The Cinemar Home Theater Construction Thread - Page 10

TeedOff,

Thanks for the information. In your case, did your basement flood and the mold was an after-effect?

I'm assuming since the insulation goes down to the footer, any flooding above 1 1/2" would be an issue for my room as well regardless of the platform.

I could build a hollow platform with all PT wood and no insulation and stack two 2x4's for each footer, but I fear that would create some issues with sound. Or maybe use Owens Corning Insulation Foam, but I don't think that will aid in helping the sound of the room.

I'm open to any other suggestions.

I do have a main sump and backup sump both on a backup generator. But I'd still like to plan for the worst.

eHow recommends laying down 6 mil plastic on the concrete floor and 4 to 6 inches up the walls. Then putting the PT wood on top.
http://www.ehow.com/how_5333790_rais...ent-floor.html

Can you elaborate on this? I'm not sure I follow you? How tall was your platform? Was it hollow? How did the grooves play in to your evil plan?

There's a small crack of where my wall meets the floor in the lower theater area. I'm assuming this is where the water has entered and drained through the drain tiles in the past when it flooded due to sump failure. The builder thought I could use concrete caulk to fill that gap in, but I can't imagine the caulk would be strong enough to prevent the water pressure from entering. The water has to eventually go somewhere. My thoughts were to leave it as is, so if water did come up, it could also go back down.

I had the plumber and electrician over this past week to do some rework of the Sump pump area and well that was protruding into the theater. They were able to move things around so I'll have easier access to the the softener and well bladder and the electrical. You'll also notice a framed wall where the Arzel Zoning system was mounted to.


While the electrician was here, I had him add to 20 amp outlets to my Media/Storage closet where the racks are located. The two 20 amps will service the theater rack.

My order from the Sound Proofing Company arrived this week as well:


The construction lumber arrived this morning from Lowes as well.


They did a good job of beating other local prices.

Game On!

Well - I hope I can say that I passed you up some day soon.


Thanks Brad.
With Wisconsin weather, hopefully I won't be mowing it until sometime late May. Although some trees are already starting to bud back there.


I spent 5 hours moving 500 sticks of wood from the driveway to the basement. Tomorrow might be a little rough on my back from the haul. 16' green treated sure are heavy!

johnla,
There were certainly a fair share of wet and slimy ones.

Here's a little trick I figured out. My truck bed was under 6' and my trailer was still packed away for the winter. After walking about a half a dozen 16' PT boards around to the back of the house from the driveway, I figured they had to be a way to get them in my truck. So I loaded up a few rows of 12' boards that I also had ordered which extended my bed. Then I loaded the 16' boards on top of those. I used some straps within the bed to make sure the boards couldn't fall out. It also helped that my drive to the backyard was mostly at a decline. Saved me countless trips.

I wrapped most of the hot water pipes in the basement with insulation yesterday and started moving items out of the basement and into the garage to make more room.

Theater Entry Door
So I have a double wall leading into the theater. There is also a short foyer before the theater where another door will be on a single wall. In an effort to prevent any special order items and hopefully save a few bucks, should I plan for a 3 ft steel door into the theater? I originally had a 2' 8" door.

Elevated Platform
Still not sure what I'm going to do about the elevated platform in the theater lower level. I could fill the cavities with sand, but that would take a considerable amount of time, money and sand! Could I just use Owens corning foam to fill the voids and prevent the boominess that might occur from the Bass in the room? That might prevent issues down the road if the lowest theater level did get water in it for some reason. I was thinking 6 mil plastic down first and up the concrete walls a few inches. Then build the walls on top of the 6 mil plastic. Then use 5/8" osb on the wall, then mold resistant 5/8" drywall for two layers. This would then contain the walls and the elevated platform within the 6 mil plastic. Next, I would build the platform within the walls and put owens corning foam insulation boards to fill the space within the platform. Next, two layers of 1/2" OSB on top. Any thoughts on this? Or is it OK for me just to leave the elevated platform hollow since it is contained within the permiter walls? Another stage will be built ontop of this platform that I plan to put sand in. The step platform will also be filled with insulation. So only about 1/3 of this platform won't have something on top of it.

Yeah - that top stack actually arrived like that. I'm waiting to hear from my friend to find out when he can start framing. I'll let him pick through which ones are good enough to use.

Mfusick,
I'm using Lightwave 3D by Newtek to do the 3D images.

I have a water pipe for an outside spigot that sticks into one of my bedrooms by about 9"...so I thought maybe I could do a built-in to frame around it with an access panel. This is what I came up with:


Still looking for answers to the questions above if anyone has any thoughts.

Thanks JTR7,
I wish that was part of the bedroom...but actually the built-in is part of the Living Room area...the smaller bedroom is on the other side of the shared wall. That bedroom will have stereo speakers connected to the Russound whole house audio system.

BTW, anyone have experience with the Proficient inwalls? They sell some Cinema speakers IW525 that are 100 watts - dual 5 1/2"..but also have W850 inwalls that have 175 watts for about the same price. It would seem the W850's would be better suited for at least the main left/right speakers as opposed to the IW525...but just confused given their labeling of them as Cinema speakers and their price. I'm thinking of using Proficient speakers for the built-in and living room area.

Anthony A.,

How many and where specifically were you thinking?

Thanks for the feedback e39mofo. I did speak with Proficient directly and they did recommend using the same three speakers for the front. He also recommended going with the Cinema series for watching movies or TV with surround just because the dual speakers would produce a more fuller wall of sound. The power handling really depends upon the amp/receiver. If I don't plan on pushing out more than a 100w per channel, the IW525 may work just fine for my needs. I guess I'll keep my eyes peeled for some good deals since I'm not in a hurry.

Thanks Anthony.

That number of subs may be well out of my current budget. But I can always prewire.
The research I've done though concluded that any more than four properly placed subs adds very minimal improvement to the overall room sound. I'll try to do some preliminary room testing though before things get finalized.


Andy,
I ended up going with the Proliphix NT20e's instead of the IMT350. I spoke with the owner of the company and he couldn't guarantee me that they would publicly expose the protocol for the IMT350 which was extremely important for me to be able to control through my home automation system. I'm not familiar with the differences between the models - it may be where the power source originates from - their POE device or from the HVAC itself. I imagine you could find a reseller online. Otherwise check eBay.

On another front, we've had quite a bit of rain this past week which exposed a little water along a crack in the foundation wall. It's in an unfinished area so it's not critical to fix now, but it looks like I'll be purchasing a crack injection kit soon to repair it.

Johnla,

Thanks for the info. Unfortunately I placed an order this morning already for the Radonseal Injection Kit to repair the crack. It appears to have worked for others.

Walls start getting framed tomorrow!

Pulled a couple of late nights this week trying to get my plans for the rest of the basement finished. I think I'm fairly happy with the results aside from some minor tweaking I can do while they frame.

Here are some 3D renders of the bar and rec room area just outside the theater: