Pimp My Garage - Page 9

Yeah I was wondering about the fuzz factor especially on black fabric - I ordered Commando Cloth for on my soffit, may use something similar for the screen wall - the "sucks the light out of the room" side is napped, a.k.a. fuzzy, so will pick up dust and fuzz like a magnet I'm sure. Not sure whether to put it up with the fuzzy side out or the weave side out - I actually like the look of the weave better, I guess when I get the material I'll take a look under lighting and then decide. I might use the napped side out for the screen wall and bulkhead above it, and weave side out on the rest of the soffit. We'll see.

I received a request for some pictures of the panels, so here are a few more showing how I made mine. They aren't perfect by any means - cheap plywood had some voids that caused a little tear out here and there when routing, but hopefully the fabric will cure all defects.

Wall segment chock full of panels (well almost - haven't done the bottom part where it will meet the carpet, since not 100% sure on the height of the carpet and pad). Vertical bracing and shelf is where the column mounts, I took the columns down to prep them for fabric.



Where two of the panels meet up with the rear column - 1/8" space between panels, and between the panels and column sides, to allow for fabric on both. To install the speaker pluggies, I temporarily screwed the panels in place with drywall screws (into furring), then drilled a 1/8" bit through the panel and furring strip. Then removed the panel, and drilled the holes for the ball and socket using those pilot holes, and inserted them. The fabric will of course cover the pilot holes and drywall screw holes.



The same junction, with the panel removed. The staples for the fabric that covers the column sides will be hidden by the edge of the wall panels. You can see here the drywall screws that held the furring strips in place while the liquid nails dried, and the socket for one of the ball and socket guides.



That panel removed, showing the ball part of the grill guides, and the corner lap joints.



Closeup of the lap joint, brad nails, some liquid nails squeeze out, and the ball of the grill guide.



Flip side of the corner - I used a 3/8" roundover - thought about going a little bigger, but router bits aren't cheap, so I decided I like it this way.



Cross brace on the back of the panel - I didn't double up the cross braces to meet the face like I did everywhere else, so as to avoid any possibility of the bump showing through the fabric.



Where the edge of the panels meets the side column. The 2x2 framing of the column slips into this channel - it is held in place by 10 or so long drywall screws through the column sides into the vertical bracing. The screws will be covered by the wall panels.

Thanks cdika! Yes, the frames - some of them anyway - will be filled with rigid insulation - not for soundproofing, but for acoustic treatments. Using them for soundproofing would not be effective, to do that you need to add mass and decoupling.


Thanks, I'll probably do that too on a couple ugly corners.

Thanks Ben!

On the column sides, I will be using faux leather vinyl ; on the faces, I will be using black speaker cloth.

I received my roll of black Commando Cloth yesterday - wish me luck on my foray into fabric stapling!

Al the panels are 1" deep and sit on 1/2" furring, so the insulation can be either 1" 1/2" off the wall, or 1 1/2" against the wall. Will probably use 1" to save money?

Got started on covering the soffits with fabric (black 16 oz Commando Cloth) this weekend. I started with a Harbor Freight combo brad nailer / narrow crown (1/4") stapler that I borrowed from my neighbor, but after about 6' of soffit, it started jamming, and then lost pressure, couldn't figure out how to fix it. Looks like I owe him a new one. So I went to HD and picked up a Porter Cable narrow crown stapler, and that has worked great.

Here is my temporary fabric cutting station - I had the triangle scraps sitting on the ground already, just screwed them to a 2x2. Notice the nice fist sized stain on the right side of the roll, goes all the way through apparently - would have been pissed, but (a) I didn't need the full width, and (b) it was far cheaper at $3.99/yd than anywhere else I found.



This stuff is extremely opaque, so there was no need to worry about doing anything to hide the reflective foil on the FSK. Its not real good at the blow test, but since I'm using it over bass trapping, not too concerned. Its also quite heavy, so required some muscling around to get it tight across the wide soffit underside - hope it doesn't sag over time.

First step was to hang the fabric up onto the tray edge using big binder clips - had my son help hold the 24' length of fabric while I clipped it up. The camera flash really washed out the colors, the ceiling is very dark brown, and the fabric is black.



Started stapling at 1" from the top of the tray edge (will cover with some black trim), and then to the furring strip at the edge of the soffit where it meets the wall. I will glue down the strip of fabric above the staples and over the tray edge top - not sure what glue to use yet, don't want overspray, so 777 is out. Maybe just white glue. Or contact cement.





almost done with the right wall:



right wall done stapling up, and trimmed off the excess:



Cut out the holes for the recessed lights, and added the trim:





left wall going up:



left wall trimmed, still need to cut out for the lights, and an access panel to get to the outlet that the rope light is plugged into:

Thanks Jon! Can't wait to be done with the soffit, so I can schedule the carpet install, move the seats into the room, and measure room response!

Can't complain for 5 bucks! I bought a box of thumbtacks first, tried to push one into the wood, no chance that was going to work, would have destroyed my thumbs.


Thanks MJ!

Yeah, no more Harbor Freight power tool for me - I too have some of their little smaller items that have worked out OK (and if they don't, I'm out $5 or whatever, so disposable).

I made some more progress on the soffit fabric covering the last couple nights - its all covered now, but have some work to do still: trim excess close enough to cover edges with trim, clean up little tight corners and edges; buy paint and nail up trim; glue the top edge of the fabric over the top of the tray edge with contact cement; cut out two holes for access panels, and build and install the access panels (access to junction box, access to rope light outlet).

Its nice to actually have the recessed light trims up for the first time in months! Unfortunately, I realized that I still need 4 socket extensions for the eyeball trims over the screen before I can put those trims up.

LOL, I deserved that. I was holding off on taking any pictures until I had some of the messy stuff cleaned up (excess fabric sticking above the tray for example), to get more of a "tada" vibe. I should get that done tonight, and I'll take and post some new pics.

Its called Expresso Beans, from Behr (Home Depot).

Thanks Mfusick!

No pics yet - took them, but the last remaining operational PC at home is acting wonky, so couldn't upload them. Got the excess fabric in the tray trimmed down, and glued down (contact cement). I know, no pics, so it didn't happen - but it did happen.