I posted a while back about building a new home and the dimensions of the potential theater space. Well I've changed my house plan and now "my space" is going to be the bonus room above the three car garage. We are breaking ground next week and as of now, I'm planning on leaving the bonus room space unfinished so I can do it right. The roof line in the space unfortunately will be sloped, so if the wall is 5' going up to 8' then the room will be 15x35. If the wall is 6' going up to 8' then the room is 13x35. The rear wall is a flat and I've told the builder not to put a window in the room at all. No dormers, no windows, etc. I've almost thought that with that length of room, I could almost divide it in two and make a smaller dedicated theater on the far end with a multipurpose bar/hangout in the front. I would only need/want about 6 dedicated seats in the theater I guess.
How are the dimensions? Any thoughts on what I need to look out for right now? How should I be planning? Does the sloped roof cause any issues? Any other guidance?
I had my colleague ask me this question on a Google Hangout we recorded yesterday so that I could respond in full as typing takes me too long (I type like I have hooves for hands!). You can see the video here:
At 1.02 minutes in I begin my response to my colleague as he completes reading out your question. Towards the end of the video you'll hear me refer to some other rooms. That's because I answered a series of peoples questions on this hang out before editing down each component part. In short you have a great room size to begin with which is half the battle.
So I hope it helps and please let me know if you need any further advice.
Dennis, what a wonderful response. Thank you much.
As far as the room size, if I want the room to be 15x35, then the side walls would be five feet tall and they would slope up to 8 feet. If I don't less slope on the side roof, then I could build the room 13x35 and the side walls would be 6 feet tall. For every foot less of slope I lose two feet in total width. Does that make sense?
My pleasure. I can answer faster and in more detail through video as my typing speed is so poor.
In answer to your question, having ceiling heights of only 5' or 6' are just not acceptable acoustically. You would have to position yourself under the 8' ceiling height area only. This is sad to see because you have good, width and length. Can you tell me the total dimensions of all space with 8' ceilings only?
Fitting a decent size screen on the end wall with converging sloped ceilings has been an issue on other projects you should draw your screen wall to scale and see what you can reasonably fit.
My bonus room has 5' knee walls and is 13' wide. I have no problem with the 5' wall. I feel the bonus room shape is rather well disguised with the way I designed the side wall soffits. If you are concerned that 5' knee walls will be worse than 6' knee walls, I wouldn't sweat it. But I DO wish my 13' overall width was more. I think you should go for 15' wide with 5' knee walls.
If I understood correctly branan1’s description of his sloped ceiling, having a decently sized screen shouldn’t be an issue. A 120” (scope) would have a reasonable distance to the side walls. But with this shape (assuming it’s correct), maybe dividing the room is the better option. Such a long room with sloped ceiling may feel like a tunnel. Perhaps some creative lighting helps, though.
edited: re-reading branan1 description, maybe it's a asymmetrical room with a single slope. If so, it'd be harder to get it right.
The foundation is being poured right now. I'm going to talk to my contractor about the cost of making this room a full 9' ceiling. Anyone have any old brick I can give my wife? That would free up the budget a little.
My opinion: If you only want room for 6 seats, split the space in 2. It's way more cost effective to keep the sound-isolated space as small as possible. Your problem is going to be the entrance into the theater though. Do you have a layout drawn up of the overall space relative to the rest of the 2nd floor of the house?
The garage is on the back of the house, so its almost as if the bonus room is not connected. It will have it's own staircase and none of the walls will join the main home.
I've really been thinking about a riser and the design. I think I'm going to end up splitting the room into two areas. One for a bar/multipurpose and one for a theater. Then I can out a step up in the bar room to enter the theater. That would allow me to basically enter into the riser area and step down to the first row. As a result I will probably make the ceiling a 9' so I can have an 8' ceiling when I'm standing on the riser.
It does not get wider. I'll post a sketch up I did here shortly.
Since the room is not attached to the main house, meaning there are no common walls and I don't have neighbors per se, do I need to worry about all of the soundproofing? DD, GG, clips, etc?
As an update, the contractor is changing the room a little. I was able to drop the ceiling height of the garage from 10' to 8'6", which increased the knee walls to 6'6". Now if I do a soffit it should almost eliminate the slope of the ceiling all together.
Here is a side view of the house I am building. If you notice my garage pitch is higher then the house pitch. That's to give me more usuable space in my bonus room.
The main reason is that my wife doesn't want to be able to see the garage from the front of the house. Increasing the pitch would raise the height of the roof wouldn't it?
Yeah it would. But are you right at the threshold? Do you have a foot or so to play with? It might be worth looking into. It made a big difference in my room.
I'm just thinking that losing height in my garage would really make me sad!! You can always change drywall, wires, flooring... but changing roof trusts....
Check out my build thread I built my house with the theater in mind. The front of my theater is over my work shop which has a 12" lower ceiling than the other 2 garage bays giving me a built in riser. My theater is 23' long and then I have a 14' billard room Put a dormer at the rear for the bar and a wall separating the theater and bar like my billard room
Thanks Mat. @cw5billwade - I've read your thread from start to finish. That is exactly what I'm visualizing. Beautiful home and theater! One question, how is the temperature in your "bonus" area? Does the spray foam help significantly? I've noticed in the home I'm living in now that the bonus room is either really hot (summer) or really cold (winter). I imagine that spray foam is great though. Kind of like living in a yeti.
Here's a pic of the future space. The stairs aren't in yet, so I scaled the walls to get this pic, American ninja warrior style. I talked to the framer and he said the knee walls are 6.5' going to a 9' ceiling. The room ended up being 17x35. I can't wait!
I started thinking about your floor and how you had the riser built in. Since I dropped the floor two feet, I now could easily do the same thing. Start the entrance a foot higher with an 8 foot ceiling and then have it drop down a foot. The only thing is I'm thinking about shortening the actual theater space to around 20' and then using the other 15' or so for an exercise room and storage closet. I guess I need to lock in my dimensions quickly so I can plan the riser and the height of the stairs.
Since this room is above a garage that is almost detached, is it necessary for me to do all of the soundproofing? DD, GG, etc? I'm not worried about sound escaping to the rest of the house. Also, my home is in the back of a cul de sac and the homes are far apart so I shouldn't ever be in a position to hear noise from the neighbors. Does soundproofing provide a different environment all together that makes it worth it even if you're not concerned with the above?
Having built several sound isolated theaters in homes that are in quiet neighborhoods. I can tell you it is an interesting experience to walk in and close the door. It is so quiet you didn't know how noisy a house is until you shut it out. All the better to hear the soundtrack.
You will also notice immediately if your HVAC is too noisy and you can hear the sound of rushing air or if your projector is a lot nosier than you thought.
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