Hi,
I plan to meet with our builder on Monday to finalize the bid for the construction work to finish off our basement. The project ( 950 sq ft ) includes one room we want to use as a dedicated HT. The current bid has allowances for using construction techniques I learned from this forum to try to isolate the sound in this room from the 1st and 2nd floor of our house - staggered studs walls, decoupled ceiling, dual layer drywall, GG, fiberglass insulation in the wall cavities. I've also read where if you have some leaks, this all goes for naught. I am worried that the 5' wide glass french door that the wife insists ( teenagers, closed doors, ... you get the picture :eek: ) we put on the HT room will negate those isolation techniques I had planned to use in the HT. I do need to keep the sound of water heater and furnace in the unfinished area from getting into the HT, so I will use those techniques on the walls which separate the unfinished from the finished spaces.

Comments ? Getting confused the more I read up on the topic. Will there still be benefits even with the glass door ? The end result is that I want to be able to watch of movie down there without seriously disturbing someone on the first floor from reading or watching TV. If not, I could use the $ elsewhere in the project.
Bill

Go with the sound isolation techniques, as for the teenagers, eventually (as they mature)you won't be concerned about the glass doors and you can replace them. I doubt you would rip out the walls and restud etc.

As for the need for glass doors. Do you want them in your basement where you know where they are or in the back seat of a buick? They will find a way to do what they want to do.

Hi,
I plan to meet with our builder on Monday to finalize the bid for the construction work to finish off our basement. The project ( 950 sq ft ) includes one room we want to use as a dedicated HT. The current bid has allowances for using construction techniques I learned from this forum to try to isolate the sound in this room from the 1st and 2nd floor of our house - staggered studs walls, decoupled ceiling, dual layer drywall, GG, fiberglass insulation in the wall cavities. I've also read where if you have some leaks, this all goes for naught. I am worried that the 5' wide glass french door that the wife insists ( teenagers, closed doors, ... you get the picture :eek: ) we put on the HT room will negate those isolation techniques I had planned to use in the HT. I do need to keep the sound of water heater and furnace in the unfinished area from getting into the HT, so I will use those techniques on the walls which separate the unfinished from the finished spaces.

Comments ? Getting confused the more I read up on the topic. Will there still be benefits even with the glass door ? The end result is that I want to be able to watch of movie down there without seriously disturbing someone on the first floor from reading or watching TV. If not, I could use the $ elsewhere in the project.
Bill

Hi Bill,

You have reason to be concerned about the French doors. They will greatly compromise sound isolation. However, now is the only time you will have to make the decision regarding the wall construction. If later, after the theater is in operation and you are able to convince your wife to replace the doors, it won't do you any good if the walls let the sound through.

With regard to your wife's concerns about teenagers, ask her how she would feel about them being somewhere else where she can't look in from time to time. At least with a home theater there's a much greater chance they'll be spending time at home. ;)

Larry

Hi Bill,

Check out this approach with your wife. :D


We were originally thinking that a loveseat in the middle would be nice...that is until I said to my wife: "You realize we're going to have two teenage daughters soon right"? That idea was immediately shot down. She was surprisingly receptive to the surveillance camera in the theater idea, however.

Guy

A buick? How many teens drive a buick?

I was just thinking that a surveillance camera would be a good suggestion. Then the teens don't know when you are looking in on them.

Just lock them in a room until they are 25.

Or something like:

http://gadspot.com/product_info.php?&products_id=60

Just mount a dummy camera in the corner, partially hidden but easily found. When the teenagers find it and ask about it, just respond 'You found a camera? Which one was it?'. It will keep them guessing, and honest, for a long time? :D

If you do hire someone to do the construction keep an eye on them, besure to review their work each day before it gets covered up. Also take lots of pictures. Should somethign go wrong you have proof. When it comes to theater construction you want to build it like a submarine :)

Thanks for the reply guys. Hope I didn't seem rude for not replying this weekend, but I wasn't home much. Late night weekend work and a high school band concert out of town ate up a lot of time.
I like the suggestion of going for the sound isolation now and having the potential to change the door later when the kids are gone. I believe in putting things into the construction phase now that would be much harder to do later. I think that's the route I'm going to take when I meet with the builder later.
I don't think I'd go for the video cam thing; a little too "Big Brother" for my tastes, although the idea of putting in a fake one and leaving them guessing is tempting :D ,
but that would be mean. We, fortunately, have a great relationship with our kids.

Bill

Well, good news. I presented my case to the wife and said basically with an open stair case you can't have both things - quiet upstairs while a movie is running and the nice glass doors that you can look through to keep an eye on the kids. When she asked about having light into the rest of the basement from the windows in that room, I said the doors and block-out shades can be open when we're not watching a movie.
Case settled, she left it up to me to decide, so now we're going with solid core doors with threshold and weatherstripping. Yeah ! :D :D :D And these will be cheaper than the nice prairie -style glass paneled doors originally in the bid. Beautiful door, but wrong for what I wanted to do.
Thanks for the advice. We're signing the building contract this weekend. Yes, I will keep an eye on the contractors. We built this house and learned at the time you need to be on the construction site every day. At least this time, I don't have to drive to the construction site - it's just down one flight of steps. :)
Bill