I am about to start renovating an existing room in my basement for dedicated HT purposes and I am unsure what I want to do with the ceiling. The room is 11 x 31, not ideal, but I am not tearing any walls down to rebuild, and has a drop ceiling that is about 6'9" tall. I could gain about 3 more inches if I take it down and drywall the ceiling. There is realy not much running in the area save electrical lines and a few ducts between the joists, but I am still hesitant as I have had to run quite a few new cable/phone/electric lines since I have moved in, so I am leaning towards keeping the drop ceiling. As for the drop ceiling that is there allready, it was installed fairly poorly, ie. with a slope...someone didn't know how to use a level, tape measure of chalk line...but I digress, but I could put in shadowline edge panels to mask the rails a bit. Lastly, I am considering taking the drop ceiling down and spraying the ceiling flat black, loft-style, with all the wires/ducts/etc. in full view, but black. I do like the look, as it would go with the modern style of our furniture, but I am still thinking it may be too "unfinished" or sloppy looking.

I don't care at all about sound isolation. I would think the uneven surface would be good for reflected light from the PJ screen, though the joists are parallel to the screen. Just curious if anyone had seen this and how it looked in the room you saw. Also, can you think of any issues that this may cause that may be detrimental to movie watching?

Thanks,
Bricktop

Here is a picture that may help...I think it looks pretty unique.
Painted, unfinished ceiling (http://rrmambo.vox.com/library/photo/6a00e398c5858a000300fa969031240002.html)

I would think a (poorly installed) drop ceiling would be full of rattles to annoy you during a movie. I also think the 3 extra inches of height will be appreciated. The picture you show of the black painted open ceiling looks good, but I have heard someone on the board who did one say it looked cheap. The upside is that you haven't really lost anything other than a little paint and a few days work if you don't like it.

Even though sound isolation isn't an issue for you, the HVAC system can be quite loud and without the ducts being contained it probably is worse. Is the main ducting for the house going to travel through this room? Even if not, you may wish to use flex duct to ventilate the room (to quiet things a bit) and I don't know that they would look particularly good exposed. Maybe just use a segment of flex duct to decouple the ductwork? Other considerations would be any DWV plumbing in the roof. Again, sound isolation may not be important to you but nothing brings you out of the movie like the sound of a flushing toilet (or maybe the dishwasher or washing machine is on).

I would probably drywall the ceiling. The argument that running wires/plumbing is easier without it is a good one, but I live in a 2 story house and wouldn't dream of having a drop ceiling on my main floor. I think the look will be better and at least there will be a small level of sound containment possible (without necessarily spending mega-dollars)

My room is 11' by 21', and a little extra depth wouldn't have hurt. Are you considering an acoustically transparent screen?

The ducts running above the room are for two of the bedrooms (ranch house) and one of the two living room ducts. All the ducts are 6" galvanized. The drop ceiling has never rattled, and I do have a "mini" theater there now. The tiles are old and heavy, so that may be a reason. My sub is not a monster by any means, Paradigm ps1200, but it plays fairly loudly, and I hear no rattles anywhere.

As for the screen, I have some sheerweave I will use on a false wall for a 10' wide screen (maybe, PJ placement may be an issue if I go DLP with a large offset).

I am suspicious of having no ceiling look cheap, and I certainly do not want that, but I do love the look when I see it in restaurants and old reclaimed buildings, but in a theater, I'm just not sure.

Thanks,
Bricktop

I've got about the same ceiling height and hesitations to drywalling my basement ceiling as you. Actually I did drywall it once and ripped it all down 2 years later to install ductwork. I used a product called ceiling link (add a .com for the website) this time around. It's not cheap but it lets you use regular dropped ceiling tiles but they stay tight to the bottom of your joists and you'll claim your three inches.

I too used www.ceilinglink.com to mount my "drop" ceiling flush to the underside of the floor joists. There is also a similar product called "ceilingMAX" that I've seen in stores like Home Depot and Menards (I would assume Lowes too.)

My father-in-law put up ceilingMAX in his basement, and I used ceiling link. Looking both of them over, I would use ceiling link again. It's cheaper, more flexible for installation, and comes in black without too much of a price increase.

As for tiles, check out www.ceilume.com . They offer stylish tiles that I think you will find will mesh well with a contemporary room style. I did my theater in the black Stratford tile and it looks very nice.

To be completely honest, I think that the "unfinished" painted look only fits in when you have a boat load of crappy flair screwed to the walls and you have a peppy high school aged girl coming by every five minutes to ask you if you want to get a serving of hotwings as an appetizer. :cool:

-Suntan

To be completely honest, I think that the "unfinished" painted look only fits in when you have a boat load of crappy flair screwed to the walls and you have a peppy high school aged girl coming by every five minutes to ask you if you want to get a serving of hotwings as an appetizer. :cool:

-Suntan

LOL! I think my wife agrees with you...we ended up going to Home Depot and just getting new white tiles, but the type that has the stepped profile, so the poor job the installers did with the rails isn't noticeable. The first 2 or three rows in front of the screen I am using the flat panels and will wrap them in black cloth to eliminate reflections from the projector screen. All in all, a compromise I can live with. The nicer ceiling panels are a bit pricey, but in the end I think it will save me some work. The low ceiling will have to do for now.

In the end I should have known that all my agonizing about what to do would be easily laid to rest by the wife. :)

Thanks for your suggestions...If I decide to change it up, I will look into the ceilingmax stuff...I did see it at Lowes.

Thanks,
Bricktop