The Grove Theater and Basement Build - Page 4

A few more pics. Getting close to finishing all the framing details for the theater.

Nearly complete entrance.


Rack location in the entryway.



Entrance view from inside the theater.


Also worked on the ceiling structure in the equipment room and entrance. One of these days I'll have something new to share other than framing pics.

I would be done with the theater by now if I wasn't also framing out the rest of the basement at the same time. I am actually looking forward to electrical. A change of pace and I might actually be able to see what I am doing down there with a few more lights.

Won't be but a few small protrusions into the theater for wiring like Damelon did for his. Most wiring will be run through soffits.

Going to try and get an HVAC guy in this week to give me some suggestions and help me out with the capabilities of my current system. I really hope HVAC doesn't hold me up or cost me a fortune.

A few deliveries have shown up.





Bam!




Looking forward to putting this stuff to use. Quick shipping from the Soundproofing Company.

Tell me about it. Theater, equipment room, and IB enclosure all getting OSB. Hoping that the floor joists above can handle all of it.

The guys who did the HVAC for my house are currently looking at laying out the basement. Luckily the original system was sized to handle the additional square footage in the basement. Now I just need to figure out how I am going to control the theater room temp. Thought about a dead vent but I may hold off since I have the space/ability to add it later if needed.

Have spoken to the HVAC guy a couple of times now. I think he is starting to understand what I want to do with the theater. Will have one supply (on the front left wall if you are looking at the screen) and one return centered on the back wall (hopefully to help pull the warm projector air out). I have sent them a few pictures from Damelon's build to try and give them a visual representation of what I am trying to accomplish.

If I need to I will add a dead vent in the equipment room to pull air out and into the main room.

They are a little pricier than I had hoped but I don't really feel comfortable cutting holes in my supply and return trunks. This is probably one of those cases where you spend the money, get it done right, and spend your time doing other things that you know you can do... even if it's not very fast.

Man I feel like I am spinning my wheels. I took off Friday to work in the basement which gave me three days of quality time to dedicate and I still look around and wonder what I spent my time on. I am framing/finishing approx. 1200 sqft of space so it will take time, especially for a non-pro, but man this is dragging on.

Sorry, no pictures yet. Maybe I can snap a few tonight to post. Main completion was the theater door opening. Now I need to see what I can find in the solid core door family that fits my needs. Have people found it easier/cheaper to order from the big box stores or from local specialty shops?

What type of store did you order your door from? Do they only do doors? I guess what I am trying to figure out is what I need to Google to find a location in my area.

Post #100 milestone!

Thanks for the info. I have a lumberyard minutes from my house so I may have to drop in there and see what they have to offer. I will also do some online searches to see if any other options are available.

That sounds good. Definitely going with 1 3/4" with 4 hinges. Will probably add more mass on the interior sideI had considered the soundproofing companies door seals. I'm sure the weatherstripping is cheaper. Wonder if the SPC seals are worth upgrading to?

Here are a few pics of progress.

The updated theater entrance.








And soon... let there be light!

Guess I should have specified that the can lights are not in the theater. So no backer boxes needed.

I need to do more research on the door. Would be nice to save a little money on the door seals. I think the automatic bottom seal is probably a definite.

College basketball has put a hold on my work this week. I love this time of year but it really hurts productivity.

I'll keep that in mind when I start looking at doors. Never looked at them before so it will be a learning process.

I hope that is the case with the OSI. Still a little ways off from using it. Need to get the HVAC in order and get a door fitted so I can lay the OSB and drywall up tight.

Well, still framing the rest of the basement. Nearly complete with the bathroom and workout room. I have some minor items to finish with those rooms and then on to the small bar area, columns, and some soffit work. I will still have one wall that I can't complete because it would block my access to getting large supplies into the basement. That wall will have to wait until I get drywall and trim down there before it can go up.

Already have two lighting circuits in and it feels great. Amazing what a little light will do for your mood. Need to add some recepticles so that I can untether myself from the two outlets I have in the corner of the basement. Then on to low voltage and all the worries that go into that. Can't....close...up...wall...may...have...missed...something .

I'm going to be getting to the stage where I need to run all my low voltage throughout the basement and I am getting a little worried that I might forget something. My equipment room will house most (if not all) sources. I have four main areas in the basement that I will need to supply: theater, workout room, multi-TV area, and main req area. This does not include other rooms on the first and second floor that I will have to reach (though most will be a copy of what I do in the basement). The obvious answer is to run conduit to all locations so that I am covered. I plan to do that to an extent but I don't want to fill the conduit at this time. I would prefer it to be for future needs. So is there anything that people have looked back on after the fact and said, "man that would have been nice to add"? One example is have a place to plug in an iPod to play music over in-room speakers. Or have multiple LFE connections in a room so that you have flexibility in sub placement (or the ability to add more than one).

Here is a quick reminder of the floor plan:


Theater
1) Typical viewing on projector (video games, BR, DVD, cable, HTPC), 7.1 surround sound

Workout Room
1) TV (BR, DVD, cable, HTPC) w/ in-ceiling speakers that I would like to have iPod when desired.

Multi-TV Viewing Area
1) Three TVs viewing independant sources (video games, BR, DVD, cable, HTPC), 5.1 (or 5.2) surround sound

Main Rec Area
1) Really just in-ceiling speakers for music listening.


Any help you guys can give me would be greatly appreciated. I think this stage could paralyze me if I think I might be missing something.

Small update: Dry bar area mostly framed and some electrical started. I have some soffit work to do but HVAC is holding that up. Speaking of HVAC, they will be there tomorrow to get that completed. Nice to be moving on to something besides framing.

You are right about not wanting to have to run back and forth to the equipment room to plug in temporary things. I like the idea of having inputs in various locations.

I have looked into matrix switches some but am still learning. My guess is I will try it without for now but maybe look to add if I realize that I can't view something that I want to. Looking at doing a Ceton card with media center extenders (or multiple xboxs) to provide cable and gaming to all the TVs. The popcorn hour may need a matrix switch since I don't plan on having multiple PCHs.

Finally some theater progress! Pics, pics, pics...

Channel is up on the ceiling.


Conduit in the ceiling between the equipment room and the HVAC closet.


Framed a hole in the IB enclosure for access. This will be behind the screen.


Caulked the bottom of the IB enclosure.


Lot's of insulation...


Outlet locations and conduit in relation to rack opening.


Got most of the insulation in the ceiling above the theater room. Have to pull down the ceiling in the IB enclosure to put the batt insulation up. Today was a long day. Started off with the plan of using blown-in insulation for all theater related areas but after wrestling the machine from the store to the house it was just logistically impossible to use. I really wanted to use blown-in but it just wasn't to be. Instead I am using kraft faced R-30. Hopefull it won't be too much of a concession.


Return air vent. Will be located in the right side soffit.


Air supply. Will be located in the left side soffit.



This week I hope to get most of the insulation up so that I am ready to put up the OSB on the ceiling next weekend.

Question for those who have installed drywall/OSB on furring channels. It says to use fine thread drywall screws for attaching to the channels. Is there anything special about the screws? Other than them not being to long to interfere with the clip/channel connection. I'm worried that the fine thread screws won't have the holding power in the metal channel. Seems like they would be easy to strip out. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Had it not been for the insulation incident I would have probably had a lot of the OSB up on the ceiling already. I was mentally and physically drained after f'ing around with the insulation machine. That thing is not DYI friendly.

Unforturnately I have most of the insulation up and only like one package that hasn't been opened. Really wasn't too costly compared to the other options. Believe it or not I was going to try and get R38 for the ceiling! Had it not been for the nearly 50% premium I would have gone that route. Glad to hear I saved that money which is nice.

So when installing insulation in a staggered stud wall I only put 8" pieces in each cavity and not one full piece in each 15 1/4" cavity (effectively doubling my insulation)? It didn't seem like it was all that tight in the wall. If I can save some insulation that would be great but it seems like I will have a lot of voids created by the framing.

I was just worried that the fine thread screws I got didn't specifically call out metal usage. I may see if there is a different brand that says it can be used for metal. Otherwise I should be good to proceed with the ceiling.

Thanks for following along. Seems like you are about the only one watching... granted it is just now starting to get a little interesting.

Thanks for chiming in. Things are about to start getting way more interesting. I have two huge stacks of drywall clogging up my garage right now. Need to get the OSB up and out of the way so I can get that to the basement this weekend. In the meantime I have a lot of wiring and low voltage to run.

I have emailed John to see if they have a recommendation beyond the description in their instructions.

Thanks again for following along!