Sunflower State Cinema - Page 7

The poor mans test for concrete moisture is to tape a 4x4 piece of 3+mil plastic down on it for 24-48 hours. See if there is any color change under the plastic after that. You can get moisture test kits from carpet and flooring trade supply houses. You shouldn't put anything down on concrete that isn't breathable IMO. Especially if it does not pass a moisture test 100%.

Not necessary if dry.

This is the stuff the pros use to create a moisture barrier membrane on concrete floors: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Custom-Building-Products-RedGard-1-Gal-Waterproofing-and-Crack-Prevention-Membrane-LQWAF1/100169081#.UZaevqLCZ8E

But like GetGray said, the proper way to find out if you have moisture is to completely tape down the edges of 3' or 4' foot squares of 3 mil (or 6 mil) plastic, wait 48 hours and see if you have any moisture underneath the poly. If you do, expect any coating you put on top to fail over time. Maybe not immediately (or anytime soon), but moisture will build under the coating.

I didn't say that....only if you have moisture problems in the concrete, then it can be expected to fail over time....but that time could be 20 years. You said the floor is already painted, right? Are there any spots where the paint has lifted or bubbled? Any cracks in the slab where moisture may be able to come through? If the paint hasn't lifted and there re no cracks, then it is probably dry and you can just get busy with gluing down the mat since you say you don't have time to check with the poly squares. Having plastic on the floor without the edges taped won't tell you anything with regards to moisture, FYI.

Then I'd get some 3' or 4' poly squares taped to the floor right away. Completely seal the edges to the floor with tape and wait 48 hours minimum to see if any moisture collects under the poly or if there are indications of dampness.

I think it would be wise to address the cracks in the floor before laying anything down on top, but your call obviously.

I would be a little leery of taking any advice from most of the help at Home Depot. A cement floor has to be able to breath, if not any moisture is going to puddle on top of it. That is why it clearly states on the Dry-Loc can not to use it on cement floors. The only thing you need to be concerned about is if you can actually see moisture on the cement floor. You can fill the large cracks if you want but I wouldn't fuss with the small ones as the cement floor is going to constantly move and needs room to do so.

It wasn't advice from Home Depot, fyi. This product is routinely used in commercial installations, but is also used in many residential applications where the amount of moisture must be carefully controlled (and stopped). The most common residential use is over the concrete slab so glue-down hardwood or engineered flooring can be installed without warping over time because it seals all the cracks and makes an impenetrable membrane. The other common residential use is over top of concrete backer board and floor substrates in shower installations. Here is a bit more installation on this product: https://www.flooringsupplyshop.com/blog/underlayment-and-waterproofing-membrane/pro-red-waterproofing-membrane-963/?main_page=blog&/underlayment-and-waterproofing-membrane/pro-red-waterproofing-membrane-963/=

There are other products available which combine the flooring adhesive and the barrier / membrane properties all in one. These are big $$ (comparatively speaking), but this one is the most prevalent: http://bostik-us.com/market-products/flooring/hardwood#mvp4

Concrete does not need to breathe. If the slab shows moisture wicking through it from the ground once this test is over, the moisture problem must be addressed first or no coating system is going to solve the problem. The concrete must only need to be dry and fully cured before any coatings - that's it. Think about it macfan....if concrete needed to breathe, epoxy and acrylic coatings for garage floors wouldn't exist as products because they REALLY seal the concrete and stop all transmission between the slab and the environment.

If Jedimaster's test shows moisture, he shouldn't seal the floor and instead address the moisture issue first. If no moisture is found, he can safely seal the concrete with a roll-on membrane and glue down the rubber mat....OR simply just glue down the rubber mat directly to the concrete since the rubber and the adhesive are both vapor barriers.

I guess we'll find out in two days.

I am not familiar with your rubber mat so I can't comment on that. All I know is every contractor I have talked too cautioned me to seal my poured concrete walls but to not seal the floor because it has to breath. You can find a lot on this using Google. If you are seeing water on your concrete floor I think I would want to investigate as to why. I would start by checking my down spout system and move on to landscape grading, etc. If you are seeing no water on your walls but visible water on your floors, something is wrong. I have even talked to a few carpet guys about carpeting my Home Theater floor and asked what their suggestions were to put down first. All of them told me nothing is necessary except a good pad but that I could put anything I wanted down as long as the floor was dry. I have a large pond about 25/30 feet from my foundation wall and have never seen any water on my basement poured cement walls or cement floor and my place is going on 25 years old now.

You can do what ever you want with your cement floor. I have talked with many experts and I have no intention of sealing mine. Contrary to your opinion every one of the experts has told me that a cement floor has to breath. As I mentioned before, even Dry-Loc has a warning on their can that a cement floor has to breath and not to use Dry-Loc on a cement floor.

Mold and mildew are the risks.

Dang that is a decent price on blanks from Monoprice. I bought a few to start out and got them from an Amazon vendor and paid $7.99 shipped for my 1U blanks.

I wouldn't worry about a big white MONOPRICE logo painted on the front. A can of flat black Krylon will take care of that!!!

You should look into rack ears for the Emotiva and Denon components. Might be cheaper than shelves, but probably not. Looks nice, though, but not as nice as the custom RSH shelves. Find out how others racked their Emotivas.

To address some of your points, in order:
1. I would frame an extra 1.75" wider than the rack itself for the rough opening in all directions. Use pre-primed 3/4" x 3.5" stock in all dimensions, thereby creating a frame whose interior is just slightly larger than the rack in all dimensions. Slip this casing into the rough opening, shim where needed to preserve square and attach with finish nails. Paint as desired (probably flat black). Build your platform base high enough so when the rack is properly trimmed out as you propose, you can run case molding all around the rack while still having a full run of base molding and a small gap between the two moldings. In other words, if your base is 5" plus a 1" inch gap plus a 3" case molding, and a 1/8" reveal....your base will be 9 1/8" high. The height of your base should be exactly even with the height of the bottom casing. The rack will partially rest on the finish casing and primarily rest on the plywood base. This 3/4" casing all around allows you to create a perfectly square finished dimension inside the rough carpentry and give you a nice edge to attach your case molding all around, just like any window or door casing. It's a very clean look.

2. I personally like rack ears whenever possible - it maximizes ventilation around the equipment, gives a perfect look and often saves both money and rack space. Typically speaking, if you have a piece of equipment that is exactly 3U tall, the RSH shelf will be 4U to accommodate the feet and a bit of space above. When you start adding up all the different pieces of equipment, you can lose quite a number of rack spaces when everything is said and done.

Be careful about the gaming systems in the steel racks from a remote location....this sometimes causes transmission problems between the gaming unit and the controller. Plus, you have to extend all of the USB devices (Kinect, Wii, etc.) to the front of the room to be usable. The good transmitters put the signal over Cat-6, but make sure you weed out any compatibility issues with the USB extenders and these gaming systems FIRST. There are plenty of websites that review this kind of information.

3. Blanks are always popping up on eBay for cheap. Wait to find a guy that has a number of different sizes for a reasonable price and then pop on them. Perhaps this goes without saying....but you don't want to use all blanks...you have to find certain spots for vent panels as well to draw conditioned air past the top of the heat-emitting equipment.

4. You don't need the offset bars, especially with that rack depth. Two 10-packs of standard lacing bars will do just fine....although I prefer the "L" shaped cable lacing bars for equipment that has a ton of wires going to it, like a Preamp, matrix switch, etc. It's just easier to control.

A few other comments:

• It's no problem hard-wiring the power strip provided you get the appropriate metal face plate that allows you to install a Romex strain relief clamp.
• The sliding rack rails are useless to you. Remove them. If you are looking for slide-out storage, just get a Middle Atlantic D3 drawer and be done with it.
• With your system you will not need the Panduit wire management device.
• You can retrofit that shelf that came with the rack with an RSH faceplate. There are ways to buy the faceplate ONLY to save money. Same is true for the deeper rack shelves if you go that route and have the same tabs toward the front that are designed to hold the custom faceplate, fyi.

I hope this helps!
Edited by TMcG - 5/20/13 at 1:55pm

Does the equipment pull out too ? Does the shelves come out for easy hook ups ? Or is it just next to the rack a pull out drawer ?

Although they may seem expensive, rack ears are typically the least expensive racking option outside of a plain 'ol shelf, plus it gets you the custom look so I wouldn't discount them.

The only suggestion I have for you in racking the gaming consoles is to try it out in your location with your conditions (i.e HVAC duct, location of rack, potential electrical interference, etc.). Most of the time the systems should work fine without issue as long as the distances are reasonable and interference is minimal. You will definitely have to use the USB extenders for the Kinect, Wii and Sony Move devices. Setup is easy, just one box that plugs in on the console side and another device that plugs in near the target device. Signal goes over a single Cat5 in most cases. You do have to pay attention to the specs and/or power requirements for these devices because not all are compatible. You will need one set of USB extenders per device and cannot use a USB hub, for example.

Space above the equipment depends on heat produced by the equipment. Typically speaking, amps, old-style DVRs, receivers and other known heat-producing culprits typically get a 1U-2U vent (not blank) depending on how much heat the device produces. You are only looking for enough CFM to be drawn through the vent panel in the rack. Most source equipment doesn't need any space or blanks above or below it, fyi.