Yet another down under HT

Mightily impressed with everyones efforts here so thought I may as well share my progress (or lack of) in my budget home theatre room / Dad's retreat ; )

Ok, first stages - bought house in February and started out with a horror brick bar, classic 70's timber wall & ceiling cladding & horrific glazed red tiles. Bye bye bar, bye bye tiles, bye bye wall cladding. Dividing wall to office installed.

New mains board inc. on-board surge-protection for office & media room.
Door to garage to house equipment rack.
Office-side lined. Solid door.
Window bricked up.
Temporary data cabinet ; )

Hahaha, we have a deck on the list but this is a long way down the queue, way behind the media room and bathroom lol. Does. Tdampoline count?

On a more serious note, the back of the room is a brick wall and will have book shelves all across. Just wndering if there's any point framing and insulating it? The plasterer reckons just go plasterboard straight onto the brick. Any opinions? I'm framing, insulating and lining the other 3 walls as they have cavities - the bottom layer of brick is double - above that a single outside layer - you can see it in the pics above. The front wall - where the window was bricked up is being framed with approx. 6" cavity behind to straighten the wall to the same line as the pillar holding the I-beam up.

I know, right lol - we did consider keeping it for at least 5 seconds ; )

The rear wall backs onto the laundry and garage.

One side wall is external (with the patio window) and opposite with the solid door goes to our office (we work from home), and the stair well up to the lounge. The living areas are first floor - typical with Brissie homes of this vintage. The bedrooms are at the opposite end of the house - above the garage & laundry. The living/dining/lounge are above the media room & office.

The plan is to build in a (small) room/cupboard around the equipment rack which is going in the doorway to the garage. This will have a solid door/s for rear-panel equipment access, and will be lined & insulated.

I'm going to insulate the ceiling/walls with fire-rated pink batts or mineral wool prior to lining.

I'm just not sure if there's really any need to frame/insulate/line the back wall.

I'd like to create an accoustically friendly environment without going to extremes and also damp the sound exiting the room. It doesnt have to be silent, just quietened.

Thanks. I'll take a look into building some kind of pseudo-modern-art obelisk with the pile of white-ant chowder I've stripped out of the walls. If ripping out poor taste decor buys street cred I should be set for the project. A room full of pine wall cladding, a dodgy bar and glazed ming-dynasty style red tiles is gone and the world is better for it. I just have to replace it all with something tasteful now...

Thankfully the plumber has removed some surplus plumbing from the equation today so I can get rid of the rest of the dodgy timber it was attached to and carry on with the steel framing and cabling.

I hope to beat everyone to the finish. I REALLY do because currently I have no music beyond my computer, a crappy CRT tv and $30k+ of nice gear sitting boxed in the spare bedroom. Oh, and I havent been on Halo in over 5 months which is frankly, unacceptable.

I know, its a shambles. I've got the Alien Anthology BluRay set (with the light-up egg box thing) from Xmas and havent even taken a disc out of a case.... The way its going ai'll be lucky to play music or watch a decent movie before 2013...

I'm a Halo tragic lol. My buddies have been complaining vociferously at me not having been on. I might have to invest in a LONG cat6 cable & hook up the XB to my old TV we're using upstairs in the lounge til I can get the media room sorted. Defo up for a game when I get back on though : )

The media room should be done shortly. After all I only have to buy cables & wire, frame, insulate, sheet, vent, install lights, buy a rack, decorate, carpet... yeah, its gonna take forever isnt it lol

Finally have some progress to report. All cables but HDMI ran, electrical issues fixed, green glue delivered, rack arriving next week & sheeting to start. Wohoo! Also, due to cotra deal with retailer, now getting iPad comtrol system for the lot...

@wilsonj I think its Control4 but I'm not 100% sure. The Home Theatrix boys are going to hook it all up for me when the rest is sorted.

@Dingaling I have a mate who is a framer/sheeter/plasterer by trade so he's doing it with me lending a hand / labouring. We're going to whack some batts in then double-sheet using green glue - starting with the ceiling and see how it is. If it needs more we'll double sheet the walls as well. Going to buld in a bulkhead for lighting - initially some downlights but with a lip for LED strips as uplights when I have the cash...

I'll post some pics once we get going. Would have been able to show the rack but it wandered in transport so should have it next week.

The air-con and carpet are paid for & waiting to go in. Hoping to have it finished before Christmas.

Hahaha, well, we have another bub on the way, arriving March so I need to finish the media room and get my gear outta the spare room. So, nature's kinda dictated the deadline on this one. Plus, I need the retreat to save my sanity ; )

Its ok mate, we have the photos. I know its not the same but still we'll be able to prove it happened.... Our kids will at least be able to experience the green 70's 'hell' style bathroom as obviously the media room has been given priority over this being rectified. Soundproofing will be green glue and the solid door already has the privacy lock fitted - on the inside - to keep them out for sure. They can continue to wipe their dinner and other obscenities on the nice, robust glass CRT in the lounge and not my 60" Kuro...

OK, barring one component lead, the cabling is pretty much sorted...

Pile of expensive HDMI Cables

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Chord Carnival Silver Anniversary Biwire

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Lots and lots of cabling to sort out when the rack is in place and the equipment closet finished.

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Yeah the Kuro is phenomenal. I haven't seen anything like it either, even now, 3 years on... That said, I've wired for and hope to add a 3D projector & 100-130" screen as soon as funds allow. Will stick to the Kuro for TV & gaming and fire up the BIG screen for BluRay movies.

You're not kidding on the cables - I'm making the same transition (system all located together > rack at back of room) and they weren't cheap. I had already spent big $$$'s on VanDenHul speaker cables but only 2m runs so I've taken a BIG step down having to cover 12m. Still, I'm sure the Chord Carnival will be sweet. They're well respected.

I couldn't spend the same on HDMI's over those run lengths either and had never heard of Key Digital until Don at Home Theatrix mentioned them but I tested them all before running them today and at least for video (which is all they'll carry in my set up) they performed as well as my Chord Silver Plus and Wireworld Chroma, so pretty pleased there.

All in all theres 36m Chord Carnival Biwire speaker cable plus some some less expensive stuff for surrounds. 2 x 12m Key Digital HDMI + 1 x 7m for the projector, a 12m component cable, 2 x 12m subwoofer cables and over 100m of Cat6 (this is hooking up our offi e too mind). This doesnt include any interconnects at the rack end...

Rack arrived



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Sheeting, day 1

Start of day

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Insulation batts

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First sheets up, Boral Soundstop 10mm

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Green Glue

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First Wall Sheets

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Til' tomorrow...

Lunch break. Plasma mount & socket recess etc sorted. Hoping to have front/side walls sheeted today then a break in proceedings while me & James do some paying work tomorrow ; )

Green glue in tubes is piss-easy really. Not sure on cost differential between the boards to be honest - will post when I find out. James is a mate & framer/plasterer - I thought he was getting standard gyproc but the boral stuff rocked up. We were going to be strategic with the double sheeting & GG (ceiling, office wall) but decided seeing as I bought two cartons - 24 tubes, we're just going to keep double-sheeting til' its gone. Hopefully will be worth the effort & expense.

Photos of todays progress to follow tonight.