Just bought a brand new house. What do you do with a brand new home? Of course, you pick a room and frickin' detonate it.

First, walk past the "temporary setup". Note the 8-bit Nintendo Entertainment System in the right side of the cabinet. This setup actually sees far more use due to Dance Dance Revolution (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dance_Dance_Revolution) than any other task. I'm sure Gayle Sanders (http://www.martinlogan.com/gayle_bio_media.html) is just tickled pink that his products are being used in such a fashion.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00014.JPG


Go up the stairs (note the small flecks of what used to be attached to the house)
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00004.JPG


Wall looks a little short. Something might not be right.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00005.JPG


The initial impression of the theater right now gets the point across mighty fine... it's currently a hellhole.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00006.JPG


Eventually, a slightly larger display surface will go here. For now, that unplugged twenty-something inch TV will have to do.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00008.JPG


The full effect of things should start to take effect here. The builder had foolishly placed a half wall at the edge of the room. HA! I improved upon that little design flaw. The plan is to build like a wall and stuff, but as they say, you can't make an omelet without taking a sawzall to stuff, or something like that. Whatever, it was kinda fun.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00009.JPG

Nice window! Yeah, that will have to go. Note the elegance of the $2.97 sconce. We're living the good life here. And to think, Mr. Poindexter dropped a whopping two-hundred times that tally on his sconces... EACH. I seem to have a penchant for frugality. (http://archive.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&postid=1486308#post1486308)
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00010.JPG


Another window. The wife want's it to stay, something about a nice view of the lake. I want to put several layers of drywall over it. This will be interesting.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00011.JPG


This is the equipment closet. I was about to say that it is going to be the equipment closet. More observant AVSers may have noted that there's already some equipment in it. This arrangement may change somewhat in the coming months, but for now the little HD Tivo is a happy Tivo.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00012.JPG


Note the attention to details in the destruction. Safety first, that's why here's a Wal-Mart bag over the live power outlets with the exposed leads. I need to chop and cap the power feed, but sawzalling around the live power to remove the half wall took precedence to ensuring my own continuing survival this evening. If I'm a little overconfident, it would be because it's been over one month since I last electrocuted myself.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060325/DSC00013.JPG

Now that my house is in an unsell-able condition, I should probably plan out what's gonna happen next.

I've ordered 5 cases of Green Glue which to my understanding shall be arriving in negative two days.

Next I need to negotiate with the wife over the fate of the windows. The smaller window will get some cheap cellular blinds which will be followed by some aluminum foil covered plywood and burning hatred. From the outside it will look like a normal window, and from the inside it will look ghetto, much like the rest of the room. The foil is to try to keep the Florida death heat out.

The larger window has some unanswered questions. MrsGeek (aka "The Wife") would like it if that larger window could somehow be exposed on demand. Obviously it can't stay like it currently is as light would enter, sound would exit and it would be "sub-optimal" all around. One plan on the table is to have some kind of bizarre hinge system so that panels can open up and expose the window. The other thing is to place upon these theoretical panel things a pair of movie posters. If so, then I'd really like to go for the Star Wars Episode III dual Jedi/Sith posters. They look kinda cool. They are unfortunately at someone's first reflection point so that's going to be be quite interesting to work around.

Next up is at least one additional layer of drywall all around plus some Green Glue. This is a second floor bonus room so the floor is also going to get a second layer of OSB and some Green Glue. Some of the subfloor panels were kinda squeeky so I put 306 screws into the floor. This also means there's no way I'm going to pull up part of the floor and blow some insulation into the cavity underneath. It seemed like too pesky of a job.

The equipment closet will get drywall and GG treatment as well. As it abuts a portion of the house that shares an airspace with the main living area, this will get a third layer of drywall with a second helping of GG. The wall next to it also partially touches this airspace so it too will get a similar treatment.

The no longer existing half wall will be replaced with a double stud wall. Well, a cheesy one at least. With the old half wall, the room was 18 feet 6 inches deep, which frankly could stand to be deeper. For added fun, the room is 16 feet 8 inches wide. If I make the replacement wall too thick then the almost square room will become really too close to being square which is a bad bad thing for bass response. The goal is to make a wall with double layers of Green Glue sandwiched drywall on both sides, and also be stagger studded. I've procured some 2x3s which will get nailed onto a 2x4 border. It won't be perfect, but it will be better than a single stud wall. I also need to put in a little window because the projector is going to get mounted over the stairs, and hence outside the room which makes for a nice hushbox.

An exterior grade door is in order as well. The inner surface will likely also receive a dose of Green Glue and a sheet of plywood.

Somewhere in here I should deal with the ceiling. It's currently vaulted. I was thinking about changing it over to being a tray ceiling by building downward and feature a starfield in the middle. I've been oogling a starfield for some time now and this is my chance. I like Reuben's idea of using the tray portion as a gigantic bass trap, and I shall be pilfering that idea.

Next up is an unordinary amount of risers. The final plan isn't quite mapped out, but pretty much the entire room will be a riser of some sort. The only portions that will be at a semi-normal floor height will be the front part of the room where the first row of seats are going. The plan is to give that seating area a sunken feeling. The rest is either riser, proscenium, or raised walkway. This will all be filled with some kind of fiberglass batting, except for the portions of the proscenium where the mains and sub will go which will get the standard sand treatment which is so popular around here. Once again, this is a second story setup so doing the entire proscenium with sand isn't too great of an idea.

Risers and proscenium are getting a layer of OSB up top, a layer of roofing felt (squeaking is bad) and then a second layer of OSB. At this point I'll probably toss two more layers of OSB and roofing felt at whatever portions of the floor don't have raised flooring of some sort on it. There's living space underneath the theater room so there's probably no such thing as overkill in the sound isolation department. Note to self, make risers and proscenium things extra high to deal with this little fact.

Ohh, I should also go back in time and run the wiring for rope lighting. There's 100' spools of rope lighting at Sam's Club for like $14 which I need to grab before they no longer stock them. While I'm at it, I'll steal another idea from Reuben's thread and put an auxillary A/V input at the base of the riser along with an extra power outlet so that I can plug in random extra accessories like an extra video game system or a camcorder.

Next up is the wall treatments. Nothing special here, just linacoustic up to ear level and dacron batting above that. Cover with some Guilford of Maine wall fabric. If you're a first time reader, the purpose of this is that the GOM fabric is acoustically transparent, so that sound won't bounce off of it. The purpose is so that the sound plows into the linacoustic or dacron material and gets deadened. Echos are a bad bad thing.

The front of the theater will get some black drapes and probably some corner bass traps. Oh yeah, and a screen an some unreasonably large speakers. The planned screen is probably a 134 or 142 inch Carada bright white. Yes I know I shouldn't go that big, no I really don't care about the 1.5 rule. I sit in the front row when I go to the movies.

After that, install the equipment rack, wire some more speakers, mount a rack, shove the equipment into the rack, remember and correct whatever it is I'm forgetting, get the seats delivered, and enjoy. Any questions?

What, no carpet? ;)

Carpet is a good thing too. You gonna change your profile to Wesley Chapel too?

I grabbed 200' of rope light from Sam's. Apparently they were 50' spools not 100' for $15 a box, but 30 cents per foot is still a good deal.

The big chunks of destruction is cleared out, and a healthy dose of drywall managed to walk up the stairs. Never underestimate how heavy that junk is, or how unwieldy it is (never buy 12 foot sheets!) Hopefully the GG will get here today and I can start hanging some drywall soon.

I don't look forward to carrying 40 sheets of OSB up those stairs. I'll probably need to move 25 more sheets of drywall as well.

Very entertaining. I look forward to your progress.

But I must protest - there's no way that could be a happy HDTiVo. Its not hooked up to anything... Fix that, man. RIGHT NOW.

:)

Ok, so it's a little neglected but at least it's recording stuff. What, I have no idea but it is quite busily doing something. I've got a Terk Leapfrog that I might press into service to shove audio, video, and IR signals over a phone line. The bigger problem is that watching would be a real detriment to completing the project.

Dang it! Two things... one the Green Glue tubes are a damned lot bigger than a regular tube of caulk, and they won't fit my spiffy new Ryobi caulk gun.

They also seem to have somewhat exploded.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060329/DSC00001.JPG


There are two caps at the bottom of the box. I also found two mostly empty tubes. Not sure how usable the rest of this case is as they're all pretty much coated, and if you've worked with this stuff then you know how sticky it is. I had to toss the whole case into a garbage bag to keep the cats from getting into it. I also should check the other 4 cases.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060329/DSC00002.JPG


Audio Alloy guys, don't use UPS. FedEx takes far greater care for the extra dollar or two it takes to move these things around. I also recommend packing material. :)

3 out of 5 survived UPS. Here's the second victim. This one isn't as bad as the first one I opened up.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060329/DSC00003.JPG


Well, that's about it for tonight. The only other thing that happened was that I pulled some baseboards off the walls in preparation of putting some drywall up over the existing drywall. I predict this will go much more slowly than Reuben's theater.

Nice!

Subscribed! ;)

Very entertaining, send an email to Ted White I'm sure AA will fix your problem.

I'm definately subscribing to this destruction.

I'm actually a little surprised Ted White hasn't already called me. I've yet to see a disparaging word about AA here, and so far every compliment I've heard on them seems to have a pretty solid basis.

That bottom most picture is probably most telling as to what the problem was. The case seems to have gotten dropped on that bottom left corner. The first case I opened up simply must have hit much harder.

I'd call him.. the point him to this thread, he probably doesnt know it exists yet.

Or, u can create a new thread called GG destroyed in shipping and I bet ted will be all over it withn seconds =).

I left a message and Ted called me back in 5 minutes according to my cell's call log.

Ted took care of me. He even offered to send the replacement tubes via air if necessary. Hopefully UPS will take slightly more care this time. Someone in the chain of people who gets packages to my house is awfully brutal, and I've not received many unmolested UPS packages so far.

I'll have to post pictures of what they did to the boxes that the Ascents came in. One of the boxes wasn't that far off from being torn in half.

Look into Cellular Blackout shades to cover that outside window. My dad has them in his bedroom when he has to sleep during the day. It is pitch black in there, they run in aluminum tracks and are black in color. They might be pricey, but probly worth it for overall use of room, during non theater times.

Stewart Filmscreen also makes shades specific to this that purpose as well. There are also a few cellular shade suppliers, who's products are sold at Home Depot and Lowes, which are designed to fit into skylights, thusly coming in tracks. These options and others went under consideration, however, they were discarded for two reasons. Firstly, they wouldn't really fit the ambience of the room. I've never seen a window in commercial theater aside from the occasional faux mural, which I'm not a huge fan of. Secondly, they wouldn't do a darned thing for sound isolation.

Single pane glass with some cellular cloth over it doesn't really do a heck of a lot for isolation. We have cellulars over the windows on the front of the house, and with just the Ascents going on a moderate level the music can be heard quite clearly outside the house. MrsGeek had originally wanted to keep the half-wall intact, and the Ascent warm-up test completely killed that.

Part of the goal of the theater is to be able to drive the snot out of the system without raising the ire of my neighbors. We've probably spent a below average to average number of dollars on the sound system when in comparison to the others on this forum (read: completely unreasonable quantities of coin). I've been waiting to push it and I couldn't really do so in the old house. One of the major selection criteria that the new house was selected upon was the availability and suitability of an upstairs bonus room for conversion to a dedicated theater. I don't want to build a theater and then have the Pope pounding on my door telling me to turn it down.

Here's another product (http://www.roc-lon.com/products/total_light_control.html) that's probably better than blackout material lined cellular shades. It is custom fit and a much heavier material. Limp mass is going to beat suspended cloth when it comes to sound deadening.

Any progress over the week-end? :p

I got some more drywall up. It's pretty slow going when you're doing it by yourself. Also, never ever buy 12 foot sheets of the stuff. The big sheets are just too hard to work with.

Of what's up, there's a pretty decent difference between the new sheets and the sheets that have been on the wall for a few days. If I pound my fist against them, I can tell which ones have had the Green Glue drying for a few days. The tubes say that it takes 30 days for the maximum benefit to occur.

MrsGeek is a few states to the north right now helping out some friends pack and move back to the area. They'll be staying with us while they're waiting for their new house to get built. We've got 4 spare bedrooms in the house meanwhile they've got an excess of tools. This should work well provided their toddler doesn't toddle upstairs into the pile of debris, Green Glue and pointy tools.


Say, for precision cutting of drywall, what works well? I'm just using a knife and it seems to be taking a fair bit of time that way.

FYI, the replacement tubes arrived yesterday.

Say, for precision cutting of drywall, what works well? I'm just using a knife and it seems to be taking a fair bit of time that way.

If you have a dremel, they make a cheap attachment that turns it into a rotozip. Perfect for outlet holes, etc.

For making big panel cuts, drywall T square and score/snap with a utility knife gets my vote. Just make sure you change the blade often, that stuff eats through em.

how do u prevent the dremel from going right thru the outlet box???

it looks kinda like a drill bit and goes sideways through the drywall... has a depth adjustment too so the bit doesn't go too deep and cut anything on the other side. You can usually run it along the edges without mangiling the box. I was able to do so even with plastic electrical boxes.

Ok, my fearless prediction at the current rate of progress is somewhere on the order of 3 or 4 years. Hopefully I'll be able to use the Green Glue before it expires.

Welcome to my world, 2 years and going, still havent even started a construction thread...

just started following the thread, so this room is upstiars eh??? Sounds like a great time for hauling materials ;) thats why I enticed many of freinds with beer and food to come over at random times to unknowningly help haul crap.

"oh btw since I've got you all here...." worked over but just need to make sure I had different ppl every time or they might have caught on to my plan.

So whats your plan for wireing? How are you going to be pulling all the cables you need from the equipment closet to the speaker and projector locations? Is there access from the attic or something? Plan on doing any conduit runs?

Aslo about the second window just make sure it doesnt get too hot and you have some sort of ventalation in there as I've seen where a window was trywalled over like that, and condensation built up on the window which made it look nasty as hell, specially with all that humidity you ahve down there might be something to consider.

Other than that, lookin good so far, keep us posted.

- Josh

So, is the issue that you don't have the time to work on it or the money or what? If it's time and you want it done, either hire it out, or have friends help you so it gets done faster (it helps if your friends know a thing or two about contruction and carpentry).

I did my theater on my own, except moving heavy stuff, and getting some help from my buddy with fabric and a few other things. It took me about 6 months of weekends and every-other-Friday working on it.

The current cable plan is to run cable through the risers or the not yet existing wall where necessary.

I hadn't really considered the condensation as being an issue for the windows. There's plenty of instances where condensation drips inside a house. Also, I'm reasonably sure that fiberglas isn't a vapor barrier.

The big issue with working on it is getting time. Other projects keep getting thrown at me by MrsGeek, and a pretty firm pattern of not working on it is developing. It probably isn't helping that the room is up and out of the way. If it were the family room that were trashed beyond recognition then I'm sure this would have a little more focus.

We took a circular saw and some crowbars to the floor tonight. I wanted to post pictures, however MrsGeek didn't want there to be evidence of any of this. The OSB floor is tongue and groove so drastic measures were necessary. We ran the saw along the floor and pulled up a 10 inch strip of wood.

Turns out there's zero insulation of any kind in the floor, just OSB, 1 foot of air, and then drywall for the ceiling below. I also have an insulation blower at the ready as well as 20 bags of cellulose insulation. The goal is to fill the space as best as possible, but that's tomorrow's goal. A secondary goal is to not wind up looking like the guy who was just returning the insulation blower. Regardless, this is going to be messy.

Additionally, it sorta feels pretty bad to pay about $200 for old shredded newspaper, but part of that bill includes a pretty spiffy flashlight (damn you impulse buys!) so that offsets things a bit.

MVP for the night, the prybar. While the circular saw did go through a nail without hesitation of any sort and leave a shiny smooth surface, but the $10 prybar took the lead.

You will find that interior walls and floors/ceilings are rarely insulated. Sometimes a good builder will do certain areas (like a master bedroom wall or bathroom wall) but not normally.

Good to see you're back to work...

When we were having our house built, we asked for a quote to have insulation put in all the interior walls and between the floors. It was only like $1300 or something, so we had them do it. Our house is much quieter than any of the neighbors homes.

BTW, I have heard that you need to be carefull that you don't blow the sheetrock off the opposite side when blowing in that stuff. The one time I did it, we didn't have any problem though.

I had kinda figured that setting it to wide open and then shoving the blower tube down my pants would be a bad idea, but I didn't think this could be potent enough to blast through drywall. Thanks for the heads up Scott!

Anyway, based upon the picture on the side of the insulation bags, all I need is a woman in a nice blouse and a hairstyle from the late 1980s to do the job of feeding the product into the hopper and then I should be good to go. I'm kinda clinging to that pie in the sky scenario as opposed to my usual pessimism. I haven't a clue with what kind of force this junk will come out of the tube, but I did notice that there's a restrictor plate on the hopper to control flow which may come in handy.

That $1300 dollar figure is an eye-opener. If that were an option for this house, I definitely would have gone for it. I like quiet.

Sounds like you have quite a project going. I did residential construction for years before specializing in cabinetry and have used the blowers many times.

How are you going to blow it in? Usually there is a 3 or 4 inch hose to supply the insulation but for filling cavities we always used a reducer that brought it down to 1 inch. Generally you will need to drill several holes along the floor between the floor joists.(Look for rows of nails and drill the holes a few feet apart running parallel to the nails and centered between the rows). You need to be careful not to drill through and electrical wires,water lines or HVAC runs that may be under the decking and don't worry about pressure, you won't blow anything out. If anything with the 1 inch reducer it has more of a tendency to plug at the tip.If you are spraying the expanding urethane in closed wall cavities you can certainly get blowouts as it expands if you go too heavy.


Also, As a quick piece of advise, it may pay,if you haven't started,to get a consultation from one of your local companies that does the urethane spray foam. Sometimes that is a more cost effective and better route to go. I just had it done in my basement and it was only 300 dollars more for spray foam than for fiberglass batts. It cost me 1300 dollars for the whole basement including the rim joists and spraying some interior walls to control sound.

We took a circular saw and some crowbars to the floor tonight. I wanted to post pictures, however MrsGeek didn't want there to be evidence of any of this. The OSB floor is tongue and groove so drastic measures were necessary. We ran the saw along the floor and pulled up a 10 inch strip of wood.


Very nice.. reminds me of right after we bought our current house.. This was the upstairs after a week of owning the place (move-in condition):

http://house.miltech.org/ruf/images/P0002227-02.jpg

The room at the far corner was a kitchen. A wall was blocking between the camera and the kitchen at one point also (removed).

I'll definitely be following along on your expedition.. Keep up the good work.

Hey, that's pretty spiffy. I take it that was an existing home and not a new one?

Anyway, here's the best floor damage I could muster. I even put it back together when I was done.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060507/DSC00001.JPG

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060507/DSC00002.JPG

Nice, that should serve the purpose well.

Yes, mine was a 25 year old house that I ripped up. Notice the newer "truss" (double 2x6s with 2x4 across the top) in between two trusses. On the left edge of the picture is the wall, with the stairs on the other side of it. The framers moved a truss over about a foot to align with that wall (instead of building an extra tall wall or adding an additional, shorter truss), so instead of 24" OC, it was about 37" at that point. The floor squeaked in the kichen, which caused me to rip up the whole floor to fix it. Maybe overkill, but I fixed a lot of problems by doing so... (took me 3.5 months though).

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled programming.. sorry for the thread jacking. Get some insulation in there! Are you going to run any kind of wires first? Seems like the prime opportunity.

Insulation is already in there, and everything is screwed back down. Yes screws, no nails. There's several nail guns and air compressors in my garage, but I used screws instead. Nails can pull up and cause a squeak, but a screw isn't going to.

The plan is to run wires and stuff through the risers, which will be somewhat extensive. I'll be able to reach wires to anywhere in the room regardless of where I have to reach to because of the risers.

Regarding the new truss you tossed in there, there's a pair of trusses close to each other. Perhaps they though that 24" OC just had to be an average. :-) In the second picture, I've got two pretty close to each other, but there's a wall right around there.

Day 69

More drywall. Oh my God, more drywall. Two walls have two additional layers on them. One wall has nothing additional, and the 4th wall... well that doesn't exist yet. I also bought a large stack of OSB. Progress comes, albeit slowly.

Day 69

More drywall. Oh my God, more drywall. Two walls have two additional layers on them. One wall has nothing additional, and the 4th wall... well that doesn't exist yet. I also bought a large stack of OSB. Progress comes, albeit slowly.


No pics?

- Josh

Popping popcorn now and sitting back and reading this happen.. This'll be a good one I think! hehe

Exploded green glue.. Naaaaaasty!

Hang in there. It wouldn't be a DIY project if it wasn't something. Glad Ted took care of you. He's been pretty good in the past about that when there's been damage.

Looking forward to your progress.

Bryan

Yeah, the Audio Alloy folks are a really great bunch to work with.

Is it really supposed to take about 45 minutes per board to put GG+drywall up, or am I just horribly slow? The Green Gluing part is pretty quick, but cutting the drywall seems to take the great majority of my time. I've got a Dremel with the drywall attachment for doing curves and holes, and then just knives for trying to make straight cuts. I also have a drywall saw, but that just makes a mess.

Yeah, the Audio Alloy folks are a really great bunch to work with.

Is it really supposed to take about 45 minutes per board to put GG+drywall up, or am I just horribly slow? The Green Gluing part is pretty quick, but cutting the drywall seems to take the great majority of my time. I've got a Dremel with the drywall attachment for doing curves and holes, and then just knives for trying to make straight cuts. I also have a drywall saw, but that just makes a mess.

Well if your doing it on your own thats a pretty good pace, the hardest part for me was trying to get the measurements right so that when i did cut the hole for the outlets and crap, I didnt mess up.

So I'd say if your doing it on your own, with GG, I'd say your on a good pace.

Now if you got a father inlaw like mine, he's nutz btw, when he starts something he runs runs runs until its done. Between him, my father, and myself we put up 800 sqft (4 walls, hallway, and ceiling) in less than 4 hours.

keep it up, oh and dont forget the pics, we all love seeing the pics.

- Josh

Are you using a straight-edge and knife, or just the saw and dremel for everything? Making long straight cuts is much faster with a straight edge and knife. There should be several sheets that you don't have to do anything with. Also, planning out where to start and the orientation (vertical or horizontal) based on locations of all cutouts will save time as well. And one final thought.. don't think you have to have it perfect around a window, door, etc. That's what trim is for.. to cover it up. As long as it's within reason (1/4" or so), it's no big deal. It's more important around junction boxes because wall plates are not all that large.

Keep the faith...

Yeah, straight edge and knife. For some cuts we have to cut all the way through, but for a fair number of the big ones we can just score down about 3/8 of an inch and then snap it.

So far there are two boards that go up without any cuts at all. All the boards that are going up are going vertically. I've got 9 foot tall walls to deal with so everything that's going up also gets a 1 foot tall piece tossed up on top. I'm also staggering my joints between the 2nd and 3rd layers which yields yet more cutting.

I've pondered laying some horizontally, but I'm not really sure that will make this any easier. It also guarantees that some joints will overlap, though in a very minor way.

I used a rotozip for my angular columns. makes putting the paper metal tape on alot easier.

The Rotozip is pretty much a beefy version of a Dremel + drywall attachment.

Awesome columns, btw. I wouldn't even think of trying something like that. I'm also going to go spend some quality time looking at http://www.drywallschool.com/protips.htm I might just learn something. Some technique might be a definite help to me. I can't say that I've got the talent for this, but I certainly make up in persistence what I lack in skill.

that is a great web site to learn drywall. Good luck.

Just subscribed to your thread. Will be entertaining and fun to watch all this unfold. Also, was awake and browsing at 4am and had to make a post. :)

Sounds like you're having fun with it all, that's the most important part!

Thanks for posting that Drywall link - got some great tips.

I've switched over to a jigsaw. At first I was using a knife blade in the jigsaw which makes a very nice cut and causes no dust, however it really doesn't like going through the edges of the drywall. From the looks of it, they compress the edges of the drywall so that they'll hold up a little better to being bumped around and also give a bit more room for taping and mudding. Downer is that the knife jigsaw blade isn't happy about it.

Instead, a fine toothed metal blade makes a decent controlled cut but carries the downside of spewing a bunch of drywall dust. I've found that I can minimize the dust in the air by keeping the motor speed down.

Overall, it isn't a lot faster than the score and snap method, but then again I wasn't scoring and snapping anyway because it always left a nasty edge and torn paper. Just about anything is better than manually knifing my way all of the way through. That got old really, really quickly.


And no, I'm still not done with the drywall. Don't do a triple layer, it takes forever.

We've got the drywall completed for the three walls that exist. Still need to drywall+GG the equipment closet. Meanwhile, we've started laying down GG+OSB for the floor. It's far more satisfying work to do the floor. There's no windows or power outlets in the floor, so there's barely any cutting at all.

Ohh, also learned how to do a plunge cut with the jigsaw. It makes a stark improvement in quality over a Dremel for cutting out the holes for the outlets.

When you say:
We've got the drywall completed for the three walls that exist.
Do you mean all taping, mudding & sanding complete......if Yes :) your over big milestone, if No :( this was the worse part for me.

You need to post some pics now.

Yeah, we're are the pics? =)

When you say:

Do you mean all taping, mudding & sanding complete......if Yes :) your over big milestone, if No :( this was the worse part for me.

Taping? I used caulk for all the drywall seems as I'm just going to be covering the stuff with acoustical treatments and fabric. The only taping, mudding, and sanding I'll be doing will be for the wall that I've yet to put up. Even then, it will be minimal.

You Lucky, Luck, Lucky man! :D

It looks like you've got yourself a healthy little project. I'm gonna jump on board with the subscription and wish you the best of luck. Can't wait to see some more pics.

Ok, it's been a while since my last update. Since then I've laid down 4 rows of OSB, and I've also started..... ohhh who cares. You're not really watching this thread to see how well I'm doing, you're watching this to see how poorly I'm doing.

Well, if you've ever worked with Green Glue then you'll probably cringe at this. If you ever decide to trowel the stuff on, be careful if you bend over to pick something up or reach lower. You don't want any Green Glue in your hair.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060711/DSC00006.jpg

Did you want to share with us your green glue removal techniques? Might be good information for us all to have.

If you ever need a hand let me know, I live in New Tampa and would be happy to help. I'm getting ready to do a green glue application of my own (on the walls in my theater, not my head) so you have the opprotunity to give me some tips. PM me ifyou are interested.

David.

Did you want to share with us your green glue removal techniques? ....

Having worked with GG, my guess would be scissors.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060711/DSC00006.jpg

Well, after reading about the sound dampening qualities, have you noticed a difference in the sound entering and leaving your cranium?

dude, you are a DIY'ers wet dream. I am giddy thinking of the learning you will be going through in the next few months. I am standing by for your first ER visit.....you never forget your first (mine was using the air nailer doing the crown molding and REACHING far over trying to get that last nail in without moving the ladder...well...apparently you arent supposed to use air nailers with 16ga brads at 90psi at a 45 degree sideways angle.....after shooting about 3999 nails...#4000 bounced of the crown molding and into my bicept, WHICH was about 2 inches from my eye b/c i was holding the gun over my head!!!! No saftey glasses....

O well....well worth the lesson of saftey glasses (imagin GG in your eye).

Anyway....this is one of the best build threads, your prose is excellent and you should devote 20 minutes a week to uploading pictures and typing stories, great stuff.

The GG made no measurable difference in isolation for sound entering my skull, which likely has an STC in the upper 60s anyway. Between the relative mass of my hair and flanking noise, it was relatively ineffective.

I did manage to get it out without resorting to a new hair style reminiscent of an 80's punk band. Remedy was achieved via direct application of Zep commercial citrus cleaner, followed up by some of MrsGeek's gooey hair conditioner. I had been using the Zep to get the GG of of various things during the project.

The hair conditioner happened to be already sitting in the shower, and I had already gone through all of the shampoos within an arm's length. This is a relatively high number of shampoos. If you're married, you know what I'm talking about. My hair product section of the shower encompasses a sprawling 6 square inches. MrsGeek's covers all remaining horizontal surfaces. From dwelling to dwelling, I've found this equation to remain constant regardless of available horizontal surface area.

The Zep did a decent job at taking out about 90% of the GG. It seems that the remaining GG saw what was happening and decided to hold on extra strong. That last big really didn't want to go. Meanwhile, the conditioner (it's called Mega Cholesterol, I'm not making this up) made some rather bold claims about leaving my hair smooth and silky. I took that be synonymous with "not stuck together and green". It actually delivered on getting out that last 10% of GG. Either that, or the citrus took out all of the GG and in the process nearly destroyed my hair, which the conditioner then revived. Given my relative skill level, I'll likely have another chance to experiment at this removal process.

Air tools are coming up shortly, as soon as the last bit of drywall is done. I forget off-hand what they'll be used for (framing or something, whatever), but dammit air tools will be used! I'm going to try to keep all my fingers from getting mangled. I like my fingers. Typing would be negatively impacted if there were nails sticking out of them. Also, opening up a Snickers bar would be gravely hampered if all I've got to work with are mangled nubs. I especially don't want to have to eat a Snickers bar that's covered with nub-goo. Ewww...

As for safety equipment, I've been using goggles, hearing protection, a breathing mask, and occasionally leather work gloves when using power cutting equipment such as a jigsaw or circular saw. I've also mostly stopped doing this while barefoot. If nothing else, having your feet stick to stuff gets old pretty quickly and having the stickiness stay on the expendable footwear is preferred. I apparently need a diving bell for when working with GG.

if you continue to sound proof yourself, you could always consider building your own haz-mat suit to use during GG installation phases. I had a friend who read online (this is a true story BTW) that mangos stay fresh longer in your oven because its mostly airtight (lol).....so he put them there.

About a month later he started having a minor house/fruitfly problem, not a big deal.

Another month goes buy and his fly probelm gets worse and there is an odd "odor" when walking through his kitchen. he meticulously cleans every surface and scrubs the floor, thinking some "juice" from meat or something else leaked and went unnoticed.

Another month (serious) goes by and he "remembers"

He opened the door and there were lots of flys, lots of larvae (i dont think they were maggots, just fruit fly larvae), and lots of black stuff that used to be mangos. Apparently the smell was equisite, his body literally wretched, i think he threw up 5 or 6 times over 30 minutes.

So, whats a man to do? Well, using a few trash bags and some duct tape, a ski mask and a 3m N95 mask (which even though is disposable will filter out most large partical odors, OSHA approved), and swimming goggles.

Every square cm of his body was covered, and he sucessfully completed the extraction and cleanup (which he then walked through his condo, past security, out onto the street and around the back to dispose of in the dumpster)...lol

Imagine a tall lanky Indian guy dressind in duct-taped trashbags, a ski mask, goggles, respirator walking around holding another bag of "something."

Great stuff.....didnt even turn a head in new orleans.


SO, you might consider the body condom concept next time using GG

Folks here at work are now wondering why I'm laughing uncontrollably and wiping my eyes!.

Thanks for the laughter! I needed it!

Chuck

Wow. That's quite possibly the strangest story I've ever heard.

Dude, your friend needed that dose of reality! Too funny, also, funny is the fact that he went for about 3 months without using his oven!

At that point, I'd be darned tempted to use the "clean" feature of the oven, assuming it was a self-cleaning model. Not sure if that would make things better or worse, but it'd sure get rid of some fruit flies.


Dude, your friend needed that dose of reality! Too funny, also, funny is the fact that he went for about 3 months without using his oven!

I had been living in my first apartment for about 8 or 9 months. I was watching TV when MrsGeek (at the time, my girlfriend) came out of the kitchen and asked me if I was aware that the dishwasher was broken. I had to walk into the kitchen and stare at the dishwasher sitting where she was pointing. Apparently it had been there all that time and I had never even noticed it.

My excuse is that at the time I owned only one plate which I would use and then wash by hand. I mean, who could possibly need more than one plate?

Yeah, it was a long time ago during med school and he was working a lot and went for weeks without even eating a meal at home, much less cooking.....The smell apparently wasnt really noticable with the oven closed, just sort of apparent.....very subtle....


This is an absolutely true story too.....it was before all the 9/11 /anthrax ****, so i can imagine it might not be the best thing in the world to try today....back then it was great!

If you knew the guy, he is lanky, clumsy, and scatter-brained....that only made it all better watching him perform the extraction.


Dude, your friend needed that dose of reality! Too funny, also, funny is the fact that he went for about 3 months without using his oven!

Wow, I think I would've just replaced the oven...

what the smack.....pics and updates man...

Not much has happened in a bit. We're almost done with the drywall for the parts that already exist. Getting ready for building the wall means answering a fair number of unanswered questions. For example, the wall is going to have a hushbox built into the backside of it. This means putting it at the hight of the screen edge. Well, how is the screen going to be? That depends on the risers.....

SketchUp has been amazingly helpful for visualizing all my design problems before they're major headaches. Everything up to this point has been grunt work and designing things in detail first didn't really matter much as far as adding in all that drywall.

I'm pretty close to done with the final design, though the risers keep changing around. Plus, I'm having a real headache trying to figure out what to do with my back two audio channel speakers. The rear corners are taken up by a door on one side and the equipment closet on the other. The plan had been to build a tray ceiling and stuff 'em up there, but the room up there that I imagined having doesn't seem to exist.

Link to my SketchUp rendering thingy. (http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060803/thegeek.skp)


Ok, maybe this is a better description of the thing. I currently don't have the seats or sconces rendered in there. I also have the speakers rendered as large blocks whereas they look quite different in real life. Just consider them to be placeholders.

They look kinda like this:
http://www.martinloganowners.com/script.gif



I've simplified the risers a fair bit, but I've definitely kept the tray ceiling. The hushbox has three holes in it. Two are for ventilation, and the other one is for the light to come out. A hole for light to come out of, pretty innovative if you ask me. I'm going to patent it when I get around to it.




Anywho, here's some pictures of the rendering in case you don't have Sketchup installed (http://sketchup.google.com).


Shot from the money seat:
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060803/stage.png


From the back, showing the stairs:
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060803/top_back.png


From the top right side, showing the tray ceiling. I have no idea how to make a curved tray ceiling.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060803/top_right.png


Another random picture:
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060803/front_corner.png




Oh well, I guess this means I have to get back to that friggin' drywall....

Geek, awesome renderings. I can't wait to see some more progress pics. Especially of curved tray ceiling ;-) I love those speakers, I have listend to the them a couple times and they are amazing both in sound and in design. Those are gonna be your mains?

I had posted a question in another thread for you but I doubt you saw it. So I will ask here. "Could you estimate on a scale of 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest) how much sound benefit the blown insulation actually provided? I really am on the fence now that I saw how you did yours. I am also concerned with the fact that I think I have 4-6 canned lights directly under the HT floor. I don't really want to replace them all (or any of them for that matter) since that would probably require pulling up more flooring. Any suggestions?"

The Scripts were previously the mains, but now they're finally getting demoted to rear surrounds.

This is what's going in the front:
http://www.martinloganowners.com/ascent.gif

The picture is an Ascent, but we've got the i version, which is subtly different. You've got the basic idea though.


As for the floor insulation... It's not the sort of thing you can do an A-B comparison on. At minimum, your standard 2x4 single stud, single layer of drywall on either side wall, basic everyone's got one type wall has an STC rating of 30. If you put insulation in it, it goes up to 33. 3 dB of attenuation means basically halving the amount of sound going through. I haven't seen any stats for a cavity with a 16" span, but if you can do it then go for it. If you're not going to have any kind of help who doesn't mind getting really really dirty then I'd say skip it.

Keep in mind though, it's also not something you can go back and do after the fact. For me, knowing that I had skimped on something that I would later be kicking myself over was the thing that finally made me go for it.

As for the can lights issue, if you swap out the floodlights for compact fluorescent lights, then heat buildup shouldn't be an issue. The Commercial Electric brand lights they sell over at Home Depot are really good (at least their 60 watt bulbs are). They come on instantly. From the second juice hits 'em, they're probably at 90-95% of their max brightness.

More importantly for this discussion, they also don't give off anywhere near as much heat as an incandescent. They get warm, and that's about it.

Very nice. I am gonna have to make due with my Polks for the time being.

As for the insulation. The fact that I know I can't go back and do it is exactly whats making it such a hard decision. I had thought of changing the lights out like you suggested but wasn't sure if that would suffice. I guess so. That would eliminated the work and mess of rewiring those canned lights and bring it back to just blowing the insulation in there. Makes it much more managable from my standpoint. It looks like I might be blowing some insulation after all.

Thanks for the info.

Please do not knock Polks. The last set of Polks that I heard really impressed me for the price point they were at.


Good luck pulling up the floor. You'll quickly find out the quality of your circular saw with that job. I started using my battery powered Ryobi One saw, and didn't get that far. I then borrowed my friend's worm gear drive saw which was disgusting overkill. I loved it.

You'll want to angle the blade to the side by about 60 degrees or so. This makes it so that when you put the board back, you can have them overlap a bit. It also makes it much easier to pry the boards up and then slip them back in.

Additionally, it makes it so that the part that comes up can then rest on the other side. That being said, if you can make the cut within a foot of a joist then you'll have less flexing when you're done.

Oh yeah, caulk the joint when you put it all back. And be sure to include a photo of yourself when you're done. I looked like this:

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060507/DSC00005.JPG

Mr. Geek, have you been following SandmanX's thread? He had ML's in his theater and wasn't getting anything near what he wanted for sound, so he pulled them out and got the Klipsh Ultra 2 system. I would hate for you to have to pull yours out too, but maybe Ruben just has different tastes when it comes to sound, I don't know.

The man had Odysseys in there, which is a notch higher than the Ascent. Pretty sure it's the same panel, but with a 8" and a 10", instead of just an 8" on the bottom. He also had the higher end Theater center channel as opposed to the Cinema, and 4 Scripts in the back as opposed to 2. Basically, he had what I wished I have.

I'm going to have to read through his thread and see why he yanked 'em. If he had Martin Logan and then swapped for Klipsch then we're most definitely within the same ballpark as far as taste in speakers.

He might have just had them set up incorrectly. Planar speakers need to breathe a lot because they put exactly as much sound out the back as they do the front. Heck, the Aeon i (model down from the Ascent) even has a tweeter firing up and to the rear. Magnepans (another brand of planar) for instance are totally dead if you leave them up against a wall. Pull them about 3 feet away and they magically have some bass to 'em.

Reuben's scripts were stuffed into boxes. His Theater was pushed right up against some acoustic treatment and the Oddysseys look like they got similar treatment. I wouldn't be surprised if they sounded bad.

The plan is for the Scripts to have a fair bit of open air, and I'm not planning on putting any acoustic treatment on the screen wall.

A fairly common setup for the two channel guys who run planars is to have the speakers about 4 or 5 feet away from a wall with a big piece of glass up against the wall to reflect as much sound back as possible. Reuben went kinda the other way on that one.



I mean... uhh uhh they must be defective. I'll take them off his hands for parts. :-)

Subscribed. This is awesome.


One question - the insulation you added. Was it for thermal or sound?
If sound, fiberglass or old newspaper doesn't do too much. Linacoustic is good for sound. Four layers of drywall? Holy cow! The triple burger at Wendy's is probably unsatisfying for you. I take it the 4 layers are for soundproofing?

Posts and pics, please.

Marshall

...Planar speakers need to breathe a lot because they put exactly as much sound out the back as they do the front. Heck, the Aeon i (model down from the Ascent) even has a tweeter firing up and to the rear. Magnepans (another brand of planar) for instance are totally dead if you leave them up against a wall. Pull them about 3 feet away and they magically have some bass to 'em.

Reuben's scripts were stuffed into boxes. His Theater was pushed right up against some acoustic treatment and the Oddysseys look like they got similar treatment. I wouldn't be surprised if they sounded bad.

I think that was the problem, but with his room and the way he wanted it to look, the planars were probably not a real good idea. Obviously, you have a handle on things and know what to expect and what to do in order to use them to their potential (I am sure Ruben did too, but he had to try, right?).

One question - the insulation you added. Was it for thermal or sound?
If sound, fiberglass or old newspaper doesn't do too much. Linacoustic is good for sound. Four layers of drywall? Holy cow! The triple burger at Wendy's is probably unsatisfying for you. I take it the 4 layers are for soundproofing?


The insulation is for sound. Empty cavities tend to resonate, and insulation dampens that. Think about my head. If you walk up to it and bonk it, it will make a hollow sound at a particular frequency. If you shove my head up against a speaker, it will block some sound, however at or near that specific frequency will straight go through. This is because sounds at those frequencies will resonate the sound inside my head and act upon the opposite side of my head and transfer sound out. There's also a lot of sound going in one ear and out the other.

Now, if my head were filled with something useful, then it wouldn't make that hollow sound, and sounds would have a tough time going through it. The good news is that I have a great place to stuff my car keys, though simply putting my car keys in my empty head doesn't do anything for sound isolation.


Linacoustic is supposed to be pretty good stuff for deadening sound too, but for in cavities, just putting in enough to dampen the resonance is what you're looking for.

Most of the room is already existing, and already had an existing layer. I added two on top of that with Green Glue in between. It makes a pretty good difference when I thump my hand (or head) against the wall. The only wall that will have 4 layers will be the one that doesn't yet exist. 3 on the inside, and one on the outside. The one on the outside is so that it will be easier to line it up and match the existing wall below it.


Wendy's Triple burgers disgust me. Try picking one up and holding it an an angle. Observe exactly what and how much drips off. People toss around the term "dripping with fat" like it hardly means anything, or as an exaggeration. Those things literally drip fat.

I'm frightened by what the Burger King Quadruple Stacker with bacon and cheese must be like. Hopefully they wise up and offer it with an optional low carb bun. I got an ad in the mail with a buy one get one free offer. Think about that one.

I think that was the problem, but with his room and the way he wanted it to look, the planars were probably not a real good idea. Obviously, you have a handle on things and know what to expect and what to do in order to use them to their potential (I am sure Ruben did too, but he had to try, right?).

I think you're dead on there. If he planned a little more he could have gone with a different column design, though frankly the things really need to be further away from the wall than the brackets dictate. Also, he went with an acoustically transparent screen, so he probably needed the speakers up against the wall as much as possible. I don't have that restriction. I would have at least tried yanking the acoustic treatment from the screen wall.

I don't have enough room for columns or anything cool like that. My theater room is pretty small versus what else is posted here, and 6 seats are barely fitting in there. If I had the room then my place would have unreasonable amounts of columns and arches and Han Solos encased in carbonite, or whatever else I could come up with. However it's not, and an exceedingly difficult to make curved tray ceiling is gonna be the best I can muster with this one. Maybe some kind of arch facade. Who knows.

Oh God, I just said arch facade. I'm starting to cringe at the idea of making that even though it would pretty cool looking.

The insulation is for sound. Empty cavities tend to resonate, and insulation dampens that. Think about my head. If you walk up to it and bonk it, it will make a hollow sound at a particular frequency. If you shove my head up against a speaker, it will block some sound, however at or near that specific frequency will straight go through. This is because sounds at those frequencies will resonate the sound inside my head and act upon the opposite side of my head and transfer sound out. There's also a lot of sound going in one ear and out the other.

Now, if my head were filled with something useful, then it wouldn't make that hollow sound, and sounds would have a tough time going through it. The good news is that I have a great place to stuff my car keys, though simply putting my car keys in my empty head doesn't do anything for sound isolation.

Sr. Geeko,

Well, if your head were filled with feathers, rather than liquid & goo, less sound dampening would occur. For sound isolation some sort of mass is really needed - like 3-4 layers of drywall just as you're doing. I was just curious - just asking.

I wish my wife had a convenient place like the cranium to store her keys - a daily version of hide and seek for her keys gets old. Also, I've never had the triple burger, but the real enemy is the white bread bun, not the meat... Also, George Formean (sr.) has a solution to the drippings.

Enjoying your progress, thanks for the updates.

Oh, also - I was talking about this on another thread....

For complete geekishness, I would opt for a door with an inflatable seal. This, of course would need an enclosed room. The door closes, small seal around the edges inflates for maximum sealing effect. I'd love to have one for no other reason than the wooossh effect upon sealing the theater door. Well, and the sound dampening. Naaah, I'd like the woosh.

I wish my wife had a convenient place like the cranium to store her keys - a daily version of hide and seek for her keys gets old.

Don't they make something that you can hit a buttion and your keychain will emit a signal so you can find them? Some sort of remote operated thing (of course). I want to say I have seen it in SkyMall magazine on a plane. Check Brookstone and such. Would save lots of time!

Steve, you're single aren't you? :) The remote would be long gone... Unless it's telepathic - now that would be sweet!

Steve? My name is Scott. There is a story behind that, but I won't get into it. My name really is Scott.

I am not single, but my wife has a habit of putting her stuff in the same place every day. I even have to do it, since she bought me a little basket for all my stuff to go it. It is neater than I used to do, just throwing stuff on the counter. With the keys, palm pilot, sunglasses and wallet, a basket is better.

BTW, mount the trigger device on the wall or inside of a cabinet, so it doens't change location.

For complete geekishness, I would opt for a door with an inflatable seal. This, of course would need an enclosed room. The door closes, small seal around the edges inflates for maximum sealing effect.

There is a company that makes seals like this for commercial use, not for doors, but for whatever you decide to use them on. I have more info at work if you guys need it (I can get it on Monday).

Most entertaining thread I've read in a long time. Keep the pix and stories coming.....

I'd be interested in the pnematic seals, thanks Sven. Theres a door thread w/in this forum...

As far as the key harvesting goes... We've had the same bowl out for 4 years. It hasn't taken off yet. I'm thinking that doors with thumbprint recognition would be better.

thegeekk: Sorry for the hijacking, however, I'm guessing your silence is either due to a late night run to Wendy's OR, you are formulating plans for an inflatable seal door... I advise both!

Wooosh!

Marshall

thegeekk: Sorry for the hijacking, however, I'm guessing your silence is either due to a late night run to Wendy's OR, you are formulating plans for an inflatable seal door... I advise both!

Wooosh!

Marshall


Worse actually, I'm adding in some arch facades into the SketchUp model.

As for the can lights issue, if you swap out the floodlights for compact fluorescent lights, then heat buildup shouldn't be an issue. The Commercial Electric brand lights they sell over at Home Depot are really good (at least their 60 watt bulbs are). They come on instantly. From the second juice hits 'em, they're probably at 90-95% of their max brightness.

More importantly for this discussion, they also don't give off anywhere near as much heat as an incandescent. They get warm, and that's about it.
Make all attempts to avoid flourescent and low voltage lightning due to their high likelihood of EMI with your signal cables... If one has the choice, high voltage is the way to go.

Make all attempts to avoid flourescent and low voltage lightning due to their high likelihood of EMI with your signal cables... If one has the choice, high voltage is the way to go.

There is another issue too. The ballast on the CF lights make them longer than a regular flourescent bulb so they have a tendency to stick out of the cans anywhere from a 1/4 to 1/2 inch. The older versions were even worse, but they still need to get them smaller. I have a really great lightbulb shop near my house and they warned me about that. I'm really glad they did.

Make all attempts to avoid flourescent and low voltage lightning due to their high likelihood of EMI with your signal cables... If one has the choice, high voltage is the way to go.

I have CFLs everywhere and I'm not swapping back to incandescent lights.


What about rope lighting inside the theater?

arch facades

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060805/corner_view.png

It depends on whether it's high or low voltage rope lights. Some searches in this forum will turn up discussion on the topic... Sorry that I don't have the time myself to check.

The arches look very classy, IMO. Will the wall have a panel w/acoustic treatment behind?

Looking great! What are you using material wise for the curves? Someone suggested a prescored plywood or bendy plywood that's easy to work with...

Or a kerfed 2 x whatever.

It depends on whether it's high or low voltage rope lights. Some searches in this forum will turn up discussion on the topic... Sorry that I don't have the time myself to check.

The arches look very classy, IMO. Will the wall have a panel w/acoustic treatment behind?


Actually, come to think of it the rope lighting that I got doesn't have a transformer on it, so it's high voltage.


I think the general idea is to us the columns to cover the seems between spans of fabric. I had been pondering the idea of simply using trim, but the arches seem like they could be spiffy. Honestly, I only came up with the idea while typing in that post back there. So far the wife acceptance factor is actually kinda low, which I don't understand. I think she's still holding out for those windows remaining windows which I simply cannot set happening.

Looking great! What are you using material wise for the curves? Someone suggested a prescored plywood or bendy plywood that's easy to work with...


So far I'm using bits and bytes as the material for the curves. I was thinking a couple of layers of thin plywood and a small army of pieces of 2x3s backing it up.

I have a ton of 2x3s sitting in the garage that I bought months ago. Funny thing about 2x3s is that they apparently just warp if they sit there for a bit. 2x4s seem to hold up a lot better, so I'm going with 2x4s where it matters, and I'm to use up my stock of 2x3s for getting chopped down for menial tasks like being risers.

I'll be sure to take lots of pictures of the framing part.

Hmm.. I guess the question I'd ask her is, "when will we look out that window, or even need it for light?"... It won't change the exterior appearance of the house.

Though I'm sure you posed the same question already... Women. Can't live with 'em... Pass the beer nuts.

I just looked up what it means to kerf something. I've seen that, I've pondered that, I don't have table saw which seems pretty necessary for doing that. I don't think I can justify getting a table saw either.

I figuring that thin plywood, some Gorilla Glue, and clamps should do the trick.



BTW, clamps are great. They're like buying low grade slaves.

BTW, clamps are great. They're like buying low grade slaves.

lol :D

No table saw necessary.. that'd actually be rather annoying. The best tool is probably a radial arm saw, that you can slide back and forth and just inch the board along the guiderail (literally). The much more common and just as doable approach is using a standard circular saw, set at the appropriate depth. The biggest advantage of the kerfed approach is it's typically quite a bit stronger since you're cutting into 1.5" stock.

I just looked up what it means to kerf something. I've seen that, I've pondered that, I don't have table saw which seems pretty necessary for doing that. I don't think I can justify getting a table saw either.I'd been wanting an inexpensive saw for a while, and picked up the ShopMaster (by Delta, apparently now owned by Black & Decker) at Lowe's for $99 a few weeks ago. It's a 10-inch, 13-amp saw with a plastic body and included a steel table. I think it'll hold up enough years with the light use it will get.

That said, I've also seen guys carefully set the depth on their SkilSaw and kerf the back of planks using that. I figure they've been doing it for so long, it's second nature to them. (Looks like Milt beat me to that comment.)

Hmm, I thought it was available at Home Depot, but their online search isn't that good. What I was referring to is bendable plywood, or bendy MDF. Check Here, neat stuff.

http://www.neatconcepts.com/neatform.htm

http://www.neatconcepts.com/graphics/neatform_seat_250.jpg

It's called wiggle board. I didn't see it at home depot, but google "wiggle board" and there are some locations.

Make all attempts to avoid flourescent and low voltage lightning due to their high likelihood of EMI with your signal cables... If one has the choice, high voltage is the way to go.

Is this specific for lighting in the HT room or throughout the house. The lighting I would use the flourescent bulbs in are in the kitchen which is below my HT. I don't think there will be much if any wiring for my HT near those lights.

I'm curious about this too. As I mentioned above, I thought CF bulbs wouldn't fit in my cans, but now I realize that they are adjustable and I probably could fit them. I don't have any low voltage wiring in my ceiling. It all runs underneath the room. What the is the range of interferance, and what is the difference between regular flourescents and CF bulbs?

It's perfectly fine to use CF in other locations that don't have requirements for minimizing EMI. I've replaced several incandescents with CF (spiral type) in hallways, garage, and kitchen.

One very important note, however, is to ensure that they are not on the same circuit as whatever electronic devices you're plugging in. If you have an electrically well-designed home where lights are wired together and not with outlets, that will make things easier. Sometimes circuits being on the same phase at the panel (there are typically two in almost all houses) can cause an issue, but not likely. The biggest thing is to try it with and without, and see whether you can see even a hint of difference.

It's perfectly fine to use CF in other locations that don't have requirements for minimizing EMI. I've replaced several incandescents with CF (spiral type) in hallways, garage, and kitchen.

One very important note, however, is to ensure that they are not on the same circuit as whatever electronic devices you're plugging in. If you have an electrically well-designed home where lights are wired together and not with outlets, that will make things easier. Sometimes circuits being on the same phase at the panel (there are typically two in almost all houses) can cause an issue, but not likely. The biggest thing is to try it with and without, and see whether you can see even a hint of difference.

Cool. Thanks for the info. Although the wiring in my home certainly doesn't qualify as "well-designed" the lights are on different circuits as the outlets. And all of the circuits in my media room are dedicated anyway.

Not to hijack your thread Geek. I'm really enjoying it btw. But has anyone seen a good review of the different brands of CFLs? There are several out there and I'm wondering if any of them are better than the others. Thanks.

So yeah, about this theater thing...

Fiddling with the model thing, I've decided to kinda go with the window thing. This was after even getting wife approval to plug the window and then GOM over it. Basically, I tried it in the model and I actually like it. Also there's a sconce pre-wire on either side of the window and it would probably look kinda spiffy. I'm still going for plugs here, but I'll probably slap movie posters on it to make it look like the inner arch thing is there for a reason. Basically, I'm trying to hide the window in plain sight. Oh yeah, the window is actually arched. I had just drywalled over the top portion to make it squared off for easier plugging.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060807/arch_window.png



And now to satisfy all those who've been wanting more pictures... I have pictures! They're dull pictures which is why I haven't bothered posting any, but what the heck. Enjoy!


Mmmm a stack of OSB. You can't find a stack of OSB just anywhere. Technically, this stack of OSB is "more" OSB, making it special. Since the current riser scheme got scaled back a great bit, I figured on just doing the two layers now for sound isolation, and just build on top of it. Anyway, without further blabbering, here's a picture for you to stare at in a lecherous manner....

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060807/DSC00010.jpg



And, if that didn't get the blood flowing, I have a picture of poorly cut and hung drywall with about 40,000 screws in it. The cutting job so far on the closet has been so bad that I've used about 7 tubes of caulk to make up the difference. See! and wonder....

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060807/DSC00012.jpg




Like I said, the pictures are dull. Not much to see here, move along, move along...

We finished up the first layer of OSB by polishing off the part in the closet. We then started gluing and screwing the second additional layer of OSB which for purposes of getting seams to not line up, started on the closet side of the room. There's a couple of walls in the closet that are so off that they're actually slightly curved, which always adds to the joy of trying to cut boards to fit.

The rest of the second layer should go pretty quickly when I get time to do it. None of the additional work requires a second set of hands.


Here, have a gratuitous picture....

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060813/DSC00004.jpg

And yes, it looks like I missed a screw in that corner. The one in the corner is probably just countersunk.... or I really missed putting a screw in that corner. Oh well, that's going to have a 2x8 wall dropped on top of it, so it will do a well enough job of staying down regardless. From the top down we've got the yellow stuff which is factory edge, the green glue, a cut edge of OSB, the original tongue and groove underlayer, and then the drywall edge where I cut away the original half-wall.

Are you guys serious about pneumatic seals for the door for sound isolation?

Doesnt make a lick of sense to me, either that or I cant figure it out, everytime i stick the air hose in the seals butt it barks and jumps around and does no good whatsoever for sound isolation.

Keep the pictures comming, especially of the pneumatic seals if you get them to behave.

Are you guys serious about pneumatic seals for the door for sound isolation?

Doesnt make a lick of sense to me, either that or I cant figure it out, everytime i stick the air hose in the seals butt it barks and jumps around and does no good whatsoever for sound isolation.

Keep the pictures comming, especially of the pneumatic seals if you get them to behave.:D :D :D ROFLMAO :D :D :D

Are you guys serious about pneumatic seals for the door for sound isolation?

Doesnt make a lick of sense to me, either that or I cant figure it out, everytime i stick the air hose in the seals butt it barks and jumps around and does no good whatsoever for sound isolation.

Keep the pictures comming, especially of the pneumatic seals if you get them to behave.

Too funny!

BTW:
http://www.pneuma-seal.com/images/3up.jpg
http://www.pneuma-seal.com/

Looking good, TG. You may have mentioned it - what modeling program are you using?


perhaps this is off topic:

Remember the bumper stickers that would say "I [Heart symbol] my cat"?
As a joke, I made one and put it on a friends car that said "I [Club symbol] my seal". He realized what I had done when he took his car to the car wash. Apparently the girl running it didn't think it was very funny and made him take it off before putting his car through.





* I don't support clubbing seals, unless you are a killer whale.

Funny!

I'll take a guess the software is sketchup.. free download! works great! Check out my gallery for what you can do with it.

Great, I downloaded sketchup yesterday & am trying it out. Your renderings look great! For any mac users out there, sketchup is now avaialble for macs.

Yep, Sketchup it is. I'm a Mac user and I started working on the rendering as soon as I could get my hands on the Mac version. I've previously used POVRay, but Sketchup is really easy to use. For some "final" renderings, I'll have to try exporting my model to POV.

I've also tried Blender. Sketchup is hands down the easy tool.

Nice! It would be great to make an easy sketchup then export it to something that could render it better, like blender or something else. Keep me posted. :)

Ok, second additional layer of OSB is down. Next up is buying and shuffling upstairs all the materials that will be needed for building the wall of doom as well as the riser and proscenium. The current shopping list has 16 sheets of drywall and a bunch of other crap.

I'm not looking forward to hefting up 1200 pounds of drywall.

A few years ago I moved about 30 sheets of drywall upstair by myself. That nearly killed me. Good luck and take it slow.

I've got help, but it's still not fun. Oh wait, there's a hurricane tracking our way. Ehh, maybe not today then.

Ok, second additional layer of OSB is down. Next up is buying and shuffling upstairs all the materials that will be needed for building the wall of doom as well as the riser and proscenium. The current shopping list has 16 sheets of drywall and a bunch of other crap.

I'm not looking forward to hefting up 1200 pounds of drywall.

If you ever need a hand let me know. I'm in New Tampa and wouldn't mind helping.

David.

If you ever need a hand let me know. I'm in New Tampa and wouldn't mind helping.

David.

Yeah, whatever you're doing to wave off that hurricane, just keep doing it. It seems to be working

Did I mention I hate drywall?

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060902/DSC00003.JPG

Also got 5 more sheets of OSB up there as well as 8 2x8x10 boards and a 2x8x12 board. The cost between the 2x8x10 and the 2x8x12 was only 72 cents. Some of the 10 footers are gonna get cut down, and if I had known the cost difference I would have gotten more 12 footers and one fewer 10 footer. Oh well.

Hopefully, we'll get started on actual framing work within the next day or two.

Ok, I've got pictures of destruction for ya. I know how much you like it when I say "Take THAT, new home!".

Starting to frame out the wall. This means we had to break a few eggs.... with a hammer and a circular saw. First off was one side of the door jamb. This one needs to be in place in a relatively solid way. Also space was a bit of a consideration, and there's tons of 110v AC wires running all over the place. There was originally a 5 gang wall plate that had one switch moved over outside of the room.

Additionally, space is a smidge of a consideration, so gaining the extra half inch by stripping out the original drywall certainly didn't hurt.


First we marked some lines, set the depth on the circular saw and then just kinda went for it.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060904/DSC00001.JPG

Yanked some junk off.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060904/DSC00002.JPG

Yay fun.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060904/DSC00003.JPG



It was about this time that MrsGeek came home from the store.


Previously, it was remarked that sure it looks like hell unleashed upstairs, but at least it's upstairs and you can't see the damage from downstairs. The giant slit is quite visible from downstairs. She actually let out a whimper when she saw it.

There's now a 2x8 occupying the space, as planned.



Next up was getting ready for nailing the wall to the ceiling.


Life before studfinders.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060904/DSC00007.JPG



The holes are actually necessary for tying into the ceiling. MrsGeek also wanted to know why there were parts falling from above. We explained to her that it was because the studfinder was in the garage, and the kitchen was wet so it was easier to just use the hammer. She didn't seem too amused.

Turns out the studfinder was actually on the bookcase at the bottom of the stairs anyway.


Say, does anybody know why the drywall for the ceiling is a gray material instead of a white material? I'm kinda curious what the difference is, if any.

The holes are actually necessary for tying into the ceiling. MrsGeek also wanted to know why there were parts falling from above. We explained to her that it was because the studfinder was in the garage, and the kitchen was wet so it was easier to just use the hammer. She didn't seem too amused.

Turns out the studfinder was actually on the bookcase at the bottom of the stairs anyway.:D Yeah, our better halves are really good that way.
That's why we love 'em, right?;)

The wall, she comes!

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060925/DSC00001.jpg

Ok, it's nailed in on two sides. It actually doesn't wobble too much on the loose end, which probably has something to do with the fact that it's a darned thick wall.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060925/DSC00003.jpg

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060925/DSC00005.jpg

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20060925/DSC00006.jpg


....and that's all that got done tonight. Frankly, I'm still getting over a flu and I've been running a fever for about 3 or 4 days now. Next up is the projector box, which for some strange reason is going to be made entirely out of 2x12s.

2x12s look a lot lighter in Sketchup then they do in real life.

I assume there is going to be a door at the top of the stairs there...

Hope you feel better soon.

I'm on the mend, and I'll probably have forgotten about this plague in a few days. Thanks.

Yes, there's a door missing. Given the odd shape of the wall and the overall size of it, it was deemed it would be most practical to build in two pieces. The size of the gap is (supposed to be) the width of the door opening, including the frame.

Tonight we're finishing getting the wall firm the rest of the way around. In those pictures, the wall doesn't quite hit the top of the existing ceiling. We've added a 2x8 to the end that ties into the ceiling, as well as more than a few big nasty screws. The 2x4s in the wall vibrate a bit if you slap them, however the pair of 2x8s that are screwed and nailed to each other in an excessive way barely move at all. We're going to slap up a 2x4 against the ceiling and then tie into it with some metal strapping. When we're done, the wall should be relatively solid all the way around.

The 2x4s need some spacers between them to cut down on the wobble. After that we get to reroute some HVAC and forge the projector box.

The metal strapping is up via a palm nailer. If you ever get the chance to use a palm nailer on some nails, by all means do so as they're pretty nifty. If you ever consider using a palm nailer on your own flesh, I highly recommend against it.

Nailed up some boards for holding the back end of the projector box. The bottom board is there for covering up the original rear center prewire which... uhhh... isn't getting used. Sorry about the focus, on that little 2.5" screen it looked pretty good.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061001/DSC00001.JPG

Got the bottom three boards nailed in. My favorite are the two little doots under the pair of 2x4s. Those are spots where the 2x4s in the wall flexed after getting nailed into and caused the drywall screws to pop out a little bit. That sort of thing happens a lot around here.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061001/DSC00002.JPG

At this point you should be saying something like "WTF?" Yes, those are 2x12s.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061001/DSC00003.JPG


Here's the quality scaffolding apparatus. I'm pretty impressed that there aren't yet any compound fractures or long term physical ailments.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061001/DSC00004.JPG


I also acquired some HVAC materials. There's still that return and one vent to relocate. I have no possible idea what I'm doing with that stuff, but it's a big fat tube going up to a box. There's a fine chance I can handle this without eviscerating myself.

...
At this point you should be saying something like "WTF?" Yes, those are 2x12s.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061001/DSC00003.JPG


...

WTF???? ;)

But seriously, does your intended projector weigh 400lbs or are you planning on that doubling as a diving platform for the kids onto the seating...?

The projector box has to put up with the mighty bulk of 11.9 pounds of projector, so yes it's moderately insane. But, if you look at it from the perspective that I live within about 50 miles of Hulk Hogan, then it's perfectly reasonable that he might drive over to my house and attempt to nest in my projector box. I feel this is an occurrence worth planning for. :)

Ease of construction was the primary reason for this design. "Sanity" obviously wasn't. The box is acoustically going to be open to the room, however it's going to be protruding outside of the room so it has to be able to isolate sound. When planning out how to build the box, the original ideas were somewhere in the range of framing it and sheathing it with OSB and drywall. The problem was in trying to line the inside of the box area. The goal was to build it in place because we have to nail the back side down to something. Before we realized it, there was no way to get nails into the thing.

This design is such that it is a flat surface on the inside, beefy enough to probably isolate sound, and feasible to build without having to climb inside the thing while it's not nailed in place. At minimum, all the edges will get caulked. The backside will probably get a single sheet of GG+drywall, the outside will get GG+drywall and I'm going to toss a layer of batting in the back.

The projector box has to put up with the mighty bulk of 11.9 pounds of projector, so yes it's moderately insane. But, if you look at it from the perspective that I live within about 50 miles of Hulk Hogan, then it's perfectly reasonable that he might drive over to my house and attempt to nest in my projector box. I feel this is an occurrence worth planning for. :)


I like your WWF logic... but he moved. Hogan relocated from his house in Bellair Beach to Miami. That also explains why he is not seen at any Bucs games... although who would really want to be seen at the game this season.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hulk_Hogan

David.

Well, perhaps TG is shoring things up in case Brian Knobs of the Nasty Boys drops in and tries to nasti-ize the projector? I think he still lives here...

Hmm, ok so it's less likely that the Hulkster could show up and nest in the box. Well, I'm prepared none the less.

The box is framed and caulked. Next up soon is...

cladding the box with drywall + GG (MrsGeek says I'm insane)
relocating two HVAC items (a vent and a return)
electrical work in the wall
framing ceiling over the stairs
blocking between studs
that door would be nice to have
insulation for wall and over stairs
drywall, oh kill me now, more stinking drywall

(MrsGeek says I'm insane)



I'm willing to bet a fairly large sum of money that opinion pre-dates this project... ;)

I'm willing to bet a fairly large sum of money that opinion pre-dates this project... ;)

...yet still she said "I do".

Geek,
I was wondering what R value you used when blowing the insulation into your floor / ceiling? Did you even use an R value as your guide or did you just blow insulation until the joists were full?

BlackCatt

I just blew the stuff in there. It was a pretty funky angle to deal with and visibility in the room was near zero. I tried not to pack it densely. That seemed like a bad thing.

Got it... Thanks much... I guess I need to start my own theater destruct...oops construction thread now that I have really gotten going... Oh btw, nobody warned me that the builders used wood glue to help glue the OSB down on the floor, it took me forever to pry a little 4'x2' section up. :eek:

BlackCatt

great thread, signing on. I also have a house with the media room on the second floor. I probably need to put insulation b/w the floor. Does anyone know how I can find out if the builder put insulation b/w the walls and floor, this is a dedicated media room? :confused: I will be watching. Love the renders.

Hate to be a moron (okay, that's not true, I actually like to be a moron!) but what does "insulation b/w the floor" and "insulation b/w the walls and floor" mean?

Thanks,
Mike

my guess is B/W = Between.

great thread, signing on. I also have a house with the media room on the second floor. I probably need to put insulation b/w the floor. Does anyone know how I can find out if the builder put insulation b/w the walls and floor, this is a dedicated media room? I will be watching. Love the renders.

Other than pulling up the sub floor and taking down sheet rock I don't think there is an easy way to find out of a wall or floor/ceiling was insulated.

- Josh

my guess is B/W = Between.



Other than pulling up the sub floor and taking down sheet rock I don't think there is an easy way to find out of a wall or floor/ceiling was insulated.

- Josh

Well, you could poke a small hole in the wall that you can patch and see. Or, sometimes if you knock on it you can tell - but you'd probably have to have a wall you know does/doesn't have insulation to compare the sound to.

If its a standard home in a standard neighborhood the best bet is if its an interior wall, it probably isn't insulated. Exceptions might be a master bedroom or bathroom wall. On the floors, if there is heated/air conditioned space below the room in question its 99% the floor is not insulated (unless whoever built the house paid extra to do so).

BlackCatt:
My builder was lazy and just used nails. The floor squeaked everywhere until I used screws.

Wap:
Yes, it's a dedicated room. As for checking on the insulation, you can either assume that there's no insulation and start chopping, or you can start chopping and find out if there's insulation or not. Depending on which method you're going for is how much chopping you do. Theoretically, I suppose you could drill a small hole and then do something like thread a small spring into the wall cavity and pull it out.

Crowbars also work great. There's also a toy on the market called the Stanley Fubar (http://stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=xtreme&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=55-099&SDesc=FatMax%26%23174%3B+Xtreme%26%238482%3B+Fubar%26%238482 %3B+Functional+Utility+Bar). Amazingly enough I do not own one. This tool was meant for me.

... There's also a toy on the market called the Stanley Fubar (http://stanleytools.com/default.asp?CATEGORY=xtreme&TYPE=PRODUCT&PARTNUMBER=55-099&SDesc=FatMax%26%23174%3B+Xtreme%26%238482%3B+Fubar%26%238482 %3B+Functional+Utility+Bar). Amazingly enough I do not own one. This tool was meant for me.

That thing looks like a prop from a teen slasher movie. I want one.

Just take a wallplate cover off and push the edge of an electrical junction box to the side and you can tell pretty easily with a flashlight whether there's insulation in there. For a ceiling/floor, you can unscrew and move HVAC ducts to the side and look.

That pry bar is awesome.

Just take a wallplate cover off and push the edge of an electrical junction box to the side and you can tell pretty easily with a flashlight whether there's insulation in there. For a ceiling/floor, you can unscrew and move HVAC ducts to the side and look.

Please don't pollute my construction thread by posting good ideas teeming with reason and practicality. They just don't fit in here. :)

I can't believe Stanley was able to trademark "Fubar" -- what's this world coming to?!

Oh, and yes, I also think that's a kick butt crowbar (I want one!).

Mike

My apologies.. What I meant to say was that it is only possible on an exterior wall, by ripping off the exterior siding/brick and sheathing. :)

My apologies.. What I meant to say was that it is only possible on an exterior wall, by ripping off the exterior siding/brick and sheathing. :)


This would probably make it go faster...

http://www.bobcat.com/products/att/images/pro_att_breaker_05.jpg

no insulation in my walls either :( , still may get to use that prybar to rip some walls out ;) .

sorry, b/w means in the wall that divide the rooms.

Geek,
Where are you planning on getting the linacoustic from? Seeing as how we are almost neighbors I thought I would ask. :D

BlackCatt

You could go with blow in on your walls. You still have to drill holes in the wall but then you can patch them later and that might be less expensive (and time consuming) than replacing the entire wall(s).

Mike

The Linacoustic is for sound absorption (taming echos), not isolation. It goes on the inside of the room, not the outside.

I have no idea where I'm getting the Linacoustic from. I'm not near that part yet, so I haven't started trying to find a vendor.

Great thread. I will be interested to see how this turns out. If you need help, let me know. I live in Lutz and have an awesome set of tools.

Mike

Recently we've been attaching the HVAC. There were two outlets preexisting. There's a huge (gotta be 16 or 18") duct feeding a junction box. From there, there were two 8" feeds going to both registers. The plan is twofold. First, take one outlet and split that into two outlets that will get installed into the double stud wall. The second is to take the second preexisting outlet and redirect it downwards into the closet after narrowing it down to 4" duct.

For the side that's feeding the bulk of the room I've torn back to the junction box and upped that 8" feed to a 12" duct. The problem I've run into now is that we need to make a second junction box to split the 12" duct into two for the two registers. To make this, I need to get my hands on some rigid fiberglas panels. This is the point where I've hit the limit of the kind of stuff you can get from Home Depot or Lowes, so I have to get my hide over to an actual HVAC materials supplier.

The guy at Home Depot mentioned a place in Zephyrhills called Bahr's. Next chance I have during the day on a weekday, I'll peddle my hide over there and see if they'll sell to the general public. If so, then there's a darned fine chance I'll be buying some Linacoustic or similar. At least that's my hope.

Not sure if your going thru inspections but I nearly failed my mechanical inspection because I took an 8" connection off the main trunk. Then split this into 2 x 6" ducting and then into 8" registers.

Apparently this is against code! I had a hard time convincing the guy that reason for this was so that I reduced the air flow so I didn't get noise thru the registers. He finally gave in but - be warned.

Cheers,
Mark

Hmm, interesting. Well, at no point am I taking the ducting from a smaller duct into a bigger duct. The only thing that might be questionable is that I'm planning on using 12" ducts to feed the 8" registers because I'm going to have too much 12" ducting left over, and 8" ducting is about $40 I'd rather be in my pocket.

I could see how piping down and then back up would seem incorrect though.

Went to a local HVAC shop and picked up a 12x12x12 Y pipe. While I was there I tried to score some Linacoustic. He said he wasn't holding, but that a dealer down the street might have some of what I need. I'll keep you guys posted.

Went to a local HVAC shop and picked up a 12x12x12 Y pipe. While I was there I tried to score some Linacoustic. He said he wasn't holding, but that a dealer down the street might have some of what I need. I'll keep you guys posted.

That's how they work, they start you with a little sample of their product, then they got you hooked.

Anyone know of any HT 12 step programs?

That's how they work, they start you with a little sample of their product, then they got you hooked.

Anyone know of any HT 12 step programs?

Where is Dr Phil when you need him? j/k

Alrighty there, it's update time. The last time I posted pictures, was something like October 1st so I should probably display the current progress (or relative lack thereof). What have I been doing? How many times have I had an electrical mishap? These things will be answered.

Here's the current progress in general:
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00001.JPG

The big thing here is that we've finished the HVAC nightmare. Several things weren't fun. Previously there was on return over the stairs and then two supply vents over the closet thing. We chopped back to the junction box between the two supplies and converted one of them to a small 4" opening which is to cool the equipment closet. The 4" vent is of the kind such that it can be completely sealed off during the winter. I figured this would be a dandy thing as heating the equipment closet would likely be a bad idea. We also took the return and put it where one of the supplies used to be.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00002.JPG

Moving the return to a different wall and about 15 feet away was a chore. I had a gigantic hole to play with for where one of the supply vents used to be so that end wasn't so bad. The icky part was having to basically climb into the wall and nest in the pink fiberglass while shoving the new 12" duct down the wall towards where the the return used to be. The interesting part was trying to marry up the two tubes without resorting to chopping the wall any more than just the 12" square opening. Because I'm moving the return to over the closet, this part of the wall will eventually be exposed, so I seriously wanted to refrain from my standard treatment of drywall.

This activity involved shoving a 12" round piece of rigid ducting through the hole to slip both ducts onto, and also taping the ducts together. I cannot describe how much this sucked. I don't have arms long enough to reach all the way around the duct and tape the back side. I did eventually get it done while on cold medicine and balancing on the ladder. Much fun. Take note of how the duct appears to be bigger than the hole I had to work through.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00003.JPG

Here's the spot where the main supply tube splits into two supplies. I'm not proud of the workmanship on the insulation here, but the ducting underneath is pretty solid.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00007.JPG

Some additional framing over the stairs where the ceiling will now be flat instead of vaulted. Also, a second smoke detector will have to be installed here as this as at the top of the stairs and will be outside the room.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00004.JPG

The current smoke detector will go kinda over the projector, but it won't get mounted before the ceiling is framed out. Also, the dual circuit fan prewire is being moved over to the by the not yet existing door as that's a grand place to wire up for the star ceiling illuminator and ceiling rope lighting.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00005.JPG

Original location of fan prewire versus current.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00006.JPG

Here's one of the little tasks that I've been worried about being able to deal with. The outlets were previously flush with the original drywall. I then added two layers of drywall on top of that. I then have to deal with the little fact that I'm going to be putting an inch of Linacoustic/Dacron batting on top of the wall.

I dealt with this by getting some 1" square dowels and chopping them down to proper size, and then glued and brad nailed them together. After that, I grabbed some Old Work electrical boxes and chopped the backs off of them at such a depth that they meet up to the pre-existing New Work boxes already in the wall. A little gouging of drywall later, and I had enough space for the ears to pop out. After that, the wood frames got glued and nailed to the walls.

Fortunately the original wiring had enough slack to come out the extra 2 and a half inches to their final position. The wooden frames seem to be on there pretty good and I can yank power cords out without yanking the frame off the wall. This is good given that's what's really holding the outlet onto the wall.

The other advantage of this wooden frame idea is that it gives me something to staple the GOM to when it comes time to install it. No, I'm not going to keep the old style white plugs, but for now they work. I figure why mess up the nice new stuff I'm going to be putting in. It also meant that I didn't have to fiddle with disconnecting them, just fold then down and slip the Old Work box over the outlets. Oh, and it should be noted that if you happen to touch a terminal and the metal bracket on the outlet with a brad nailer, it will make some pretty sparks. Damned bright sparks actually.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00009.JPG

Oh, when I made the hole in the closet for the 4" duct I had to take a core sample.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061123/DSC00012.JPG


Now think about the fact that this is basically what's cladding the inside surface of the entire room. This had BETTER be nice and quiet when I'm done.

Why does Home Depot's lumber selection have to be so terrible? Do they simply buy all the dross that's left over from actual lumber yards?

This is what's left of their 2x4x10 pile after we grabbed a mere eleven reasonable boards. I'm not talking good, or average boards either. I just want something that's passable. The reject portion is whatever isn't neatly stacked from the supplier.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061124/11-24-06_1503.jpg


The total bill came to over $300 in lumber and metal bracing for the tray ceiling. I should also note that today was the very first day that one of the checkout folks asked me what we're building. I had to explain that this was all so I could watch TV. For some reason, a 13" sitting atop a milk crate over in the corner doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

How were you planning on cooling your projector? If you stick it in an enclosed box like that it will fry within minutes without any air holes, and hours with airholes and no fans.

How were you planning on cooling your projector? If you stick it in an enclosed box like that it will fry within minutes without any air holes, and hours with airholes and no fans.

If you go back and look at the SketchUp diagrams of the room, you'll note that the projector box has three holes in it. The middle hole is for the light. The other two holes are intended for one fan pointing in, and one fan pointing out. It probably won't be as good as having the projector out in the room, but it should be sufficient. I've seen less venting on projector boxes.

Yes, that's a drill mark in the top middle. I'll let you figure out the rest.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20061126/DSC00001.JPG

Did it conincide with a bang and lights going out.

Hope no injuries involved.

Cheers,
Mark

Yah, I'm with mark on this one, I hope nobody got injured.

I can't imagine it was a big "sploosh", Im going with the bang.

Actually, it was pretty uneventful. I was just drilling along and all of a sudden my work light went out and the radio stopped. THE RADIO STOPPED!!! How the heck and I supposed to work without the radio going????

Now, the last time I managed to trip that breaker it was because I bounced my brad nailer off of the screws on the side of the outlet and there was a nice pretty spark. This time, it was just really dull.

Lesson learned is that if you're incompetent, then you definitely want to stick with plastic handled cordless power tools.

Ok, this is all great stuff. However, with all the problems you had with moving the HVAC vents around (I believe you referred to it as a "nightmare"). Why in all that which is wholly in the DIY world are you pushing me to move my A/C return? :D I guess misery loves company as they say.

The drywall sandwich you have there looks delicious. Is there GG in between each layer?

If your tired of HD for lumber, you might want to try Cox Lumber on the corner of 54 and 41, I know it probably isn't as close as HD is to you (its practically across the street from me :)), but it might have better selection. I don't know for sure but they seem to have a larger selection than HD does.

Progress is looking good overall, keep up the good work.

Why does Home Depot's lumber selection have to be so terrible? Do they simply buy all the dross that's left over from actual lumber yards?

Were you going to the BBD/Highwoods Preserve location? If so, excuse me, I was building a theater for a customer and salvaged all the good 2x4's on the 23rd. I needed them to be extra straight so I can rip them in half to match the 1" linocoustics.

Sincerest apologies,
David.

Ok, this is all great stuff. However, with all the problems you had with moving the HVAC vents around (I believe you referred to it as a "nightmare"). Why in all that which is wholly in the DIY world are you pushing me to move my A/C return? :D I guess misery loves company as they say.

The drywall sandwich you have there looks delicious. Is there GG in between each layer?

If your tired of HD for lumber, you might want to try Cox Lumber on the corner of 54 and 41, I know it probably isn't as close as HD is to you (its practically across the street from me :)), but it might have better selection. I don't know for sure but they seem to have a larger selection than HD does.

Progress is looking good overall, keep up the good work.


I know if I don't do the work right the first time, I'm going to either want to go back and redo it, or hate myself for not doing it right the first time. Doing it the lazy way only to have to redo it later is a false laziness. Doing it right the first time is the truly lazy way, thus making laziness a virtue. Laziness is one of my superpowers, and I try to keep it that way.

There's GG between each of the layers of drywall. Oh, and yes it's still gooey. I suspect that it will be gooey long after humans have become extinct.

As for Cox Lumber, their hours seem to mesh up quite nicely with whenever I'm at work, whereas Home Depot is open when I need them to be open. Hence, I wind up sifting through their junk lumber.

Were you going to the BBD/Highwoods Preserve location? If so, excuse me, I was building a theater for a customer and salvaged all the good 2x4's on the 23rd. I needed them to be extra straight so I can rip them in half to match the 1" linocoustics.

Sincerest apologies,
David.


Nope, this was at the Zephyrhills location. When I see a poorly stacked pile, I immediately just push that entire pile over and then start sifting through the unsifted pile. It looks a bit unorthodox and quite noisy, but it's eventually effective.

I should probably bump this thread before it gets archive or something.

I should probably bump this thread before it gets archive or something.


Or just give us an update. Us minor geeks need to live vicariously through the Uber Geek.

thegeek: "Why does Home Depot's lumber selection have to be so terrible? Do they simply buy all the dross that's left over from actual lumber yards?"

Green lumber; that's why contractors don't break the stack until they're ready to use it.

Also, I used to think the same about The Slow Depot and Slowe's - until I took a delivery of the worst 2-by stock I've ever seen (from a local lumber yard).
Nearly every piece looked like it'd been stored on the ground for months, over half the pieces (80) were cut from the trees outer edge. In other words, no screwing/nailing edges on either side. :eek:

At this point, I'm grateful to have a place where I can hand select the best materials assembled under one roof.

Sincerely,
Winkelmann

P.S. I am not affiliated with Home Depot or Lowe's. :D

thegeek: "Why does Home Depot's lumber selection have to be so terrible? Do they simply buy all the dross that's left over from actual lumber yards?"

Green lumber; that's why contractors don't break the stack until they're ready to use it.

Nah, they can't afford to stock the good stuff, they have to pay for Nardelli's exit package. :eek:

P.S. I almost was affiliated with Home Depot last year, but saw the writing on the wall. ;)

Nah, they can't afford to stock the good stuff, they have to pay for Nardelli's exit package. :eek:

P.S. I almost was affiliated with Home Depot last year, but saw the writing on the wall. ;)


Yeah, why bother winning the lotto when you can become CEO and then quit or get fired?

Meanwhile, HD runs their IT shop on Informix databases (I'm an Informix DBA these days) and they've got to have some kind of employee discount worth exploiting. Hrmm... thoughts abound.

"I pity the fool what doesn't give me a $300 H.D. gift cetificate!

Crazy fool, Murdoch!"

PS: Post an update.

Yeah, why bother winning the lotto when you can become CEO and then quit or get fired?

Meanwhile, HD runs their IT shop on Informix databases (I'm an Informix DBA these days) and they've got to have some kind of employee discount worth exploiting. Hrmm... thoughts abound.

Your kidding right? Must be something in the water around here. I am a Microcrap SQL Server DBA. I wonder if all DBA's have this nasty addiction for home theaters?

Meanwhile, if anything gets buy a CEO's radar, they're likely to get served up, stand trial, and hang for it. Their contracts usually stipulate this, as well as, great severance packages which were agreed upon by the board members prior to hiring. These are the pros and cons of going public. The complaint by stockholders, in spite of record growth, was that HD stock wasn't paying dividends. So, they bought his contract out. Seems a lot like my brother-in-laws last divorce. :)

Your kidding right? Must be something in the water around here. I am a Microcrap SQL Server DBA. I wonder if all DBA's have this nasty addiction for home theaters?

Hrmm, none of the DBAs I know are into home theater. I did used to sorta work with John Kotches. He's...

A. Kinda into home theater just a little bit.

B. A seriously good sysadmin. He was on another team, but when he was mentioned it was with hushed tones and awe. He also taught me some pretty good info that scored me major points during the interview with the company I'm with these days.

C. Smarter than you and I put together being that for his last theater, he had contracted out.

That's about it as far as folks I know who are into this madness. Then again, at the place I work they keep taking coworkers away so the pool of folks I see on a daily basis is constantly shrinking, as opposed to changing a little bit.

Alrighty, I fixed my drilling oopsie. I still have to put the wall back together but the wiring is back to normal. I was all set to try splicing the wire in the wall with a direct burial splice kit. However my father-in-law noticed that about a foot away and in between the same set of studs was the prewire for the sconce light, and with all the extra drywall there's plenty of extra room in that box. So, I just ran the existing wire to the box and ran the new wire between the outlet and the sconce box as well. Whammo, both fixed and actually compliant with those rules and stuff.

Meanwhile, today I'm tearing into the ceiling so we can add additional bracing in for the tray ceiling. As it currently stands, it almost flexes.

Alrighty, update time.

The current trick is beefing up what is holding up the tray outline. I've got a few added additives here.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00001.JPG


The beams would flex about half an inch which didn't leave me feeling too good about them. To remedy this, I've poked some holes in the ceiling so I could loop some (amazingly sharp) metal bracing over the roof trusses and tie in the tray outline. There are six of those setups in the room. With those things in there and under slight tension, the beams do not flex downward. I've tried hanging from them, and they won't budge.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00003.JPG


Meanwhile, there's one main beam that holds up the other two big beams. Incidentally, this main beam is the one that's held up in the weakest fashion. There's a bucket hanger that had to be modified a bit in order to fit. Hence, there's just four nails holding the bucket against the wall, and that's it. Not so good...
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00002.JPG


Here's the retrofit. I've got two somewhat impressive metal thingies in there held in by probably far too much. The L-brackets are held to the wall with a lag screw that goes into the 2x4 on the other side of the drywall. Then there's more screws holding the bracket against the wall. I don't know what those screws are made out of (adamentium, parts that fell off a space ship, pieces of my skull, who knows), but they're the only thing I've found that will snap the screw bits I've been buying as of late. There's then an insane half inch hex bold that's binding the two L-brackets together.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00004.JPG


Lousy picture, but you can see that the brackets are actually bent into shape by the big bolt.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00005.JPG


Detail of the contraption.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00006.JPG


It's amazing what you can buy for $10 these days. If you ever get a chance to use one of these things, they're a hoot. The fascinating thing about them is that you can't really tell how hard you're torquing something down. Since it repeatedly hits the nut just a little bit, you don't even notice that all of a sudden it's victimizing whatever you're tightening far worse than you could ever hope for with just straight up hand tools. Seriously, no idea if it's crushing what's underneath, melting the bolt, turning carbon into diamond... no idea. I highly recommend these things if you're looking for overkill.... much joy.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070121/DSC00007.JPG

Wow that is quite a structure you got there! Reminds me of the lofts people used to build in thier dorm rooms. Put a couple matresses up there and you can have one hell of a sleep-over. What is your plan to fix/hide the metal straps attached to the joists?

My GOD, and I thought I was bad, your just in a league by yourself, very good work!

Wow that is quite a structure you got there! Reminds me of the lofts people used to build in thier dorm rooms. Put a couple matresses up there and you can have one hell of a sleep-over. What is your plan to fix/hide the metal straps attached to the joists?

Yeah, I remember those loft structures. They were usually pretty tough because they had to be free-standing and otherwise poorly engineered, much like my tray ceiling.

The entire structure is going to be covered with either Dazian Expo Cloth or GOM after patching the holes, finishing up the tray portion and stuffing a bunch of fiberglass up there. I figure a massive bass trap is probably a good start.

I built a bed loft structure in college. Everything was very stout - I even through - bolted using 3/8" bolts or so. The only thing I forgot was the diagonal bracing. I was about to go to sleep up in it one night - and reached down towards the ffot of the bed to grab the blanket. I guess I was a bit aggressive in my movements, and the whole structure began to fold down like a pair of scissors. It was up pretty high, and I just rode it down on top of my roomates desk. (He wasn't in it) The only light in the room was his desktop light. "Was" being the key word. The ride down kind of sounded like a big tree being felled. The landing was pretty noisy too, with lots of smashing, and eventually the light bulb bursting. Then it was silent, and dark.

My GOD, and I thought I was bad, your just in a league by yourself, very good work!

Careful, while he is in a league by himself. He likes to come into your threads and get you to attempt to do the same type of maddening stuff he is doing. Geek is a permanent fixture in my thread it seems like. :D

My GOD, and I thought I was bad, your just in a league by yourself, very good work!

Careful, while he is in a league by himself. He likes to come into your threads and get you to attempt to do the same type of maddening stuff he is doing. Geek is a permanent fixture in my thread it seems like. :D


Yeah, I tried to find mastiff34's construction thread, and perhaps convince him to do something exceptionally crazy, however I couldn't find any main thread of his. However, from reading some of his single topic threads, it's apparent he's installing a bathroom. That's an entirely different level of crazy.

Our master bathroom is partially ripped out because of the tiniest little boo-boo by the plumber when assembling the pipes. In the shower, we have two shower heads with separate controls. Well, these controls can also be used with a bathtub, but aren't so the pipe leading down from them are just capped off.

Well, one of them wasn't sealed perfectly and had a tiny drip to it. Even better, the novelty of having two shower heads wore off and the bad one got only minimal use in the beginning. So the between the fact that the drip was quite minimal, and the lack of use, this sat for quite a while. Later on into the year I decided to start using the other shower head. I have no idea why, I just did.

Well, eventually we noticed that one of the walls had some kind of green water dripping out and the baseboards were turning black. Things turning black are on my short list of bad signs. For extra fun, it would take about 12 to 18 hours for the water to seep over and come out the wall, so it was tough to draw a correlation between the shower usage and the water oozing out.

When the walls got ripped out, it smelled a bit better than death, but not by much. The builder couldn't get the tile from their supplier, but I was able to hunt it down under a different name. Oh yeah, this was reported to them in September, but we still don't yet have a functioning shower.


Anyway, mastiff34 try to do a good job or else this will be your reward...
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070122/DSC00005_1.jpg

Yeah, I tried to find mastiff34's construction thread, and perhaps convince him to do something exceptionally crazy, however I couldn't find any main thread of his. However, from reading some of his single topic threads, it's apparent he's installing a bathroom. That's an entirely different level of crazy.

Our master bathroom is partially ripped out because of the tiniest little boo-boo by the plumber when assembling the pipes. In the shower, we have two shower heads with separate controls. Well, these controls can also be used with a bathtub, but aren't so the pipe leading down from them are just capped off.

Well, one of them wasn't sealed perfectly and had a tiny drip to it. Even better, the novelty of having two shower heads wore off and the bad one got only minimal use in the beginning. So the between the fact that the drip was quite minimal, and the lack of use, this sat for quite a while. Later on into the year I decided to start using the other shower head. I have no idea why, I just did.

Well, eventually we noticed that one of the walls had some kind of green water dripping out and the baseboards were turning black. Things turning black are on my short list of bad signs. For extra fun, it would take about 12 to 18 hours for the water to seep over and come out the wall, so it was tough to draw a correlation between the shower usage and the water oozing out.

When the walls got ripped out, it smelled a bit better than death, but not by much. The builder couldn't get the tile from their supplier, but I was able to hunt it down under a different name. Oh yeah, this was reported to them in September, but we still don't yet have a functioning shower.


Anyway, mastiff34 try to do a good job or else this will be your reward...
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070122/DSC00005_1.jpg

Guess we got kinda lucky then. In our master shower, our builder just put the shower seat in the wrong place (on the side instead of the corner). Luckily all the plumbing and pipes seem in good working order. We have the dual shower heads as well and while not used all the time they do get used, I guess more often than yours did.

When we built our house I specified that the wet wall backed up to an interior sheetrock wall for plumbing access. Hope they get it fixed quickly. :)

Part of it actually was on an interior sheetrock wall. Unfortunately that still doesn't change the fact that water kinda runs rampant and feeds mold. It just means that it's easier to rip apart.

Some of the plumbing here was behind tile of course, but none of it was running inside of the exterior block wall.

Doh, see you go away on business for a cpl of days and you find nothing but destruction left!

I wish I had a picture, but I can definitely relate...

We built our new home and had one of those jacuzzi tubs installed in the master bath, you know the ones that hold about oh say 70 gals of water or so? Well, after a few months went by, my wife and i decided to use the jacuzzi tub and everything went well ( keep it decent ! ).

Well, it turns out the freaking plumber never hooked the drain spout from the tub to the drain pipe in the floor, so ALL the water drained right thru my 1st floor ceiling and basically destroyed my living room. And no, I have no clue how the builder passed final inspection, it still baffles me.

Oh what fun that was....

AS for a Mastiff construction thread, it doesn't really exist, but I should start one I been working on it for like 2 years and still not at the drywall stage... It's really 3 pieces
a library/office, full bath and the dedicated theatre. Besides i am affraid of the thegeeks
Jedi mind trick to make me cause more destruction then I already have.

Anyways back on topic... MORE PLEASE !!!

So, Mr. Geek. Are you a golfer? The reason I ask is because there is a company that makes golf clubs with your name out there...
http://www.geekgolf.net/

Nope, not a golfer. I've tried it a couple of times, but I don't need another hobby. Also, the contact there seems to be named "Steve". Much like yourself, I too am not a Steve. Specifically, I'm actually one of those "Paul" things. We're an odd lot.

I did manage to get it out without resorting to a new hair style reminiscent of an 80's punk band. Remedy was achieved via direct application of Zep commercial citrus cleaner, followed up by some of MrsGeek's gooey hair conditioner. I had been using the Zep to get the GG of of various things during the project.

Hey, great tip! I work for the Company that makes Zep products. Our citrus product has about twice the amount of Di-Limonene (citrus cleaning ingedient) as other over-the-shelf products.

I think I'll add this use to our catalog.

My buddy came over and the ceiling is over the stairs is now framed out. This is a biggie for me as everything else now requires that the stairs get drywalled and insulated next. I need to have the ceiling over the stairs done so that the wall can get insulated at sealed, so that the ceiling can get done, so that the proscenium and riser can get done and so on.

I have the opportunity to add in an extra light over the stairs, so I'm going to wire that up before proceeding with the drywall. The drywall for the stairs is pretty much the only part of the project where I have to do an actual good job and tape/mud/sand/prime/texture/paint. The door and the wall above it still has to go in which means that the drywall will stay unfinished for a while, however at least it will mean I can move on to better things for the meanwhile.

Now, I'm going to insulate the ceiling over the stairs. I can either deal with the itchy pink stuff, or I can try the gray death again. The gray death is a lot nicer to work with, but the ceiling is sloped. One idea is to have chunks of OSB sticking up to make partitions so that the gray death can be poured in and stay sorta in one place. Think it's worth it, or should I just get itchy?

The pink stuff is not nearly as itchy as it once was. I'd say its easier to work with.

Why does Home Depot's lumber selection have to be so terrible? Do they simply buy all the dross that's left over from actual lumber yards?

Here's a tip I learned from a manager at HD -- have them deliver the lumber. They pick the best lumber for deliveries so that they don't have to go back and pick up any returns. :)

I would use the rolls of fiberglass, gloves, and long-sleeves. Probably simpler to install than the gray death, too.

My vote is for the gray death. The only reason for this vote is to attempt to get some type of payback for your Jedi mind tricks.

Geek,
Did your original drywall have any texture on it? Like the typical orange peel texture. I was wondering if you just put the GG and drywall directly on top of the original drywall that was already in the room, or did you do some sort of prep (ie. wetsand)?

Yes it had the orange peel texture on it. When on the phone ordering the GG, I had asked the same thing you're asking now. They hadn't done any testing, but the theory is to use a little more GG for filling in the gaps and you should be fine, and also that it would actually perform slightly better. He said that if it were like a popcorn texture then that's a completely different matter, but the orange peel isn't much of an issue.

thegeek, props for an entertaining and informative thread....you have actually made me want to go buy a house just so I can destroy a room to build a home theater! :p

thegeek, props for an entertaining and informative thread....you have actually made me want to go buy a house just so I can destroy a room to build a home theater! :p

Oh boy... Toastyone, please don't read any more of Geeks posts on this thread or any other. Save yourself. He has this Jedi mind control thing going on. He has sucked me in (as you can tell from my thread), along with countless others I am sure. Take my advice and go far far away from here or you to will become a victim of his powers.

:D

thegeek, props for an entertaining and informative thread....you have actually made me want to go buy a house just so I can destroy a room to build a home theater! :p

That's good. You'd be amazed and the number of people out there who actually don't immediately destroy a room as soon as the move into a new home.

It took my wife 2 years in the house before she would let me rip out walls to do plumbing for the 3rd floor...

Geek,
Nice to see a fellow Wesley Chapel resident around the forums!!! I had just moved in to the neighborhood two weeks ago. I have to ask, are you in the Meadow Pointe area? The reason I asked is that I swear I saw your name somewhere in another forum. Anyway, man... wish I had the balls to do the same as you had done on your new house. I too have an upstairs bonus room that I'm turning in to a dedicated home theater. But I don't have the guts like you to totally rip up the place and start from scratch. My wife would kill me! Very entertaining thread you got here. Thanks for sharing!

I have to ask, are you in the Meadow Pointe area?

Frankie, walk outside and turn left. See the silver Jetta wagon? That's mine.

Frankie, walk outside and turn left. See the silver Jetta wagon? That's mine.

:eek: :eek: :eek:

NEIGHBOR!!! :D

haha nothing like meeting a neighbor on an internet forum.

- Josh

Are you guys serious? :)

In respects to finding out that someone on a world wide message board just happens to be fairly local, two doors down has got to be some kind of record.

Now, just wait until he realizes that he's one of my constituents in the special district where I'm a supervisor for a legal entity with taxing authority over him, he takes another look at this thread reinforcing his notion that I'm a total loon, and subsequently has a panic attack.

Geek,
With your powers of persuasion and his location being so intimately within your sphere of influence, if he does not completely destroy his house in route to the ultimate home theater, I will be sorely disappointed. Get to work, my friend.

... Now, just wait until he realizes that he's one of my constituents in the special district where I'm a supervisor for a legal entity with taxing authority over him, he takes another look at this thread reinforcing his notion that I'm a total loon, and subsequently has a panic attack.

I can't see that surprise him at all. Most of the people I've met with taxing authority over me are total loons... ;)

It's not like I set out and said "Hey, this would be a great thing to get into." Running for election requires a small army of paperwork and telling the world where I get my money from, what major assets I own and what major debts I have. I did it because somebody had to step up and do it. If I didn't, then the special district could have remained firmly in the control of the developers of the community which residents here feel isn't necessarily a good thing. If two more folks step up in about a year and a half, then the people who actually live here will have the board under control and final say.

I'll say this though, it is kinda neat getting some cool swag personally signed by Jeb Bush saying I was elected.


Anyway, I have no interest in getting FACP to sawzall his house. Besides, it sounds like he's nearly done plus he's got the projector that if I were to run out and buy a projector, it'd be that one. Gosh darn it, I'd like to see finally see a more modern LCD pj up and running. Actually, he's got a bunch of stuff on his equipment list that I wouldn't mind upgrading to, and I know where he lives....

Anyway, if he blows up his bonus room then this neighborhood will be running out of places to watch next year's Super Bowl. At this pace, mine won't be done by then. If I have any influence over FACP then he'll probably still be hand-chiseling a diffusor pattern into a poured slab of concrete or something similarly bizarre, which means that his room will be out of commission too. That's no good.

The guy across the street from me has the same floor-plan as FACP, and he's planning on tossing some kind of largish TV in the upstairs bonus room along with some exercise equipment and alcohol dispensing technology, thus making it his man cave. I'm wondering who else in this neighborhood is or is planning on using their bonus room for some kind of theater-type room in this place.

geek - awesome thread. I enjoyed reading through it. Question for you. What are you going to do to hide the metal bracing for the soffits?

That's all going to get covered with Dazian Expo Cloth (got a sample, it's a lot more interesting than GOM, and about a third the cost).

The ceiling is still missing the center part with drop ceiling panels as well as some moulding going all the way around.

In respects to finding out that someone on a world wide message board just happens to be fairly local, two doors down has got to be some kind of record.

Now, just wait until he realizes that he's one of my constituents in the special district where I'm a supervisor for a legal entity with taxing authority over him, he takes another look at this thread reinforcing his notion that I'm a total loon, and subsequently has a panic attack.


The only thing i'm worried about, living in such a close proximity to you, is that I have to find some way to ward off any jedi mind tricks you might throw at me. :D

I actually walked out at 2 in the morning to see whether there was indeed a silver jetta wagon to the left of me and there it was... 2 doors down, man, what a small world!

Anyway, as your neighbor, I really have to walk over to your house one of these days to formally introduce myself and of course check out the destruction you had done to your upstairs bonus room. :eek:

BTW, I showed this thread to Mrs. FACP and the first thing that came out from her mouth was, "You are NOT doing that to our bonus room!" :D

....BTW, I showed this thread to Mrs. FACP and the first thing that came out from her mouth was, "You are NOT doing that to our bonus room!" :D


Any amount of money and I'd say she'll be signing a different tune once he gets it finished and she see's the finished product.

I by no means have a dedicated room but once I was finished with what I set out to do, I now got he wife on board for our next big adventure, whenever that may be, we're sorta lookin at new homes right now, and the first thing she said that whatever we do the screen has to be at least 120" (we're running 106" right now) then I showed her what you can do with a 2.35:1 CH setup and she's really liking the idea of that now.

Anyways, as always love the work your doing Mr. Geek, keep up the great work, you keep my slow days at the office a joy.

- Josh

Tearing apart is definitely the way to go. 24 hours after closing on our first house, one bathroom was ripped out, and within a week there was no kitchen or subfloor on the main level.

That's just crazy that you live blocks apart. It's coming along nicely! I'll have to remember the Dazian, as I've always just had GoM in my mind to use.

BTW, I showed this thread to Mrs. FACP and the first thing that came out from her mouth was, "You are NOT doing that to our bonus room!" :D

Maybe he can use his Jedi Mind tricks on Mrs. FACP....

Just a thought =).

That's just crazy that you live blocks apart.

Not blocks apart. We're on the same street, same side of the street with only one house in between us. My sound isolation efforts may personally benefit him.

Hey, cool thread! Any further updates on the theater of doom? Looks like it'll be great when finished!

Best I've got is that I've finished putting up the drywall over the stairs as well as adding in an extra light. Next up is mudding and taping, as well as trying to get the new drywall to sorta match up with the existing lower drywall. Due to the funky angle and the lack of a wide angle lens, it doesn't photograph well. The following may resemble a well known work by MC Escher or the end of Labyrinth.
http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070308/DSC00001.JPG

"Your eyes can be so cruel"

Oh gees, first post is a Labyrinth quote :rolleyes:

geek - if you haven't bought the mud yet, get this from Home Depot. Best mud in the world if you have to do it yourself.

Sheetrock Brand Lightweight All Purpose Joint Compound Plus 3 with Dust Control (http://www.usg.com/navigate.do?resource=/USG_Marketing_Content/usg.com/web_files/products/prod_details/Sheetrock_Brand_Lightweight_All_Purpose_Plus_3_with_Dust_Con trol-Page.htm)

I already bought a one pound of something in a green bucket (pretty sure it was Sheetrock brand). I'm guessing I'll be needing a lot more, so I'll keep an eye out for that stuff when I go back for more. Thanks for the pointer!

Mudding and taping...

You guys are kidding me, right? What the hell is so hard about this? I haven't gotten to the sanding part yet, but so far this seems way easier than people claim it to be.

Mudding and taping...

You guys are kidding me, right? What the hell is so hard about this? I haven't gotten to the sanding part yet, but so far this seems way easier than people claim it to be.

"IF" you do it correctly you shouldn't have to sand at all. Now most people aren't that good at mudding/Taping to get away with not sanding, unless your the 65 year old semi-retired guy I hired to do my basement, he whipping out near700 SQFT of basement, mudded, tapped, and textured the ceiling in two days, no way in hell could I ever pull off the job he did.

Just wait till you try painting, paint will really show the imperfections of the mud/tape job.

- Josh

I'm going to sand, there's nothing going to stop that at all. I've got a couple of spots where the drywall edges don't line up with each other. Heck, there's one spot where because of how odd the framing came out, I wound up laying one piece of drywall on top of the other figuring I could make up the difference with mudding, so it's going to come out real interesting.

I didn't say I'm highly skilled at this stuff, it's just that it doesn't seem to rough, so obviously I'm missing something. I've seen tons of mentions that this part is a total nightmare, and it doesn't really seem that bad so far.

I guess it depends on one's level of Type A/perfectionism as to how much they care..

I guess it depends on one's level of Type A/perfectionism as to how much they care..

I guess thats where I was leaning towards. If your going GOM or Fabric on the walls then it really doesn't matter at all.

Now if your going with Bare walls and just painting then its a different story.

If you don't mind seeing imperfections in the then thats fine.

- Josh

I guess it depends on one's level of Type A/perfectionism as to how much they care..

Allow me to introduce you to the Tivo stand. There was a theory put out that having the thing directly on the floor would be bad, so it was requested that I make a little stand for the thing. Hence the monstrosity before you.

http://carlucci.net/theater_build/20070321/DSC00001.JPG

There was zero measuring involved with the creation of this thing, or aim with the brad nailer/staper either. Actually, I had a perfectly good framing nailer on the other side of the room, but I used about 900 brad nails and staples on this thing anyway.

The strips of OSB that are holding up the UPS were leftover scraps from doing the floor. No cutting tools were used for cutting them, I simply slammed them against my leg until they were about the right length.


For some stuff, I'm not exactly this Type-A you describe. If I'm writing software, then it's complete perfectionism. I'm not just talking about bug-free, but trying to think of the "right" way to implement something. As for things that require skill with handcrafts, I apparently don't care that much about lots of things. I'm obsessive about tile or paint though, so it's a mix of what's going to look crappy.

Mudding is easy...It is the sanding that can be a nightmare. I use and recommend a drywall sponge. Almost no dust and if you mud correctly, it is very easy to blend into the wall.

Question: Have you noted if the drywall dust improves the performance of the Tivo or UPS?

Just curious... :D

Ok, so I simply haven't gotten to the nightmare part yet. Good, I was hoping it would be massive suffering and woe. Oh, I did take up on the suggestion of getting the low dust drywall mud.

As far as I can tell, the dust doesn't seem to affect the Tivo. Unfortunately, there really isn't any other place I can stuff the thing. Anyway, the only warning sticker on the thing says "HANDLE WITH CARE" you can see it on the top. It's not getting bounced around, so I guess I've got that covered. :D

Ok, so I simply haven't gotten to the nightmare part yet. Good, I was hoping it would be massive suffering and woe. Oh, I did take up on the suggestion of getting the low dust drywall mud.

Be careful what you ask for...the low dust mud smells terrible. It definitely does not have that new house smell like the green top mud. I think you will find it much nicer to work with though. Good luck. ;)

Perhaps they changed the formula, or perhaps a disgruntled worker created his own bathroom use policy when they made your batch, but mine barely has any smell at all. The smell that it does have is far from unpleasant. I wouldn't smear it down my shorts or anything, but it's not bad.

I Hate Drywall :D

Actually drywalling is easy. It's the tape and bedding and sanding I hate :mad:

By the way which one is the low dust mud? Does HD carry it ?