The SuperNoVA Theater - Planning & Build - Page 3

No problem.



Is your "slightly revised floor plan" flipped 180 degrees to the original? I like it.

I've been to your place and from what I recall you walk through lot's of socializing space upstairs, then afer getting downstairs a large open space for socializing before you get to the back room with the planned theater. Just how much socializing space do you need? Get on with it and build a nice theater already. NoVa doesn't have enough.

Socializing is chairs in a circle, standing around a kitchen island, or surrounding a bar. None of those take place in a theater where you put chairs facing the screen and you want people to come in, sit down, and shut up.

1) yes build remaining soffits inside the drywall bunker
2) yes just follow the spacing recommended by Ted at Soundproofingcompany.com for two layers
3)yes
4)yes, you could be more aggressive to keep sound out of the closet by making it a blue wall, but then I think the closet may act as a buffer of sorts to the rest of the house.
5)Not really, there are work around solutions. Putty pads on the electrical boxes is one, Part of the answer is dependent on what kind of wall treatments you plan for the sconce locations. You might be able to use surface mount pancake boxes.

The thing about inspectors is often what they don't know they will make up. If he wants more clips than add more clips, They could disappear the day before you drywall. The sticky item about decoupled theater walls and inspections will be dealing with the particular inspectors interpretation of the firestopping needs between the walls and the ceiling joists. Hopefully you get a guy who is happy with some mineral wool (Roxul) stuffed in the gaps.

Yes you can use IB3 to attach to concrete but given the choice I would go to the wood joists if possible. Concrete is an excellent sound conductor.

On the soffit you have to build. I build the walls and ceiling first as close to the ducts/pipes as possible without touching, making sure there are clips and channels where you need to anchor the soffit. Drywall the room first then build the soffit hanging off the drywall and channel. The result will be a decoupled soffit. Hanging framing for a soffit off of IB3 clips is something that you could do, you would need to check the load rating of the clips and do some calculations of the estimated soffit weight to determine the number of clips.
Edited by BIGmouthinDC - 3/18/13 at 6:01am

I'm in Loudoun and I didn't have any issues with the clips or clip pattern. I think by now, the Loudoun inspectors are pretty used to these home theater builds. I kind of found that they come in, look around and first asses the quality of what they see and based on that decide whether they need to take a closer look and be more picky about things. The only two issues I had with the plumbing inspection was where I tapped into the main drain with a rubber Tee, which is not allowed and he saw that FIRST thing, so he took a pretty good look around at the rest of the plumbing. Then he saw that I wasn't using the correct fitting for the shower head. Neither turned out to be a big deal, but scheduling them back in was pain. The only HVAC issue was that I didn't attach the boots to the framing. Electric, the only problem was that I didn't know that you had to use copper crimp connectors on the ground wires. The framing passed on initital. The guy made one comment about getting the "framing crew" to do something, so he must of thought it was a pretty profesional job. The insulation took about 2 minutes. One look around around and he said, "I wish they were ALL this easy!"

I did have a few spaces where I attached the stud to the foundation wall using the clips.I used the Pac-Intl DC04 clips for the walls and oriented it so that the rubber grommet was against the concrete then attached the metal bracket to the side of the stud. I only needed three or four like that and I'm quite happy with the results.

It may be built in front of and not touching the common wall so in a sense you may think it is isolated, but look at the top. It is pretty well connected to the ceiling floor joists and that may be a point of vibration/sound transfer to your neighbor. With the amount of time/$ you will investing in this project I would take the two hours it would take to add clips and channel to that and any similar walls. The $ will be minimal.


Edited by BIGmouthinDC - 3/18/13 at 7:29am

The DC04 is the same basic design an the IB-3 Bracket on the soundproofing company website. I used that style to isolate all of stud walls and soffit and used the style to hold the channel for the ceiling.

DC04 Clips. Order from Bryan Pape or Ted.

I'd just use one tube, and no caulk. If you don't like the result you can tear the room down to the studs and rebuild.

Bottom line is you can't make a cake if you don't follow the recipe. Also you can save money if you buy GG by the 5 gallon pail. Call Ted White or John ask for the AVS/BigmouthinDC discount.

If you and your neighbor will be happy with an 80% result than use the 1 -1 1/2 tubes.

Caulk is cheap and not worth debating. There will be open gaps at outside corners, ceiling wall intersections, at the floor, and around electrical boxes (even with the putty pads). You want to fill them up.

I would say most builds use the caulk, but it's only mentioned in passing. It's one of those things that if you're going to be using GG, you might as well be using the caulk.

My drywall source is Allied building supply in Leesburg, I also like their price on Grabber brand drywall screws. There are screws for metal channel and other ones for wood, They also stock the 25 ga metal hat channel. If you talk to Jimmy tell him I sent you.