Jet Family Theater build is about to begin - Page 3

Thanks, I am ready to start framing, in fact, I have already start framing on the other part of basement, just not the theater room yet, waiting for DC04 clips to order. Over the weekend, we got about 2 feet of snow in Philly area, and is going to get more snow in next couple of days. Spent most of the weekend doing the dig out, so not much progress in the project.

Yes, the screen wall is on the right side, the outside of the screen wall is the egress pathway. I also like option 2 as well, but wife does not like the idea to take up spaces outside the theater room. For now, I will just frame the walls and that allows her to feel the space, you know, on paper is not good enough.

I am framing the bathroom now, and wonder should the bathroom door open inward or outward? All my existing bathroom doors are open inward, but I saw my in friend's house, he has a powder room door open outward. The problem is that my bathroom design is 54"x96" and door is on 54" side, so with a standard 22"D vanity, I have exact 34" left for rough opening for a 32" door (which is must by code), it going to be really tight. I really want to have a cabinet vanity, otherwise, I have to go with those piece porcelain one without cabinet.

I am weighing two theater room design options, and need some ideas as how to deal with the poles under the IBeam.

This is the original design, wall under the Ibeam, column locations are pretty much the same place as the poles, but poles are inside the wall, so poles and column won't interfere with each other, but the room is little narrower.


If, I frame the wall 11" away from the ibeam, then I gain extra width, wall line up with the bathroom wall as well (bathroom plumbing rough-in was not calculated correctly, so I have to move the wall out to get enough space for the bathroom), however, the poles and columns will be in each others way, especially the second column by the riser, that is where I planed to use column to hide surround left speaker. I need some ideas to deal with this issue. The poles will be 6.5" away from the wall. Thanks.

The issue is, there is a drain PVC pile running along the ibeam on outside, so that is why 11", if just move wall right out the ibeam, that gives about 6" room, I can frame the PVC pipe in soffit, but still, the pole will not be in the wall. This is the shot looking from entrance door into the theater room, you can see the PVC pipe along the ibeam:

Here is the shot inside the room, you can see the two poles:


Yes, I am using dipole speaker for the surround.

That is an interesting idea, yes, I am using dipoles, but how to deal with the acoustic aspect if placing the dipole directly behind the pole? The tweeter is on front of the speaker, the pole wont block the sound.
Here is my dipole speaker

Mario, thanks, but I am afraid that is not possible. There are 3 poles support 30' long beam and they are pretty much evenly spaced, I can't imagine that leave almost 20' of section in the middle of the house without any pole to support, not to mention the expensive costs to move the poles. I saw some did this, but in my situation, it is not an option.

Since my progress is slow, I thought I post some snow pictures that we received last week, it is pretty to look at, but I hate digging out and shoveling, I spent two days of doing that, I'd rather use that time working on my build.
Look at how thick the snow on top of my car:


Within a week, we got two storm, first one we had 28" of snow, 3 days later, another 20" on top of that! My company closed down for two days.



I heard on radio, tomorrow, on President day, we will have another snow, precipitation is between 6" and 8", is that enough already?

How would you frame around the main drain pipe?
See this picture, it is 4" pipe along the foundation wall, so the simple way is just put wall out and let the pipe behind the wall, I would loose 5" space, not that terrible:

But for this section, the main drain is far out from the wall, and the clearout here protrude into the room 15", so that is a lot of space wasted if just put wall in front the pipe, how can I frame around the pipe, and be able to use the spaces above and below the pipe as shelving or storage space?

Yes, it is dipole, there is a woofer on each wedge side of the speaker.

Just got these two Dell racks off craigslist, both are 42U racks with caster wheels and stands, big and heavy, barely fit the garage door, measure at 7' high, 28" wide and 36" deep. They are definitely too big for under stair space, I looked at them, basically putting together by bolts and nuts , so I can take them apart and maybe I can modify one of them to fit under stair space. $100 for both racks, in good condition.

They come with both front and back mess doors:

No side panels though, but I really don't need side panels:


There are two 4" round holes on top panel, maybe used for wires and cables or venting fans, not sure.

What do you think?

No, two for $100, I was thinking just got one, but when I got there and looked at them, what the heck, $100 for both, it is a steal and they happened to fit my truck bed side by side so I just paid the guy $100 for both, he is going to find me some mounting brackets, but that would cost me another $100. I will look around locally for any metal work shop to cut the post short, I don't think it is easy to do with hand hacksaw or reciprocating saw, will see and will post pictures.

Yup, very nice looking low cost rack indeed.

Funny that you remind me that I do own a 4 1/2" grinder, bought long time ago, never had a chance to use it, still new in the box, I do need to buy some metal cutting disks though.

No, I have not seen that thread before, but very impressive low cost rack. If I can't find shelves then i probably make some MDF shelves myself, paint black and bolt on the rack, aha, need to make custom face plates too, I remember there is a thread (forget whose), he made face cover plate from some HD sheet metal and paint black, very nice finish.

One question, what kind of power strip or PDU do you use for the rack, especially DIY rack? Would HD power strip be good enough? I saw equipment PDU has single phase and 3 phase types, not sure what that mean, but generally, 120V 15A is adequate for the rack?

Anybody notices that prices for PT lumber went up? I went to Lowes yesterday to exchange few 2x4x8 PT lumber because they warped very badly but the customer services made me return and then buy straight ones. When I went to the lumber section, I found out the price jumped up, when I bought in Jan that was $1.97 per piece, now it is $3.59 per piece, that is a about 160% jump, 2x6x8 was less than $5 before, now is at $6.97, Home Depot prices them similarly, what's up with that? Good thing is that I only new like 5 more pieces. Prices for regular 2x4x8 studs did not changed, remaining around $2 per piece.

Nice, I wish I had one. I still have couple of hole to cut in the main supply trunk, one for theater room and one for the room outside the theater room. I am still scratching my head to figure out how to run the supply for the theater room, the side of the wall is under the IBeam staggered wall.

No I didn't have coupon, I asked for contractor discount, but they didn't give me. I guess the price is probably determined by your locality.

Today I went to a HVAC supply store to get some fittings, and talked to a guy works there, according to him, your Gas company does not allow you to put HVAC returns in the basement. The reason is that the combustion air in the basement will be sucked in and will circulate through up stair, potentially could blow carbon monoxide to the entire house, everyone could die, very dangerous. He said if your gas company find out, they will cur off your gas service. However, my mechanical plan submitted to the permit clearly indicates there will be air returns in the basement, got approved with no problem.

Anyway, this is the first time I heard of this and it make sense to me, Just wonder anyone knows better about this subject．