitable for wall mounting and instructions on how to mount it, does it need to come with a backing? is there a certain type of adhesive that is recommended so it doesnt come oozing through the fabric. Im sure someone has the answer and some the other online theater companies are just as vague about wall fabric they seem to advertise their wall traps instead of actual wall fabric for mounting on walls. Good lord!!! :mad:

99% of the theaters with fabric walls have the fabric stapled, order GOM from GIK acoustics or Fabricmate, Read Chinadog's build thread and go to his linked photos for instructions on hanging fabric.

If you are mounting the fabric directly to the wall there is NO need for an acoustically transparent fabric. If they are in front of speakers then yes, If they are in in front of acoustical treatments like linacoustic then you just need to make sure that the fabric doesn't reflect sound and any of the GOM fabrics are fine.

Order free samples at the GOM web site then order you goods from the cheapest place you can find. They transmit the order to GOM and it is shipped from a centralized distribution center.

99% of the theaters with fabric walls have the fabric stapled, order GOM from GIK acoustics or Fabricmate, Read Chinadog's build thread and go to his linked photos for instructions on hanging fabric.

If you are mounting the fabric directly to the wall there is NO need for an acoustically transparent fabric. If they are in front of speakers then yes, If they are in in front of acoustical treatments like linacoustic then you just need to make sure that the fabric doesn't reflect sound and any of the GOM fabrics are fine.

Order free samples at the GOM web site then order you goods from the cheapest place you can find. They transmit the order to GOM and it is shipped from a centralized distribution center.

Exactly. :)

Frank

99% of the theaters with fabric walls have the fabric stapled, order GOM from GIK acoustics or Fabricmate, Read Chinadog's build thread and go to his linked photos for instructions on hanging fabric.

If you are mounting the fabric directly to the wall there is NO need for an acoustically transparent fabric. If they are in front of speakers then yes, If they are in in front of acoustical treatments like linacoustic then you just need to make sure that the fabric doesn't reflect sound and any of the GOM fabrics are fine.

Order free samples at the GOM web site then order you goods from the cheapest place you can find. They transmit the order to GOM and it is shipped from a centralized distribution center.

Thanks for the reply I did check out Chinadogs thread and it seemed pretty informative, lots of reading I will read some more later. I can order directly from Guilford at a price of $19.60 pr yard if I buy a whole roll, 50 yds I think
and $22.60 pr yard if they have to cut it, apparently as a consumer I can make a one time purchase at these prices. I dont know how these compare to some of the other places but I will have to check GIK, any other places I can check for prices? so I am assuming no glue will be needed for applying to walls only stapling top to bottom? or should I place a chair rail in the middle of the wall to hide staples towards the bottom of the wall? furring strips would be great to use except I already have wall sconces and I think I would have to build them out to be able to meet the new depth added by the strips so I think just mounting directly to the wall is the way to go. Any other info would be appreciated if you have any but I wanted to say thanks for pointing me in the right direction. The room is already pretty much established so the less work I have to do the better, here is a picture of some of the theaterroom its about 17' x 13' also looking to possibly put in a door but thats another tricky proposition, also its a in a condo that we own

Definitely do shop around...$19.60 is pretty high.

Frank

Fabric needs to be stapled on all four edges. You need to plan a strategy to hide the staples. GOM is 66 inches wide for planning purposes. I had success in stapling fabric directly to drywall and covering the staples with molding. In my build I hid my two rear speakers in the ceiling with GOM and trim molding. All the walls are GOM.

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b393/bigmouthindc/Theater%20Pics/DSC00423.jpg

The prices you were quoted are excessive. be sure to check shipping costs. I believe that GIK is the best deal for total delivered cost. I think there was some discussion of this in the "best room in the house" thread.

Are those Seton speakers?

Try FabricMate for prices that are a little better. Their web site has prices you can see without having to talk to a rep. They also have fabrics that aren't on the web site, to get those you do have to talk to a rep, but the prices are in the same ballpark.

George

I called Guilford of Maine's office in Michigan, man these people are clueless. I explained to them that I did not want to make acoustical traps I wanted Wall fabric. They referred me to someone in Illinois, she was very nice and I explained to her that I wanted to place either the FR701 or the Anchorage on the wall and needed to know if it was appropriate to use either of these as wall fabric to line my theater walls and if so what glue should I use or should I just staple. She said that the Illinois location was just a mill that makes different fabrics and she could not really give me any support on this. AARRRGHHH why is this so hard?
Guilford of Maine is simply a (high quality) fabric mill. They have no acoustical expertise, nor do they claim any. The commercial stretch fabric industry "discovered" their FR701 product many years ago. It could meet strict commercial fire ratings, and had the bonus of acoustical transparency for quieting sound via a porous absorption layer placed behind it.

Their sales are primarily commercial, with HT making up a small fraction.

- Terry

If you do not need fabric for any acoustic needs then any flame resistant (NFPA 701 Small Scale) fabric is fine. There are many of us (including me) that used standard upholstery fabric. If you are using to cover treatments then you still do not necessarily need GOM, providing its not a tight weave and you can breath thru it you should be fine......check out places like Joann's and look for coupons.

Also many have used Dazian fabrics

Thanks for everyone's responses. I did call Fabricmate and their prices are better $16.90 per yard so that was an improvement. It looks like stapling is my only option, we have a lower ceiling with lcanned ights towards the back of the room which might prove challenging, Fabricmate has people that can come in and install the fabric but who knows how much that will cost, I want to be sure it looks good when Im done especially with spending all the money to buy the fabric.