Spaceman Theater build - Page 7

Thanks for stopping by, Greg. I'll be starting my corner bass traps and front wall linacoustic this weekend. After that, I'll start figuring out my panel layout/color scheme.

This was my layout 2 years ago. Since then, I've flipped the theater, decided against a blue color scheme, will be hanging the posters outside the room, and am looking to go with larger panels.




Below is the current layout (large rectangular panels), but I haven't settled on a color scheme. Leaning towards black fabric columns and beige, rust, or chocolate panels, similar to Brad's theater.


I'm going to take this layout one step further and see what it will look like with simple baseboard and crown. I'll already have some trim on the coffered ceiling to hold the rope lights, so I'd like to see what a little trim on the walls will look like. Did you ever add baseboard to your room? I'm a little concerned that the bottom edge of fabric will get worn over time (vacuum cleaners, etc.) without baseboard.

I'll probably do a quick column study as well, changing the simple fabric columns to a wood version with trim.

It's days like this when I'm glad my wife has a minivan.





1 Toyota Sienna
25 sheets of 2" Knauf insulation board (unfaced)
9 sheets of 2" Certainteed insulation board (faced)

I'm able to haul a decent amount of strategically placed lumber in my Sequoia, but the Sienna is the vehicle of choice for sheet goods. Much better than a Jetta.

Edited by Spaceman - 1/15/13 at 8:31am

Started cutting in the primer this morning. Hope to break out the roller tomorrow. In other exciting news, I have my corner bass traps cut.

2' x 4' x 2" insulation board


I didn't feel like running out to get an electric carving knife, so I tried what was on hand. A standard utility knife did not work well as the blade does not extend enough to cut all the way through the 2" material. However, I did find one of these in my tool box, left over from an old wallpaper kit. I was able to extend the blade 2 1/2-3" which worked out pretty well.


Sliced in half, forming (2) 2'x2' squares


Each 2' square cut into 4 triangles


Lots of triangles for 3 corner bass traps


I did try stacking them in one of the corners and the stack wanted to tip forward. Is there a trick to keeping everything upright? Do I need to build some type of frame to hold them up or will the Linacoustic that runs between stacks hold them up?

It is. It's Knauf 3pcf insulation board. It doesn't contain any formaldehyde and as a bonus, is black (well, brownish-black).

http://www.knaufinsulation.us/produc...ith_ecose.aspx

Sound absorption coefficients (@ 125, 250, 500, 1000, 2000, 4000, NRC)
Knauf 2"-.29, .65, 1.11, 1.13, 1.06, 1.03, 1.00
OC703 2"-.17, .86, 1.14, 1.07, 1.02, .98, 1.00

Yeah, that's what I was thinking I would have to do. Has anyone put a thin shelf half way up the stack? Would that reduce the acoustic properties?

I was thinking a shelf might allow me to eliminate the vertical 2x2's in the corners. I can get about half way up the wall before it starts to tip. Thought a shelf might be an easy fix but maybe the 2x's are the best way.

Between 2 YMCA baseball games and a field trip to see Jautor's theater, I only managed to get one bass trap up and trimmed out today. Heading to see the Astros play the Rangers tomorrow, so I don't expect to get much done until next week.

I would like to extend another big "Thank You" to Jautor for having my family over today for the exclusive behind the scenes AVS member tour. Being able to test drive different image sizes from our proposed seating distance was extremely helpful. We all loved your space. Letting us borrow a spare projector to test things out in our own home was very generous and much appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by Elill. I've been using AutoCAD for all of my plans and elevations. Fortunately, I also use it for work so I didn't need to purchase it just for theater design. It is very expensive, so I wouldn't recommend it unless you have other uses for it. Even the stripped down version (AutoCAD LT) would be a fairly large investment just for your theater.

I'm not familiar with it, but I think others have used Visio to handle some of their design work. That might be an option.

No nightmares last night. I think the kids will be just fine.


Plenty of popcorn and ice cold beverages.

Front traps will be done once I add some black paint to the 2x trim.

Yes, an AT screen on a false wall. I'm currently updating my plans to reflect a 115" wide 2.35:1 with all 3 speakers behind instead of a 100" 16:9 with only the center behind. Looks like it should work just fine. Everything is REALLY tight however, so I need to sketch it all out ahead of time to make sure all the pieces come together correctly without any conflicts.

The space behind the false wall is very narrow (only about 9" from the face of the acoustic treatments on the front wall to the the back of screen). My speakers are closed-box in-walls, although they will be installed more like on-walls so they sit proud of the 2" treatments I have on the front wall. I'm working on the mounting detail right now.

Behind the back row.

Yeah, unfortunately I didn't have the room to build a deeper stage so a little less than half of what you currently see on the top will be hidden behind the false wall. The top is currently 28" deep at the widest point and 11" of that will end up behind the screen (9" open space + 2" of acoustic treatments).

The opening to the right of the stage is the entry to the theater and will receive a solid door. No special soundproofing there as I don't really have any sound isolation measures elsewhere in the theater. The opening to the left of the screen will not get a door. The fabric panels at that location will simply run across the opening as if it wasn't there, and they will be removable at that location to allow access into that closet and the back of the equipment rack. I don't expect having to get back there very often so I didn't want to clutter up that wall with a door. The column to the left of the opening will swing open for access to the front of the equipment rack.

The dashed rectangle on the wall is the opening behind removable panels.

Just leave yourself enough room in case you ever upgrade to a larger sub.

They all look the same with the lights off, right? At least that is what everyone keeps telling me when I say I'm still not done.

I'll be putting Linacoustic on my front wall tomorrow. I'm planning on 2 layers of 1" material. It looks like quite a few of the more recent builds, including most of Dennis', include a layer of poly sheeting between the 2 layers of Linacoustic. Would I be getting myself into trouble by doing the same as part of my "one size fits all" acoustic strategy?

My current plan is as follows:
-(2) 1" layers of Linacoustic on the front wall, either with or without 3.5 mil poly sheeting between layers
-1" Linacoustic on the side walls (floor to ceiling for the front 1/3, ear height for the back 2/3)
-4" of 3pcf boards on the back wall (actually 2 layers of 2" boards-outer layer has FSK facing)
-corner bass traps in the front two corners and back left corner
-no ceiling or soffit treatments

Any thoughts on either the overall approach or specifically, whether the the use of 3.5 mil polyethylene sheeting between the layers on the front wall is appropriate?