Zax's Home Theater Build - Page 3

Vcook,

I agree, I LOVE the Monoprice speaker wire. I've ordered a 250ft spool of 12/2.

Question for all:

Two of the walls of my theater are foundation walls. One is against the outside of the house, the other against the garage. Do I still need to double-drywall and green glue those walls? Where can the sound go if I don't do it? Or is doing it to somehow prevent sound coming in, but even then, what kind of sound can come in from the foundation?

Chuck,

After reading some of these threads, I'm tempted to agree with you, but while I'm here I still want to do a decent job. Definitely not an overkill job though. I think I'll hold back on the green glue on those cement walls. I just can't afford all that GG. It's crazy expensive!

Thanks for the opinion

I've been on hiatus for a long time... that's what happens when you have two young kids and a very demanding job.

So I've hopefully got renewed energy to get back into things.

This weekend, I finally put up the light boxes I built a couple months ago, and I planned and almost finished all the HVAC stuff. I've decided to run cool air to and exhaust air from the projector, so that I can build a hush-box for it. So I passed a couple of 3" flexible duct to the little storage room under the stairs where I will think of some kind of system to circulate air. The storage room actually has a feed from the furnace/AC and a return, so it should be at a good ambient temperate which can be used to keep the projector cool. I'll also take a feed from this room to send cool air to the theater through some kind of system. Right now, I'm thinking a bathroom exhaust fan, but suggestions are welcome.

Here are the 3" flexible ducts for the projector:



This is a feed duct from the furnace/AC that I redirected to the kids' playroom next door:


And finally a look at one of the sealed, insulated back-boxes for the pots (there are four of these).


I've got all the insulation in-house, so I should start that this week... and maybe this weekend get started on drywall. Fingers are crossed.

Got some more work done over the past week or so... my added motivation comes from my friend Alex who has helping a lot lately. Tons of thanks to him!!

We finally got some drywall up. Just put one layer on the outside of the back wall to separate the theater from the playroom. This is the 5/8". There will be a 1/2" layer on top of this at some point in the future.


I also finished the ducting for the fresh-air in for the room. Where there used to be 3 ducts (initial house install), there are now 4. That worked out nicely:


I also cleaned up all the low-voltage runs and passed them through two PVC tubes to keep it cleaned up. This feeds to the "equipment room" where all the AV gear will be as well as some kind of unit to circulate air into the HT without any noise intrusion. This shot also shows the high-voltage runs all wired up. There are 6 lighting circuits. They will be controlled by the Crestron Prodigy system, so there are no actual light switches in the room itself.


Another shot of the duct running alongside the duct which feeds the living room above the theater. Also shows the mods we made to the existing soffit to solidify it and have fewer cross-members:


Here's that same soffit with the RSIC clips installed and the hat channel put in. That works really well. This is really a test fit because we haven't stuffed the area with insulation yet:


A shot of the kind of reinforcement we made to support the clips and hat channel:


Oh and I finely got around to decoupling the back wall from the firring strips. So it was essentially floating until I anchored it with four of these:


A closer-up shot of the low voltage runs. The tube on the left is an empty tube leading to the projector with a fish rope in it. This will likely get used as soon as Monoprice gets some HDMI 1.4 cables that support 3D.


So we've been delaying the inevitable... the insulation. We're going to start stuffing soon. Gotta find a way to cover up to avoid scratching fiberglass all night...

Once the insulation is in, we'll run the rest of the clips/tracks and get some drywall up everywhere. Then the real fun starts. I know it's been slow...

Finally got around to doing some insulation. I can't believe how long it takes! First of all, thank you to Alex, Colin, Chris and my bro Marc for the help.

Here are some quick shots of how things are looking now. We're about 2/3 through the ceiling stuffing. Yes, we're going slowly, but there are so many obstacles to go around, it's nuts. Wires, conduits, HVAC tubing, gas lines, electrical cables, wooden support structures. It's taking four batts of Roxul to cover the cavity. Gonna be about 24 bags of Roxul just for the ceiling! Here are some pics of the progress:


Completed part of the ceiling


Lengthwise shot


In the soffit -- more 24" wide Roxul to come.


Cross-section showing the 4 batts


Couldn't have done it without these awesome Miracle Blade 2's


Shot of the exhaust for the projector box which goes back to the furnace room

After it's all done, I'll be stapling some brown paper to hold it all in in case of vibrations which could over time have the batts drop out of the ceiling onto the drywall.

So hoping to finish stuffing the ceiling this week so we can install the clips and get the first layer of drywall up... never thought just the insulation would cost so much money!

Got quite a bit done since the last post. I can't believe how long it took to install insulation into the ceiling, but with it being 4 batts thick, it 1) took a TON of insulation and 2) took a TON of time. But it's done now. Only itchy-scratchy left is the walls which will be a LOT easier.

After finishing the insulation, we moved quickly to getting the clips and hat channel installed to be able to put the drywall up.

Here are some progress pics:


Clips and hat channel looking towards rear of theater.


Another shot towards rear with two of my helpers (Alex and Michel -- thanks guys!!)


Looking towards the front -- two sheets of drywall started


Completed first layer of drywall looking towards rear of theater


Finally, first layer of drywall looking towards front.

So things are moving right along. Tonight, I screw in some missing drywall screws, then put the acoustic caulking in all the cracks, and maybe even do the taping for layer one. Going to do a quick and dirty job of course.

Later this week I'll start stuffing insulation in the walls and then will do a first layer of drywall on the walls. Then it will really start to look like a room...

I'm still torn on the whole AT screen thing because my room is "only" 19' deep, and if I have a screen wall 14+" from the front, My effective space will be only 17'6" to have two rows of seating... what do you all think?

After a months-long hiatus (that seems to be a theme here), I'm finally back at working on the room. I'm trying to work at least once a week on weekends, but with two kids and a family, it's not always easy.

Since the last posting, there's been significant progress which I'm quite happy about.

As of right now, the second layer of drywall is done on the ceiling and the first layer (including rudimentary joint-work) is done everywhere else.

Here are the pics of what's happened since I last posted:


First layer of drywall on the walls on a still-messy room.


More drywall, more mess.


Drywall done all around (including an insane amount of Roxul insulation)


The cubby hole that'll contain all the equipment (and the AC unit for the theater) which I'll have access to from the storage closet under the stairs.


A view of the back wall.


Here I am putting some green glue on the second layer of drywall for the ceiling. It's amazing how easily that stuff comes out -- compared to the acoustic caulking.


The drywall lifter (rented for $30) which made the job so much easier.


Thanks so much to Daniel for his help. We did the ceiling in about 4-5 hours. Yes, I take my time to do everything...


An action shot of Dan checking on the fit of the latest piece to go up.


This is why that machine is so cool... just lift it and leave it (and screw it).

So there you have it. The ceiling is now done. Everything is going along nicely...

Here's a quick list of what's coming up next.

- Finish second layer of drywall on the walls.
- Build the proscenium and the soffits on back wall and left wall and the box for the projector.
- Get someone to come and finish the visible joints super well (I hate doing joints)
- Build the riser/stage/columns
- Do the acoustic treatments
- Get carpet installed
- Build acoustic frames
- Start buying equipment -- projector/speakers/amp/PS3/etc... (still not sure what I'll be buying... was hoping Panny would have released the AE-5000 at CES).
- Build screen wall and screen frame
- Watch some movies??

So still tons to do, but at least it's moving along...

Well, I've got my wife on board now. She's helped all along, but now she wants the basement back from the dust. So I can spend more time down there finishing up...

Since I'm actually getting to work on the room once a week now, I'm actually making progress in there. It feels amazing!

So current status is, both layers of drywall are finally done throughout the whole room. That really worked nicely. The second layer is nice and flush and the finish is great.

Yesterday, we started building the soffit on the left side of the theater to mirror the functional soffit (hides ductwork) on the right side. That goes up pretty easily. I used polyurethane glue as well as screws, but for the side section, I only screwed in as far as the drywall, didn't go to the studs. For the ceiling section, I screwed into the track which was fortified with extra RSIC-1 clips. I'm going to cover them with 3/8" drywall to keep the structure nice and light.

Next steps are to build the soffit all around as well as the box for the projector. Then we get into the stage and riser.

Here are some pics of the progress. My wife was snapping them so there's a lot of action shots. And the lens was full of dust... gotta clean that.

Thanks to Daniel and Maxime for their help!


Last piece of drywall on the right soffit.


The soffit in the background.


The soffit and the pink stuff that'll fill it.


What a mess, I gotta clean up the room. No more green glue and stuff needed, thank goodness.


This is the last piece of 1/2" drywall to go in. Felt good for that to be done.

More to come soon!

Because I have to build the proscenium above the screen this weekend, last night I had to make the decision as to whether or not to go acoustically transparent with speakers behind the screen or not.

Finally, after calculating the impact of losing ~16" of theater depth and the viewing angles that would create for the front row (at ~10'6" with screen wall), I decided to drop the acoustically transparent idea and have the screen only 4 or 5" from the front wall (after OC and GOM and frame). I'll put the front channel speakers, which will most likely be the VS344s from Boston:
http://www.bostonacoustics.com/VS-344-Floorstanding-Loudspeaker-P386.aspx

to the right and left of the screen and the center channel which will most likely be the VS325C from Boston:
http://www.bostonacoustics.com/VS-325C-Center-Channel-P238.aspx

underneath the screen.

I mocked up the screen size with some blue tape:


The inner frame is the size at 16:9, and the outer at 2.35:1. Originally I was going to build my own screen with Elite AcousticPro1080 material which I have but now that I'm going solid screen, I think I'll buy a pre-made screen from Carada. The blue tape shows a 128" 2.35:1 screen.

Any comments are welcome, this has been a tough decision for me!

BllDo,

Thanks for the two cents. Yes, I'll definitely be having subs. Two Velodyne Optimum 10s to be specific.

I was debating going with three "horizontal" speakers instead of the floorstanding. Then they could all be mounted under the screen. Basically having 3 center-channel-type speakers under the screen.

Maybe that would be better and I could build a small box for them wrapped in GOM.

This change in direction has my re-evaluating a lot of what I'd previously decided.

Thanks for the input!

Yeah, since the living room is directly above the theater, I really wanted to make sure sound wouldn't be escaping from it. Hopefully it'll work. Won't get to test it until I hang a solid door -- and that's months away.

So since I didn't have a helper yesterday, my wife and I decided to make some color choices and design plans.

I had never really drawn anything with Sketchup so I had to go through some tutorials and stuff.

After 3/4 hours of tinkering, I came up with a couple very preliminary sketches of the theater... I haven't added the soffits or any lighting yet, but thought I'd post up what I've got so people can get an idea of what the end result will be like. Colors aren't completely right, and the back row of seats should have 4, not 3, but I couldn't find a model of 4 on the 'net.


A view of the front wall


A slightly different view which shows the riser and second row seating.

More drawings to come hopefully with some nicer rendering/texturing.

Comments welcome!

Bill,

I actually am putting the left and right channel speakers behind those mini-walls to the right and left of the screen. Only the center channel will be located in the small box under the screen. Next to each left/right channel speaker will be a 10" Velodyne Optimum-10. I think it will work well.

But WOW, that theater you linked in is beautiful. Yikes! I wish my room was bigger to be able to do all that. But it's a smaller project than that. Still going to be fun though.

After a two-week hiatus, we got back to work on the theater today.

We had time to finish the framing of the soffits which included building a support for the projector and the power and AV wires going to it. It also included framing in the three wall wash lights which will illuminate the screen/screenwall. We also wired up 4 of the 12 wall wash puck lights which will illuminate the fabric panels on the right/left and back walls. These puck lights are last minute decisions, but I had a spare lighting circuit left over from not doing acoustically transparent and not needing the "IMAX" effect anymore, so I figured I'd use for some low-voltage wall wash pucks.

Here are some pictures of our progress today, thanks to Max for his help.

Next weekend, we'll install the drywall on all the soffits and finish off the pre-wire for the puck lights. Then we'll do a quick one-coat of joints, a seal coat of paint and get started on the stage and riser. Finally getting into theater-specific construction!

Pics once again taken by the wifey while we were working.


Installing the last screen wash pot light insulated box.


A view of the back wall with the soffit built and some HVAC stuff.


The projector support panel -- a piece of 5/8" plywood and all necessary wiring. Can also see the outlet for the rope lights.


The three pot lights all installed. We're admiring our handy-work.


Another view of the back and left walls.

More to come next weekend...

Dusty feet, dusty pants, dusty floor, dusty playroom next door...

Yeah, they're good insulated back-cans, used them in the room as well... no star-ceiling for me so I wanted a bit of lighting up top.

Just a quick render with the colors corrected to be more real to what the final product will be: