Hello fellow AVSers,
I'm in the process of building a house, and one of those rooms will be a dedicated home theater. The house, and room, will be ICF (2.5" of EPS foam, 6" of concrete, another 2.5" of EPS foam). The walls will be finished with drywall, and it's a first floor room, with a concrete floor (no basement for this part of the house).
I've been struggling with the ceiling, mostly due to the uncertain nature of where our hobby is going. My initial build will be 7.1.4, but as the specs change, I'd like to be able to add reposition or change out the speakers, and move the projector back when the budget allows for an upgrade.
Our builder put the kibosh on building the ceiling with 5/8" OSB and drywall, citing concerns about the 26# speakers and mounts pulling out and creating a hazard. They recommended blocking between the joist instead, for a solid attachment point. The problem with that is future flexibility, I'd be pretty much locked in with those initially blocked points.
As an alternative, I've come up with the following:
Roof
Insulation (with foam sealant covering the entire attic)
Joists
Clips
Channel
Drywall (unfinished)
2x4s running from the front of the room to the back, attached to the channels, spaced roughly 24" apart
Drywall
I've attached a picture of how it would be constructed. The lightly-colored 2x4s would be optional, only needed for spacing of the drywall.
I haven't seen this exact build anywhere, and so I might just be crazy. The benefits are that I've got a huge number of options for future speaker and projector placement, since they could be placed anywhere along the 2x4s that span the length of the room. It would also create a nice channel for running wires along the ceiling in the future without any penetrations in the top layer of drywall, and it would provide slightly more sound isolation than just a normal drywall ceiling.
First, is this crazy? Second, would I be better off using 1x6s or 1x8s between the two layers of drywall? This is more in regards to providing a solid attachment point for the speakers and projector. Third, could this create any resonance problems between the two drywall layers, and should I add insulation between them?
I appreciate any advice or perspective anyone may have.
Scott
I'm in the process of building a house, and one of those rooms will be a dedicated home theater. The house, and room, will be ICF (2.5" of EPS foam, 6" of concrete, another 2.5" of EPS foam). The walls will be finished with drywall, and it's a first floor room, with a concrete floor (no basement for this part of the house).
I've been struggling with the ceiling, mostly due to the uncertain nature of where our hobby is going. My initial build will be 7.1.4, but as the specs change, I'd like to be able to add reposition or change out the speakers, and move the projector back when the budget allows for an upgrade.
Our builder put the kibosh on building the ceiling with 5/8" OSB and drywall, citing concerns about the 26# speakers and mounts pulling out and creating a hazard. They recommended blocking between the joist instead, for a solid attachment point. The problem with that is future flexibility, I'd be pretty much locked in with those initially blocked points.
As an alternative, I've come up with the following:
Roof
Insulation (with foam sealant covering the entire attic)
Joists
Clips
Channel
Drywall (unfinished)
2x4s running from the front of the room to the back, attached to the channels, spaced roughly 24" apart
Drywall
I've attached a picture of how it would be constructed. The lightly-colored 2x4s would be optional, only needed for spacing of the drywall.
I haven't seen this exact build anywhere, and so I might just be crazy. The benefits are that I've got a huge number of options for future speaker and projector placement, since they could be placed anywhere along the 2x4s that span the length of the room. It would also create a nice channel for running wires along the ceiling in the future without any penetrations in the top layer of drywall, and it would provide slightly more sound isolation than just a normal drywall ceiling.
First, is this crazy? Second, would I be better off using 1x6s or 1x8s between the two layers of drywall? This is more in regards to providing a solid attachment point for the speakers and projector. Third, could this create any resonance problems between the two drywall layers, and should I add insulation between them?
I appreciate any advice or perspective anyone may have.
Scott