Cyclone Cinema Build - Page 4

This weekend I ran a couple hundred feet of PEX piping for hot and cold water...way easier than running copper. Tied it all into the main system and when I turned it back on...no leaks!

I bought my wife a decent little dslr camera for christmas, I have no idea how to use it, but maybe by the time I need good photos I will be better. The following pictures are using the new camera, but I just used it like a point and shoot.

Here is the water line to an outdoor hose bib. It was originally a copper line run below the joists right down the center of the theater room - now it is pex that, when finished, will be inside the soffit.


Here is a view of the main room showing the soffit that has been framed up - probably overbuilt, but its up.


Here is the bathroom. I need to move the stud near the shower lines to make room for the mixing valve (which is why the HW and CW lines are long and capped at the moment). I need to find a suitable shower basin to make sure I know where to place the mixing valve and drain (in case I need to move it). My brother is coming over this next weekend to pour concrete so I need to get this all finalized.


Here is one final view of the main room. If you have been following the progress of the build compared to the original floorplan, you might notice I have deviated from the original plan regarding the bar. The new plan is to put in a countertop with sink along with an undercounter fridge - probably some overhead cabinets for storage.


In the picture above the cabinets/counter will go along the wall just to the right of the miter saw. You can see the water lines and the vent pipe for the sink, if that helps with location.

Happy belated New Year to you too (and everyone else following along)!

Just a quick update - no new work though.

Here is my next project...


I think it should actually go pretty smoothly, as I dont have to cut the straight section (which is what I thought I was initially going to have to do.

By rerouting the return air duct, I will be able to make symmetrical 36" soffits. Without moving the duct, I would have had a wide soffit on one side with no soffit on the other side. It's extra work, but I think it will look a lot better.

By the way, this stuff can get kind of expensive. I was originally going to just buy the ductwork from plumb supply. But the three pieces you see (two 90 deg elbows and one straight section of 5' duct) totaled around $180 - $65 per elbow and $50 for the straight section.

I ended up calling in a favor through one of our local HVAC contractors. Ordering the pieces through him the ductwork came in at $75. I wish I could get all my supplies for half price!

So I have a good friend that is pretty knowledgeable when it comes to ductwork (his dad owns an HVAC company) so I could have waited until next weekend and he would have helped me install it. Knowing that, I still decided to do it myself...

The straight duct was originally in two pieces...here it is in one piece.


Here is a crappy picture showing the return air duct removed from the main (to be reused)


And here is the finished product. Two elbows and a 5' straight section. I reused part of the return duct that was connected to the RA ducts using the joist space. Please disregard the disconnected central vac system and the electrical wiring hanging around (the electrical was originally in EMT and I removed all the conduit to make room for everything else). I will tear out the existing wiring and run all new when I start electrical work.


And here is a picture I snapped for a little humor. I only have a straight aviation snips (not right or left handed) so when cutting the reused section of duct I had to get creative to keep my cut straight...laugh it up.


I started this little project at about 7 and didnt finish up until 10...took a little longer than expected but I like how it turned out.

Quick progress update...should have taken more pictures, but while I was working pictures weren't a high priority.

Here are the updated pictures...

Bathroom


Storage room

When sawcutting the floor the trench for the sink got overlooked. Thats why you see the 45 deg sanitary line coming up into the wall. I will just build shelving on the backside of the wall for storage and to protect the line.

Here is the back corner of the theater room.


I also finished running conduit between the upstairs TV and the upstairs receiver. The only way to keep my wires concealed requires me to bring them into the basement, over, then back up. Once the basement is finished I would be unable to run wires without the conduit so it was necessary, just a pain in the butt. I had to disassemble part of the built-in upstairs just to accomplish this all. A buddy has borrowed my trim nailer so rebuilding the built-in will have to wait until I get my nailer back.

After that was all done I took a break for the second half of Sunday - the concrete work was a mess and I needed a break.

Also, my green glue and clips came in the mail on Friday so I can finish framing - all I have left is the soffit in the theater room.

I need to free up some time to go retake the electrical test because that portion of the build is quickly approaching. My monoprice order is due to get here tomorrow so my low voltage wiring will also be ready for installation.

I am getting here one step at a time - the really messy part (concrete) is over, so that is a huge relief!

Thanks cuzed.


Drew,

Yes, I built the statements myself. I needed a side project while I was still in the planning stages of my basement build. They will DEFINATELY be going into the theater when it is completed. You can see a few pictures of the build process earlier in this thread.

The reason you see them in this picture is that the christmas tree wouldnt fit in the living with them set up so my wife made me move them for the holidays. I need to get them set back up - they are a pain to move though!

On a build related note, last night I watched the national championship game and read some NEC 2008. I have another test scheduled for 11 am this morning. Wish me luck!

Quick update on the test yesterday, 5 wrong answers are allowed - I missed one! I am glad I don't have to pay someone to do my electrical work.

That means that I will be starting on electrical work soon. I am hunting the doe season this weekend, and maybe next weekend, so progress might be a little slower than usual. I also need to build my soffits in the theater room.

So on Friday I sighted my rifle in on Friday and went to look at an equipment rack I found on craigslist. I ended up buying it - even though its not exactly what I was looking for.

Here is the rack...it's a 27U rack. Right now it would be enough space, but I dont know if it will be enough once I start adding equipment.



Here is a picture with the front door open...


It came with a patch panel and a couple of shelves, locking front and back doors. Like I said earlier, I am just not sure if it will be tall enough. I would be interested in know how tall other peoples racks are...

Here is what I was planning on putting in the rack (at some point)...will it all fit in a 27U rack?

Receiver (one for now, maybe another for the rest of the basement)
Emotiva amp
Xbox 360
ps3
bluray player? (if I dont buy a ps3)
Patch panel
Cable Box

My original plan was to do a thru-wall equipment rack in the hall right outside the theater. I think I want to stick with that plan, so it will require me to remove the glass front - which looks cool, but just wont work with my plans.

Upcoming plans include hunting this Saturday and working on the theater on Sunday. I filled my tag this past weekend, but the other two guys still have a couple of tags left so we are going to try it one more day.

Question.

I plan on framing the soffit in the theater this weekend, but want to know the best way to do it.

The plan is to build soffit 'ladders' and attach them to the floor joists with hat channel and clips. Here is where the question comes in...

Option 1: Do I build the ladder, attach the hat and clips and then screw the clips to the joists.

Option 2: Do I build the ladder, and screw the ladder to the hat channel that is already installed on the floor joists?

Option 3: Install clips on the joists, install the hat channel to the ladder and then clip to the clips.

Option 1 seems like it would be a bit bulky and I dont want to bend the hat channel or clips...plus I dont know if I have the room to screw the clips to the joist without the ladder put together.

Option 2 would involve me screwing into the hat clip from the bottom...just seems like it would be stronger is the hat channel was screwed to the ladder instead of the ladder being screwed to the channel.

Option 3 is probably how I would try to do it without any advice from anyone. It seems like it might be difficult to get everything exactly straight so the channel clips into the the clips correctly.

I know quite a few of you have done this already, so I am just looking for pointers on the best way to accomplish this.

Duh. I remember specifically thinking that I was going to copy your plan - I had just forgot about it.

I went hunting this weekend all day Saturday, but Sunday found me working on the basement. I got my central vac system reattached and then focused on the ceiling in the theater.

When all was said and done, I installed all my clips and hat channel and built all the soffit sides. The soffit sides consisted of 2x4's ripped in half, attached to 7" of 1/2" osb. The soffit sides have been attached to the hat channel (not as difficult as I thought it would be).

Tonight I need to install the bottom of the soffits - to maximize the space in the theater I will use 1/2" osb for the bottoms also (instead of studs).

Because both the horizontal and vertical edges of the soffit will be osb, I should probably run my speaker wires beforehand.

I didnt take any pictures last night after I was done...it was starting to get late and I was tired of being down there. I actually wanted to watch the steelers game, but knew if I didnt finish the soffit sides, that the 2x4s I had cut it half would be warped in 24 hours.

Quick question regarding lighting. I have read that some people regret not installing controllable dimming...I was not planning on it, but I also dont want to regret it.

Can I just install all my lighting to one 4 gang (or whatever size is necessary) box and connect it to regular switches for now, and buy a grafik eye system later if I decide I want it?

I will wire all my lights into different zones to begin with, so I wouldn't think it would be a problem...but then again I have done pretty much zero research about this subject.

Thought it would be a quick answer for someone who has done this before.

Theater progress: none. I have a couple of projects with due dates of tomorrow - hopefully once they are out, I will have some time to put into the basement.

Well, I made some progress this weekend - not a lot, but some.

The most exciting part of the weekend was that I drilled holes through all my studs to route wiring through....thats not the exciting part, the exciting part was that while drilling holes I wasn't paying much attention and ended up drilling right into one of my PEX lines....I realized it too late and water started to leak out. I figured I would back the drill out to see how bad it was....BAD IDEA! Once I backed that drill bit out, it unleashed Niagra falls. It sprayed water from the bathroom across the hallway, across the steps, across the bedroom and actually got the far foundation wall of the bedroom wet (see plans on first page for approximate distance).

Luckily for me the water shut-off valve was only three feet away - the unlucky part was that the irrigation valve is also three feet away....yeah, you know where I am going with this. So when the waterfall was unleashed, in my panic, I opened the irrigation line...spraying even more water everywhere. Now I had two waterfalls going...I finally got both valves shut and another second or two and both water leaks were stopped (except for the continuous draining of the line).

The PEX pipe is patched back up, the water is back on and the mess is cleaned up.

The only other stuff I got finished up was installing receptacle boxes most switch boxes, some ceiling boxes. About 90% of receptacle wiring is complete - next I need to figure out what I am going to do for lighting in a few areas.

Theater lighting....I need some input.

My plan:
- Three columns on each side wall, with a sconce on each.
- Three small (maybe 3") cans for screen wash.
- One surface mount light behind screen (just for setup or infrequent work)?

Are six sconces enough? I can probably add two columns on the back wall and add two more if necessary.

For zoning, I was planning on running the front four sconces on one switch and the back two (or four) on another switch (on dimmers).

I just want to make sure this will be enough light in the room for pre-movie/cleaning/etc...

Hopefully a few of you have some good insight regarding this aspect. I have most of the theater wired up. I plan on finishing up the lighting in the rest of the basement first, but I can have that done tonight easily.

Maybe I should have just started a side thread to get some an answer on my lighting question...but I am just going to run with 6 sconces.

To make myself feel more comfortable with my decision, I did a little math.

I found a sconce I like

6 sconces @ 2 bulbs each - 60W candelabra bulbs

bulbs put out about 750 lumens each

my theater is about 235 SF

This all comes out to give me about 35 lumens per square foot - which should be plenty. They will be on dimmers so I can set them down during football games - or off during movies.

Thanks for the confirmation. Do each of your sconces have one or two 70W bulbs?

I just realized that I haven't posted any progress pictures lately - although there isnt a whole lot to show. Maybe I will snap some pictures tonight and get the progress updated.

Excellent, at least I know I am not way off base with my plan.

I owe those of you that have been following along pictures. I have been putting some decent time into the theater, but the stuff I am doing doesn't really look like much in pictures.

Remember earlier in the thread when I had a minor water issue....here it is...


Here is the hole in the stud...along with my fix (I didnt have just a splice so I was forced to use a tee)


More mess


One random shot of wiring


Here is a picture of the subpanel I installed...


Here is a crappy picture of the A/V closet. Some of the video cables have been run, some are waiting patiently


Here is the picture in the theater room. You can see the osb I have mounted on the walls in order to mount the surround speakers. You can also see the video cables I plan to use as an auxillary input.


Backer boxes installed


Theater room soffit. Please ignore all the extra wires hanging everywhere - they are actually the wires that were previously installed. You can see the wires pulled for the screen wash cans.


Here is OSB on the back wall to mount rear surrounds and OSB attached to the hat channel to support the projector.


Here is the window in the theater room - or what used to be a window. It is now patched. On the outside I will pull out the window well, paint the outside to match existing and then plant something in the flower bed to conceal the texture difference.


Here is just a final random shot of wiring - actually in the open room looking at the wall of the bedroom - if you look closely you can see a little bid of Green Glue in the the background.


Thats all I have for now...sorry it took so long to get pictures. Up next is getting power to the projector and power to the riser. Then I need to run power to the new dryer, and finally run power between the main panel and the subpanel.

This electrical stuff got EXPENSIVE fast! I am going to be glad to have this over...but I guess nothing is really inexpensive now is it...

So 10 of the AFCI breakers (at over $40 each) has made me hate how much the costs are adding up on this thing. I decided to get a few quotes for drywall, so I would know if I needed to start planning on doing it myself....

I just emailed a few guys today, saying I wanted a ballpark number for hanging, finishing and texturing 2400 SF of drywall, and a separate price of what they would charge if I hung the drywall myself.

I only got one number back so far, but he said he could do it all for $2380, or it would be $1975 if I hung the sheetrock and cornerbead (done correctly).

Seems like a pretty fair price to me - the discount for me hanging it seemed a bit low. But then again I really dont know what I should be expecting.

I know that some of you guys paid to have yours done, I was hoping to get some suggestions...or feelings about this first quote.

Thanks Matt. I appreciate the comments.


Fotto, what did you condsider for materials, drywall of course...cornerbead? mud? tape?

I got another quote for $850 to hang and $1020 to finish. Sounds like that is getting closer to your quotes...I have some more quote requests out there that I am waiting to hear back from.

Regarding the double drywall, I did take that into consideration when asking for quotes. Did you take a look at some of their work before you hired them, or did you trust that they would do a good job?