The MacBeth Theater (flood resilient build) - Page 2

Getting the sub moved out would help with spacing for sure. Right now I’m planning on using the existing rack so I don’t have the space for it. Always leaves room for future upgrades as it would be easy to add that on.

Or I could go back to one of my older designs and put a small counter top and built in bookshelves or upper cabinets and have the sub be in a lower cabinet with the back cut out. It’s ported to the front anyway.

If I decided to put the sub outside the theater then I think this would work. Basically the sub would be inside a standard 24" base cabinet with the back cut out. The wall opening would be covered by a GOM panel and I could put some acoustical insulation around the sub if necessary. The cabinet door on the outside would provide easy access to the hookups and the HSU 15H is front ported and front firing.

As it stands now (as always subject to change, and it’s changed many times already) I’m going to go with stained wood columns and wainscoting at 36” and the upper portion will be fabric panels with 1” acoustical material (not ideal but it will work). The room will actually shrink just a bit as I’ll be putting the new wall directly under the main support beam. This will allow for room symmetry and the fabric panels will hide the windows.

I have found a number of inspirational elements that I intend to copy. Images and elements I’ll be borrowing below (many ideas from fellow AVS’ers as well).

This is the ceiling design I want, it will be a bit more shallow due to my ceiling height but should be doable (I’ve lived with a 4”-6” lower soffit than this planned design for over 10 years so this should be no problem). Also it will be most of the ceiling with the front wall soffit being wider to accommodate the front speaker columns on a 45 degree angle. That is where I plan to put the HVAC return as well, probably with an inline fan. Making the coffered ceiling area a square will make the math easier as well.


These next two show general column and wainscot design. The second shows some fabric panels. My colors will be different but you get the idea.
I’ll also only have sconces on the 3 columns in the back. One sconce in each back corner and one in the middle of the back wall. The back corners will also have as much bass trap material as I can fit in them between the speakers, riser and sconces.


Basically 1x4 or 1x6 lumber with ¼ ply and some trim molding, fairly easy to do just a bit time consuming with stain and poly. The ceiling will take more time with all the angle cuts.

Most current Floorplan:


I’ll probably move the front row another 6” forward so the back row can recline more (although in all honesty it will only get used a few times per year). I plan to run all speaker and AV cabling though the soffit and right rear column which backs up to the rack area.

The green spot on the wall is a TV in portrait format which will have “posters” loaded on a thumbdrive. I’ll run an HDMI to that location as well just in case.

Well Sandy did me in . Water in the basement and now the house reeks of musty mildew smell. I have used a shop vac to suck up as much water as I can and I have one blower fan and several box fans along with a dehumidifier running.

The velvet on my masking panels and screen frame is rippling from all the humidity. I'm also running a pellet stove upstairs and the fan on the furnace help circulate dry air.

Anyone have any other suggestions on how to dry it out faster? More dehumidifiers?

Just ripped 90% of the carpet out and have a fan in the window trying to pull out any remaining moisture. Totally rethinking the theater now. I would be devastated if I had put in all the work I had planned and had this happen.

Going to put tile in all spaces except the theater and make sure the riser and stage if I build one are off the ground. The gap can be hidden by maple ply and unscrewed if it floods again. The air gap will allow fans to put enough air to dry it out and only the carpeting between the stage and riser would need to be replaced.

Actually the power stayed on; the sump in my basement has to be covered due to Radon which is vented to the roof. The problem was the ground had settled after I built an addition to the house a few years ago and the sump under the addition crawlspace that normally works fine was not able to discharge the water far enough away(it overwhelmed the splash block). The water must have risen to such a level under the crawlspace that it came in through the basement windows.

In hindsight a length of flex tube would have averted all of this. That’s what is on both sump discharges now. Of course it really pisses me off that I didn't think of that. I'm going to have both sumps and one gutter piped to the street. Probably need to buy a generator as well and find a way to plug in the sumps if I lose power.

So in theory the basement shouldn’t flood again but I’m going with the plan that it will.

I also can’t move the main HVAC trunk like I originally wanted to without it having some large bump out to go around the main support beam. Also moving the HVAC line was to get uniform soffits and I was going to cover the windows. Well covering the windows isn’t an option as this flood has shown, I need some way besides a de-humidifier to vent moisture out of the basement.

I am going to get a quote on moving the main HVAC duct tight to the support beam which should reduce the soffit size by about two feet. If it’s not too expensive I may do that but if it’s going to cost a grand or more just to move it over and I’ll have to rebuild the soffit I’m just not going to bother with it.

I guess on the bright side I’ll have some sort of enclosed theater much sooner than I planned. I really wanted to wait until the holidays are over. I have a number of large expenses coming up.

Finally got everything cleared out more or less. Trying to get ahold of my HVAC guy to see if the main line can be moved. Once that it is determined the wall can be built.

Here's where it is now.

Could have been a lot worse, the only real casualty was the carpeting and a few misc items (one old desk was too big to move and not in great condition so it was demolished.. The recliners and other furniture seem to be OK.

A hassle and some expense but nothing compared to what others are facing further north.

Planned completion is by Superbowl as my brother won't have much time to assist until the holidays. Once HVAC, framing, electrical and drywall is done then I can begin doing things myself; tile, cabling ,riser, stage, columns, etc.

In an attempt to make my theater flood resistant I plan to elevate my stage and riser on pressure treated 2x2s and then cover the fronts with 1/4 ply attached with screws. They will be filled with insulation but the insulation won’t touch the floor preserving the air gap. So if a similar amount of water gets into the basement the ply can be removed and the area can be dried.

The non riser area will have dricore but even if that isn’t enough it’s only a 12x8 section of carpet/padding that needs to be removed.

Can anyone see any issues with this strategy?

The rebuilding begins. It's too expensive to move the ductwork to gain any headspace. Also my wife is not thrilled to even enclose the space so I'm going to attempt to move along fairly quickly which means I'll be working with what I have for now.

It's one thing to build a theater from scratch and work on it when you can. But we've had one for 18 months even if it was fairly basic. Watching a movie on my family room TV is like watching a postage stamp on the wall now.

It's still going to take a couple months but in this case the projector will be hung sooner rather than later. And I'll have to have the discipline to finish it.

Anyway on to the pictures:


The bump out is where the rack and sub will be. The space to the right will be cabinets and maybe a popcorn machine at some point.



Rack/sub

The rack and sub will slide out. If need be I'll make an access from the back.

Riser:


As you can see its elevated so the space underneath can be dried if it floods again. It still needs to be shimmed and leveled. Next will be electrical.

I had planned on doing a stage but I'm scrapping that. I'll be doing a two tiered floating shelf with 2 inch stained Poplar to hold my L/C/R off the floor.

I’ll have to measure but it should be 9’ 2” or 9’ 3” Not ideal but it will have to do. I’m expecting I’ll use the front row for 1.78:1 content and the back row for 2.35:1. The screen is 92” for 1.78 and 113” for 2.35. At some point I’ll build a new screen and center it.

I need to figure out my electrical so I’ll be doing that this week along with leveling the riser.

Once the electrical, cabling and drywall is done then the real work begins. I’ll have to lay about 275 sq. ft. of tile, install the cabinets and build the countertop. Currently I’m planning on going with 8/4 walnut which after being planed should give me 1.75”. If I can find 10/4 I may go with that. The other option I’m looking at is Brazilian cherry as it’s cheaper but I like the dark chocolate tones of sealed walnut.

We have swatches


Going to have to build a shallow soffit along the front, back and right side wall so that my fabric panels are a uniform height.

Not a whole lot of progress, I demo'd what used to be an access panel which is no longer needed, leveled and shimmed the riser and started building the soffit's today. I would have been done in no time if I had a compressor and nail gun. I'll just have to do what I can and then finish up when I can borrow my brother's equipment (or borrow him).

I'm taking Monday and Tuesday off so I plan to have the soffits and all cabling done. I can't seem to find any flex conduit bigger than 3/4" so I may just skip it. I'd only use it for the HDMI run to the PJ.




Side and rear soffit will only be 7" deep and just for cabling and to make the room a bit more uniform. Front soffit will just be empty except for insulation

I had my electrician in and he got back with an estimate yesterday. More than I figured but there are a number of new lights (6 in the theater, 2 above the cabinets, one in the rack and one sconce), switches, various outlets need to be moved or added and I added one sconce and a light inside the rack area. Running a dedicated 20 amp for the rack area as well.

Current plan is to have him in on Dec. 1st/2nd.

I may look at some other fabrics, I'm leaning towards the pumpkin as it's almost an exact match for the rest of the basement. Everything below 36" will be a dark stained poplar. I have plenty of time to decide.

Today's progress:

It never seems to be as much as I think it will be. I ran out of 2x3's so I'll get those tonight.




Rolling platform for my sub:


This is what happens when you have to hang 8' soffits yourself:




It works...

Floating platform mock up. That is 18" x 14.5" I'll go with 18" x 18" and thicker but I think it will work with some L brackets:

Got some more work done, soffits are framed and low voltage is run except for some RG6 which will be run Sunday. My electrician has to cut holes for lighting and to run a 20 amp circuit so I’m hoping I can utilize some of the same access points and save myself some drywall repair.

Although now that I think of it I should run a speaker wire for each row just in case I want to add bass shakers in the future.

A length of 1” CPVC I had on hand proved invaluable in running the speaker and HDMI cables.

I made a quick mockup of a column. I’m not doing anything fancy. Just some stained poplar with just enough room for the speaker cable. The speakers will be surface mounted to the column. I’m very tight on my walkway spacing so nothing prominent. The rear columns will be a bit deeper. I’ll also be going wider. In the picture below is 1x10 and I think I’ll need at least 1x12.



Cabling is out of reach of my cats I hope (they like to chew on wires.).

Edited by design1stcode2nd - 12/5/12 at 2:04pm

I have some HVAC questions. As of right now I have one supply and no returns in the theater area. The supply is on the main 16” (maybe 14” I’d have to measure) trunk and is about 12’ from the furnace.

My plan is to add another supply about 6’ closer to the furnace and add a return as well. The return will most likely be near the front of the theater which I know isn’t ideal. The rack will be vented to the adjoining room but the projector will not.

I’m thinking of running some 4” flex duct in my right-side soffit to where the main seating area is and either getting an in-line fan or even a 120mm quiet CPU fan from coolerguys.com (that’s what I’m getting for the rack) do get some of the heat out. Is that worth doing?

Sound proofing isn’t an issue as the theater has none and with the sub inside the rack enclosure, which has the afore mentioned venting the sound is going to escape anyway so no need for a dead vent.

Typically it’s going to be two people in the theater with the door closed. Anytime there is a group it will probably be for football and the door will be open anyway.

Electricians are in now, looks like it will be done in two steps, everything roughed in then I'll need to drywall and paint and then they'll come back and finish.

I did attempt to make my removeable soffit piece in front of the windows yesterday. I used 1/2 inch MDF and a section of left over 2x3. I thought using 4 heavy duty magnet catches used for cabinets would be enough to hold it but it's too much weight. I ended up just using 4 drywall screws to secure it.

It should be easy enough to remove if necessary and in an emergency I could just rip it out (fire, tornado, etc). Overall I think it will work well. I'll post up pictures once the electricians are done.

I was planning on filling the window well with un-faced insulation. It's about 12 inches deep so is regular pink insulation good or should I fill it with OC703?