The Once and Future Theater - Page 8

Here's the followup to the previous video, and the evidence that I got something accomplished today. Pardon the poor quality of the video - I shouldn't record this late in the day.

Tomorrow, it's cleanup, insulation, and assemble the drywall lift. If that all goes well, I may start hanging some OSB.

Thanks.

You would think that the wiring would come first, wouldn't you? And I always figured I would do it in that sequence as well. Then I got around to analyzing my soundproofing schemes, and I realized that all the power would come through the equipment closet, along with the low voltage stuff. The equipment closet is positioned against the rear wall of the theater, where there is easy access through the wall into both the riser and the soffit. I'll have penetrations through the wall into the riser for sub cables and power (for outlets and lighting), and then I'll have penetrations through the wall into the soffit, for speaker cable, video etc to the projector, and power to the stage, to the projector, and for lighting. The only other penetrations through the wall will be HVAC, and they come through the rear wall into risers and soffits as well. So the bottom line is that I need the wall boards in place on the inside of the theater, an probably the soffit and riser rough framed, before I start poking any holes in my aquarium. I won't need any backer boxes or putty pads - just some silenseal.

Speaking of Silenseal, my order left Saginaw yesterday, and is already in Ohio this morning. It should be here by the end of the day tomorrow - Kudos to John at Soundproofingcompany.com for his expert help in preparing my order.

4 Pails Green Glue
1 Speedloader
1/2 case Silenseal
1 automatic door bottom
1 set door seals 870 AA

Thanks for the tip vanice. John explained to me that by overlapping my seams in the wall construction, I would use a lot less caulk. I went through the dimensions of the seams he said I should cover, and I think it only worked out to 180-200 feet. At 40ft/tube, 4.5-5 "should" be enough, but we'll see.

I forgot to ask yesterday - this is one of those BIGmouthinDC questions - but I'm sure one of my regular readers will know, right?

Should I be using regular drywall screws for the OSB? does it matter? what length for 7/16 OSB?

When I buy them, should I be buying enough for the next layer of drywall as well, or will I want a different screw?

And how many is enough.... each sheet should get one every 10 inches or so along each joist. So that's 36 per sheet? (either 4 rows of 9 or 6 rows of 6, depending on orientation relative to joists) I really need to write this down where I won't have to keep estimating.

Ceiling = (21.5 x 12) + (2 x 4) = 266 sqft*
Right wall = 21.5 x 9 = 193.5 sqft
Left wall = 21.5 x 9 = 193.5 sqft
Front wall = 12 x 9 = 108 sqft
Rear wall = (12 x 9) + (4 X 9) = 144 sqft*

*these dimensions are rounded up.

Total surface area, not counting riser, soffit, stage = 865 sqft

36 screws into a 32 sqft sheet, is 1.125 screws/sqft, so 865 sqft needs (865 x 1.125) 973 screws. That should get me the first layer of wall (OSB) up. (certainly, there will be variation from this prediction - I'm not going to go buy only 1000 screws and then be amazed when I run out.)

vanice - no clips or anything - just decoupled framing. The ceiling joists I hung sit on walls that are totally free-standing. There is no connection whatsoever between my framing and the rest of the house. I briefly considered clips and channel, in the (perhaps vain) hope that it would help match acoustic impedance among my surfaces. I decided not to, mostly due to cost/complexity vs moving the noise floor in my room.

aaustin - I may spread out the screws a little more. That'll save some time and money. I considered the extra mass of thicker OSB, but didn't for a couple reasons. Really it was a split-second decision that I made using this rationale: 7/16 was significantly cheaper and will be easier to hang by myself. I'm already going with two layers (OSB plus Dywall) and can add a second layer of drywall as well. In fact, three total layers was what John (soundproofing company) encouraged me to do.

Assuming I end up with 3 layers, total; should that change my spacing for screws in the first layer? I don't expect that I can reliably screw the third layer into the studs and joists. I actually think I shouldn't; in order to allow the GG to do it's job, I think I should avoid screwing the outer layer(s) directly to the framing. The extra load on the first layer might need better support from more screws - but maybe I'm being paranoid?

I think I'm going to mount them all in the surfaces of the riser and stage. It may be necessary to do what damelon did and put some in columns - but again in the interest of floor-space, the columns I will likely build will have very small footprints (feetprint ), and may not be conducive to outlets.

Well that shows you how closely I read the instructions...

And, yes. There will be one single gang wall plate for the Grafik Eye SeeTouch panel (or similar) - I always for get that one.

Chalk lines it is! And thanks for the screw dimension recommendation.

I just thought I'd check in here. I've not made much in the way of photo-worthy progress, though I have had a few minutes here and there to get ready to hang the OSB, which I still haven't actually started yet.

The prompt for my posting tonight is the near-disaster that happened in the living room this afternoon. The wife and I are in the living room, folding laundry and watching TV. I get up to take some pants to the closet, and she yells from the living room, "Fred!" I called back, "yes?" She yells, more emphatically, "Fred, come here!" So I drop what I'm doing and come back. She's crouched down in front of the entertainment center, the dog is working his sniffer - she points into the entertainment center and says, "Something's on fire!" My first thought is "Where is a fire extinguisher?" - which I'm still not sure about - I'll go check - and then it occurs to me - This must be an electrical fire - unplug everything! Luckily the TV is mounted on an articulating mount, so I swing it out of the way and pull the power strip out of the wall.

Nothing had actually burst into flames, but some of the electronics plugged into the power strip had LEDs blinking off as the power strip began to fail. The smell of smoke was distinct.

The power strip seems to have failed internally. My wife's first guess was that there had been some mechanical stress on the power cable, and something must have been damaged or frayed inside the case. That seems like a reasonable prediction, but I'm not sure that there is evidence for that mode of failure. Anyway, here's the photographic evidence.

Notice in the first picture the melted spot on the back of the case, and the smoke/scorching on the sheathing of the power cable.


In this second picture, you can see several burnt components. It looks to me like the source of the heat was a soldered component near the power cables - I don't know what type - I might have said capacitor, but I don't think that's right - it's rectangular. This power strip was the sort with switchable outlets and an RF remote to activate and de-activate those outlets. It's branded as Belkin and is about three or four years old.


Of course, the good news is that we were there when it started and apart from $30 worth of power strip, there seems to be no real damage. Hopefully, my next update will be of more real progress.

I'd be surprised if it was over-voltage, but I really couldn't say.

What's an inspector?

You've heard of baby-steps - well it came to my attention that phrases like that are standardized by ISO - I've submitted a plea to have the term changed to Fred-steps.

It's been about seven weeks since I actually accomplished anything. Here's what I did today.


I knew that working around the plumbing like I am was going to make things a little tedious and require some extra precision. What's disappointing is to just get the hang of using my drywall lift and then realize that there will only be four full sheets of OSB to hang - everything else will be notched partial sheets.

A little.

Not much really. Other people post pictures and their threads go "Well, I framed the basement this week..." And I think, "When did you do that? Don't you have a day job?"

I'm still hanging OSB from the ceiling. The results are looking pretty solid, but it'll take me a while yet. Thursday, I spent about 90 minutes custom cutting and hanging two sheets of OSB. The excuse is that they have totally irregular dimensions and notches cut in them for plumbing to pass through, but the reality is that I am slow, even with some help. Thanks for checking in and prodding. Unfortunately, after 10 hours on the clock today, I'll probably spend most of tomorrow raking leaves and such. We had a piece of dead tree fall and break a window this week. The rest of the tree needs to come down. Also yesterday was my birthday, and Tuesday we had special tickets to Cirque du Soleil, which is in town. Can I pile on some more excuses?

The real lesson here is one of planning and preparation. I chose to build teh room within a room and not give op the headroom, and not move the plumbing. The cost of that is the complication I'm dealing with now - and will continue to deal with until the soffits are up and closed in. Hopefully the walls will go faster.

Oh, along those lines - a question. With 9' tall walls (almost), and multiple layers of drywall/OSB (4x8 OSB, and I haven't bought drywall yet), where would you start the full sheets of OSB. I'm thinking vertical and pressed against the ceiling would produce the best result, then filling in with smaller pieces along the floor, so that the weight of the ceiling is best transferred in the walls. But that will be harder than just leaning the large pieces against the wall and letting them stand on the floor while I screw them to the wall. Whatever I do now, I'll do something different for the second layer, overlapping seams. Assuming I apply full sheets pressed tightly against the ceiling - any tips from anyone for doing it as a one-man operation?

Thanks Tim! Sounds like a good plan.

Indeed, sir. Thanks for the reminder.

Sometimes it feels more like this.

I forgot - not only did I have a birthday, my build thread did too!

We're close enough to exactly one year in that I figured I'd commemorate with a photo.

This was the first in-progress image I posted, 11/26/2011.


Here we are, from approximately the same vantage, one year later.