Living the dream - Upstairs Theater build

Congrats on the first step towards your new HT! Just positively deciding to do it is the biggest hurdle. I'm no expert, but I'll just throw some stuff out there. Not sure what your budget is but for what you're looking at doing, this won't be cheap.

With your current AC maxxed out, you'll either need to upgrade to a much bigger unit and run the appropriate feed/return ducts OR install a completely new and separate system for "HT/Office Only". I would think the latter would be the easier and possibly cheaper option. If your upstairs ws just one big room you might be able to get away with a large, split unit. Compressor goes outside, coils and blower inside in a free-standing unit. They are very popular in Europe and starting to make their way here. Or even a big mutha, 25K BTU window unit. But since you have a room within a room, you're going to need dedicated ductwork.

You're going to need a separate sub panel run upstairs. 100-amp panel comes to mind. The good thing about all this is that it's basically new construction. Nothing to rip out, no existing plumbing/ducting/wiring to work with or around. A clean slate, as it were.

Your situation is a lot more complicated then say, turning a finished, spare bedroom that already has AC and power outlets into a HT.

Don't know how handy you are, but don't forget all this has to be done to code and inspected, less the resale value of your home go to pot. Not to mention possible "We're not covering you" from the insurance company should something go wrong. I.E. an unfortunate electrical fire starts and when they investigate they find out it was in the wiring you did and wasn't inspected. That's bad. I had a recent experience w/this. I could not install a single 240v outlet in my garage for a tablesaw b/c the insurance company wanted a receipt from a certified electrician that it was done to code. And the outlet is exactly 3 feet from the main panel on the same wall. x 2.

Not trying to discourage you, but helping you think (I hope).

Hire a HT designer, like Dennis , and let him deal with the planning, electrical, HVAC, isolation and design. Then, submit bids out to local contractors. Makes the headaches almost gone

This is how i did my theater. Dennis then (directly or indirectly) worked with my HVAC guy, electrician, contractor and architect There is so much to it if you want a solid end result.

I like the version with the door in the middle. That way, you don't have to step up onto the riser to enter the room, and step down again to get to the front-row seats.

Does your A/V room open into the theatre? I still use Blu-Rays, and don't like going into another room to insert the disk into the player.

I see a lot of wasted space for hallways and long narrow storage areas which will be difficult to fully utilize. Without knowing more about the total space in general it is difficult to see if there are alternatives.

Your seats seem awfully close together. What kind of seating are you planning to use?

I would keep the layout with the screen at the "south" end but move the door forward (toward the screen) so you don't have to step up to enter the theater. Then you could consider rotating the rack 90 degrees so the components face into the room, which would be handy for changing discs. Put a door on the back of the rack to provide access to the cables.

All of that unfinished storage space would be great for an infinite baffle subwoofer, if you're inclined to such things.

I'm having similar struggles. I have decided to have one or two local HT builders come give me their advice...I'll just pay them an hourly rate to come chat with me about it.

I would LOVE to be able to fit in two rows and a bar, and my room is similar in size to yours. I think I can probably pull it off by moving the door off the back wall...

I'd explore having the theater entrance at riser level, by moving the door to the back wall and reworking the entry hall area. The av rack could have rear access via a gasketted door in the air handler room.

I would not, if I could avoid it. Depending on riser height, it might be an accident waiting to happen.

It also means you loose the corner for riser bass trapping.

Step up to riser height outside the theater if you have to enter at the back of the theater. Only if you have the headroom. From Big Red's thread:



You could swap the screen wall and move the door down the hallway just a little bit and enter in front of the stage. My choice for this space if you can't build a step up outside the theater.

Could you pull the theater forward by hiding some of the roof line slope (if any) in a front soffit? And then rotate the office closet ninety degrees to reduce hallway length. It would add square footage to the office, plus offer a buffer zone between the office and theater.

A really "out there" rough idea is to create a hidden storage/air handler area door and wet bar/av rack for the raised entry area.

I'm not sure whether you are still considering building this out as a single large, multipurpose room with a poker table and bar, in addition to the theater. I have a similar multipurpose space and we absolutely love it. It is a fantastic space for entertaining. However, it is not ideal for watching movies. With the theater seats on one side of the big space and the opposite side wall a long way off, the seats are too close to one surround speaker and too far from the other, so surround sound is not terribly immersive. My single 12" SVS sub is a workhorse but it can't really pressurize a space this big. If there are people at the card table (or playing pool, in my case), it's impossible to use the theater for more than casual watching. So, great for entertaining. Not so great as a serious theater. We're happy with our choice, but you might have different priorities.

Either way, it looks like it should be a great space!

I have 8 outlets - 4 each on two circuits - and they're all full. But that's mostly because I've sloppily added more and more stuff, without regard to what's on which circuit or adding additional power strips to group the low draw items (ethernet switch, IR receiver, external hard drive, etc.). Two circuits is nice to have, so you can dedicate one to high draw power amps, should you go down that road (subs).

I would consider how to center the screen and seating in the room -- symmetry is important, particularly for the sound.

Our plan for my new theatre, similar size (19' x 21') if for 2 - 15" Subs up front, and 3 more 10" Subs side and back to balance out. Should be a great bass system, if I can get it all balanced right.

LeBon has an excellent point about using multiple subs to smooth in-room bass response. With all of the unfinished storage space surrounding the room, you should be able to place subs without taking up any in-room real estate.