Sherwood Miniplex Construction Begins!

After spending many years trying to get several multipurpose, open to the rest of the house, rooms to perform as theaters while drooling over what you all have done here, construction on my home theater has finally begun.

I am adding an addition onto the back of my home for the theater. Here are the important construction details:

• 18'x22' Addition with 9.5' ceilings
• Slab foundation sunken 18" below main floor level of the home (which is on a crawlspace)
• Double 2x4 wall construction isolated from ceiling structure with IB-3 Isolation Clips
• R19 Pink Fiberglass insulation in each wall cavity
• Two layers of 5/8" Drywall with Green Glue between on all walls
• Two layers of 5/8" Drywall with Green Glue on the ceiling, isolated from ceiling structure with RSIC clips
• Entry to the theater will be via airlock 30" solid-core doors onto a main floor level riser with an 18" drop to the main theater floor (slab level)
• An equipment room is boing built outside of the theater where the 100Amp sub panel, all the Insteon In-Line dimmers and components will be located
• Lighting will be Insteon based, allowing me to control the lights with normal remote actions (pause raises light levels, play drops them back down, etc).
• Lighting will be broken into 5 zones (ceiling cans, side and rear soffit cans, screen soffit cans, accent rope lighting and safety rope lighting (under steps, etc.)
• A Fujitsu Mini-Split system will be mounted in the attic and provide independent Heating and Cooling to the room

Here is a shot of the floor plan:


The layout for the Theater was done by Dennis Erskine and his team. So far, they have been great to work with. Per his plan, I will be using Quest Acoustic panels for sound absorption, diffusion, etc. and Triad speakers.

Here is the equipment list for the theater:

• Triad In-wall Silver LCR (mounted on the wall behind the screen wall) for the front three speakers
• Triad Bronze In-Wall surrounds mounted in the back-most columns on each side and in each column on the back wall
• Triad CinemaPlus Subwoofer mounted behind the screen wall /w Triad 600Watt amp
• Three In-wall Bronze Slim Subs (one mounted in a column on each side and in one column on the rear wall) /w Triad 300 Watt Amps
• Will pre-wire for height and wide speakers, though I will not be installing them right now
• Onkyo PR-SC5507 Pre-Pro (existing)
• Outlaw Audio 7700 7x200 WPC Amp (existing)
• JVC RS-20 (plan to upgrade to RS-65U if I have enough $$ left after this is all done )
• 120" Wide CenterStage XD 2.35:1 screen
• Seven Fusion Escape seats with Buttkickers

My goals with the theater design was to keep things simple. While I love the look of many of the theaters that make extreme use of wood and contrasting colors, I want as little reflection as possible so I went as basic as you can go for the design. The screen wall, soffits and columns will be covered by Black FR-701 fabric. The side and rear walls will use GOM Anchorage Mulberry fabric. Below are some renderings of the theater:

View from the rear:


View from the front:


I have a contractor that is doing the main building construction. He will finish it to framing and give it to me for a few weeks so I can pull cables, do electric, etc. Then he will put up the drywall. The rest of the work is mine to do.

So that is the overall plan and design. I am open to input from anyone. The outside dimensions are final and nothing can change those. The interior design is still pretty flexible, especially things like electrical. Not open to change in speaker selection, location, etc. since the experts decided all that. I am about 3 weeks away from pulling cables and installing lighting so any changes there can be made to work.

Here is where we are as of today. The footings have been poured. The slab will be poured next week. I have the theater seats, speakers and screen coming in over the next 2 weeks. I should have the Quest panels in by late September. I am hoping to get an order into Ted White (SoundProofingCompany.com - great guy) for all of the green glue, sealant, putty pads, door sound proofing and isolation clips next week.

Over the next several months, I will post pictures as things progress. Here are a couple of the construction done so far:






Thanks for reading. I am looking forward to being an official member of the Dedicated Home Theater club. I'll be happy to answer any questions.

Shan
Edited by Shan - 8/13/12 at 9:55am

I have seen your thread...no reason for you to be drooling...your theater will rock!

Quick question for folks.

I am using RSIC clips to suspend two layers of drywall below the ceiling structure...how should I approach the soffits? I assume I can't attach them to the drywall (Dennis spec'd 3/4 MDF which is heavy). Should I hang them separately from their own clips and just drywall around them?

Shan

Ya, my concern was whether or not the clips and channel would support the added weight of the MDF...since it spans 3 sides of the room, we are talking about 17 feet long by 1 foot wide by 1 foot tall. With 3/4" MDF, I was afraid the clips couldn't handle it. Plan to also ask Ted when I chat with him...maybe I just need to use more clips in that area or something...maybe they are strong enough and I am worrying about nothing.

Shan

Found a thread here that shows a way to do it, if anyone is interested: http://www.avsforum.com/t/1280281/rsic-1-clips-and-ceiling-load

I'll go this route.

Shan

Received my first major theater delivery today. 13 boxes and 367 pounds of Triad goodness.



Now if only I had walls and a ceiling so I could put these puppies up.

Shan

Hey all. It has been a long time since I posted since my folks were in town but lots of progress has been made.

I ran the line for the 100Amp sub-panel. Total PITA. Amazing how much extra time it takes when you have no clue what you are doing. We ended up going way overboard on wire due to what Home Depot had in stock and ran a two 1/0 Load wires, a 1/0 Neutral and a #2 ground. The biggest issue we ran into with the wire is that 80 feet of it ways a half ton. After a day and a half we got it all run through 1 1/2" Schedule 40 PVC Conduit from the Main into an outdoor Sub-panel. We went outdoor for simplicity. Due to the location the indoor panel was going to go, it was just easier to run it outside then try to do a turn in conduit in a 4" wall. Only major snag at this point was finding out I have to use AFCI Breakers for everything in the theater, over-filling my new panel. I rearranged my plans to use less circuits, so we should be fine now...other than the $400 the breakers will cost. My current plan (way overboard) is to have a single 15 Amp circuit for the theater and porch lighting. A single 20 Amp circuit for all of the interior and exterior outlets and then 6 20Amp circuits in my equipment room for all of my components (mainly the 7 Amplifiers.) Here's a few shots:


Service Entry box where subpanel feeds from the main panel in the garage


HVAC Shut-off we installed to save $400 on the HVAC install


Eaton 125 Amp 12 Slot Outdoor Rated subpanel. We had to route the conduit around the drain pipe for the gutters.

Below is a circuit map for the theater. The junction box (there will be more than one) located in the equipment room holds the Smarthome Insteon InLineLinc modules that will control all of the theater can and rope lighting. There will be no switches in the theater itself. The only physical control will be via a 6-Key Insteon KeyPadLinc hard-wired to the porch lights.



More to come.

Figured I would also post a status update on the construction.

The outside room construction is nearly complete with 4 walls and a roof. Tomorrow the builder will start framing and roofing the porch. Some pics below.


The outside of the room is done. Excuse the back yard...total mess right now.


This is a shot from the screen looking back to the entry. When finished, there will be a second wall that will cover the door. The entry door will be about 1 foot in from the left wall in this picture. Airlock style, of course.


This is a shot from the doorway to the screen. Again, the second wall will completely cover the window.

We also completed construction on the equipment room. It is about 53" x 43" with a door to get me access to the rear of the equipment. I am waiting to drywall until I start getting electric pulled and a light mounted in there.

At this point, I've received everything at this point to finish things up.


Here are three of the Fusion Escape recliners I got from Roman. I could not resist setting them up in my family room so I sold my old Berkines.


And a shot of my normally clean living room/game room. Speakers, Green Glue, resilient clips, the Seymour XD screen, Acoustic Door seals, fabric frames, etc. take up a lot of space. And this does not include the other 4 seats, 150 yards of fabric, doors, exhaust fans and everything else filling the second bay of my garage.

I can't wait to get this done so I can get the holes in my family room (old theater) walls repaired, the room painted, the synthetic grass laid in the back yard and all this mess cleaned up.

That's it for today. Moving a lot faster so I should have more frequent updates. I am hoping to pull electric this weekend and they can get started on drywall late next week or early the following. Still targeting a Thanksgiving completion date.

Shan

They are very comfortable. A bit more firm than the chairs I replaced, but very comfortable. The leather is pretty durable and feels good. I know the fake stuff would have been more durable, but I did not like the texture. The power recline mechanism is a bit faster and quieter than the Berklines, a nice surprise. The headrests are great as well and the LEDs control lights do not bother me at all, so far. Roman will have replacement controls this winter that turn off the lights when locked, but I doubt I will replace mine.

I also got the Buttkickers in mine. My last seats had the LFEs in them so I was afraid the BK4s would not be powerful enough, but they are great.

I highly recommend these chairs and it does not get any better than ordering from Roman.

Shan
Edited by Shan - 9/14/12 at 12:48am

A bit more progress to report.

First, I passed my Cover (rough-in) electrical inspection today. There were a few things that were not complete, since the inspector arrived in the morning instead of the afternoon but, based on how I wired the rest, he passed me anyhow and just told me to finish up the few extra things. I was also missing an outlet on the new wall I added for the component room, but that was easy to wire in. A little over 750 feet of wire...hard to believe. Once again, I am glad I never became an electrician. I have a new found respect for all you voltage jockeys out there. Oh and we went live with several of our circuits today. No popped breakers, sparks or fires. :P

Framing inspection is happening tomorrow afternoon. The builder also got all of the clips installed for the hat channel and is planning to start insulation, followed by drywall on Wednesday.

The painter will be starting to pressure wash the existing house tomorrow and will prime the addition on Wednesday. Planning to have it all painted by the end of the week before it starts raining on us.

Here are some updated pics..sorry for the mess.

The equipment room is wired and ready for drywall. Only thing left to do it run a conduit from there to the projector location (1.5" PVC), Wire for the PowerBridge and then install LV boxes to route the smurf tube and conduit into. I probably should clean the floor in there and the room around it up a bit too.




Here are pics of all 4 corners of the theater room. Once drywall is up, we'll build the riser and the soffits and install lights then it will start to look like the real deal.

Front Left


Front Right


Rear Right


Rear Left


Well, that's it for now.

Shan

First layer of drywall was up on the ceiling when I got home yesterday. The plan for today is get a layer on all of the walls and the second layer on the ceiling. Hoping to be drywalled by the end of the week. Next week's plan includes building the Riser and the Soffits. Then i can install lighting, electrical receptacles and all that good stuff. Then onto final inspection.



More pics soon.

Shan

The soffit is going to be 12" tall by 18" wide. It will be constructed with 2x2" at 24" on center and covered with a single layer of 1/2" drywall and contain only can lights. One side of the soffit will be mounted directly to the second stud wall and the other will hang from a dedicated hat channel. We have talked about adding diagonal braces every 24" that would tie back into the stud wall so that it is carrying most of the load We can still do that if you think it is necessary.

Thanks Ted! BTW, you did a bang up job with the clip order. We ended up with just the right amount of IB3s and only 8 extra IB1s. Nice job.

Shan

Apparently my last post never went up so I am way behind on here. Lot of changes since the end of September.

Here are the pics of the stage and riser that did not go up:




Now here are some pics of the current state of things.

The doors to the theater from my family room (the old theater) are installed. The first shot is with the family room door closed. The second is both it and the theater side of the airlock open. I still need to install the Acoustic Door Seals I got from Ted...that is a project for one night this week - if I can work around the painter who will be here from Weds. through Saturday painting the family room and kitchen.



Airlock doors open:


The lighting is done in the theater but the lights are hanging until I get the trim kits painted. Also need to build some backing blocks to bring the lights down even with the 1" Linacoustic that will be installed under the soffits...then remove the lights, rewire them and install them through the backing blocks. But you get the idea.

This is a shot from the entry door towards the screen wall. You can see the Mini-Split peaking out behind the soffit towards the center of the theater.


Here is a shot from the screen wall to the rear right of the theater. The columns are in place but not mounted. I need to get the speakers installed, the wires run and the columns wrapped before I permanently secure them.


Here is a shot from the screen wall back to the entry door.


So that's where we stand today. The current punch list, the order I will complete them is as follows:

• Paint and install the Acoustic Door seals
• Mount the Triad Silver LCRs and CinemaPlus Sub on the front wall
• Put the Linacoustic (2 layers with 3 Mil plastic between) on the front wall
• Run wire for all of the speakers (running the wire over the top of the blocking I am using to push the trim out the 2" necessary to clear the fabric. Then I will install 5" floor molding to hide the wire...this way I can simply pull the trim off if I ever need to add any Wire)
• Paint the light trim and the trim for the Triad speakers (they came in white...wished they came in black but I forgot to ask Dennis to order them that way.
• Mount the Triad Bronze Surrounds and Triad Bronze Slim subs in the columns and wrap the columns in fabric
• Permanently mount the columns
• Install the floor molding blocking
• Install the Recessed Can blocking
• Put Linacoustic on soffit
• Install Can lights
• Wrap Soffits
• Mount the QuestAI Acoustic treatments
• Mount the screen
• Install tracks and fabric on the front screen wall
• Install Tracks and Fabric on remaining theater walls
• Mount the Projector
• Carpet gets installed
• Move in theater seats
• Set-up equipment rack in Equipment room
• Spend weeks tweaking everything
• Spend years enjoying it all

Some things, like setting up the Insteon scenes are not in the list since I can do them whenever and I am sure I missed some other stuff. Either way, the list is still pretty long. I hoped to have all of this done by Thanksgiving, but it is looking like it will be the middle of December at my current pace.

I'll post another update soon.

Shan

I talked this over with the installers and they took a look at the fabrics and were not too worried about either the easy flow of air or getting the fabric dirty. The Mini-Split that I am using has automatic vanes that are used to vary the flow of air so it does not just go out through one spot. With the intake behind the soffit, that should disrupt the incoming air flow enough that it does not go through one spot. In the end, I took a bit or a risk. I want the unit hidden and there was not enough room in the attic to do a casette system. Worst case, the unit can be moved rather easily without tearing down the soffits...only issue is the hole in the siding that would need to be patched (probably just replace that piece of siding). So, if it does not work out, I'll get it moved somewhere else.

Shan

Quite a bit of work has been accomplished in the last 3 weeks. I passed the final Electrical Inspection so I can start covering all those outlet I had to put in. I am covering them all with 2 layers of Putty Pads (I also put a putty pad on the box before the drywall went in. I have completed sealing of all of the joints where drywall met the floor, around the riser and the stage. All of the blocking for the base molding (so it will clear the 2" fabric track) has been completed. All of the columns and the speakers in them have been mounted and wired. Ran out of wire (how do you go through 500 feet of wire that fast) so I have to wait until more comes in Thursday to finish the front speakers. The Acoustic panels are in place and the first layer of Linacoustic is on the front wall. I'll add a layer of 3 Mil plastic sheeting and the second layer of Linacoustic tomorrow. I also had the carpet installed. Normally I would have waited to do that until the very end, but I got a good deal from Home Depot on the install and had an expiring offer I had to use so it went in now. Most of the work I have left to do is not messy so it should not be a big deal. In the pics, the carpet looks purple. It is actually a very dark black.

Here are some pics:

First a little tool porn. A folding stand for my Miter Saw and a Folding Table Saw (wish I had bought it on day one instead of so close to being done).


This stand makes the Miter saw so much easier to use. First, I can move it around at the drop of a hat and second, it has expandable supports that make cutting long pieces nice but hide when I don't need them.



The 10" table saw was a god send when I started cutting all the strips for the base molding blocking. Will also come in handy for all the strips around the soffits and columns that will be used as spacers for wrapping the fabric. It would have made building the columns a lot easier if I had bought it then tho.

Here are some theater pics:


Front speakers are in place but not wired. The center channel is in it's final location. The left and right will move and inch or so in either direction. I will finalize their location when I get it all wired.



In these two shots, you can see all of the acoustic panels mounted. Still need to put the 1" panels on the bottom of the soffits and put in the blocking to build out the recessed cans. Probably something I'll tackle this weekend.

Well, that's it for now. More in a week or so. Thinking I am about 3 weeks from mounting the projector (the last thing I will do other than moving in the seats.

Shan

Thanks and yes, it is a bit of an exaggeration. In the end, I ordered 28 yards of Anchorage Mulberry and 48 yards of FR701 Black. That is enough to do the walls in the theater in the Anchorage and the soffits, columns, screen wall and ceiling in FR701. I also ordered enough extra FR701 to do some other projects in the house.

Shan
Edited by Shan - 11/27/12 at 5:59am

It does not seem like I got much done for working the entire weekend, but here is an update. :\

I finished the framing for the screen wall. Added the top and bottom studs for hanging the screen and necessary blocking for mounting the fabric tracks. Also got the screen hung and all of the screen wall fabric track installed.

Speaking of fabric and track, anyone who says it is easy is either a much better man than me or just forgetting what a pain in the a$$ is was. It took forever. I have two different types of track. I have a bunch of 1/2" track I purchased from Fabricmate.com to use to put the fabric on the ceiling. The majority of my track came from Quest Acoustical Interiors. While both tracks work, my recommendation is to buy from Fabricmate if at all possible, especially if you are using dark color FR701 fabric. The QAI track is all white so you have to paint it or it shows through the fabric. In addition, the QAI track is made of a much more brittle plastic and likes to break when being cut (yes, I am using a good plastic blade for my Miter Saw). I found that applying duct tape to the surface of the track makes it cut much better with minimal cracking...the Fabricmate track cuts like butter without the tape. The Fabricmate track was also cheaper and comes in either black or white. Fabricmate does not sell a 2" track, so you'll be stuck with QAI or another supplier for that but, were I to do it all over again, the 2" would be the only track I would have gotten from them.

Anyhow, I spent the first 5 hours putting the track up, the next 1.5 removing 3 pieces where I had the spacing wrong (at least I know my staples hold REALLY well). Then another couple hours and the first section of fabric was done. And that's all I have to show for my weekend. I am hoping the track starts to go better as I do more of it...especially now that the most complicated is hopefully done. There are also lots of tips and tricks I have learned already, and that helps a lot.

Here is a quick shot of the screen wall in its current state.



Hopefully, I will finish the screen wall tomorrow then I will get started on the side walls. I post some more pics as I made better progress.

Shan

I also wanted to give a big shout out to Ted at Sound Proofing Company. For anyone who does not know who they are, go hit their site before you purchase any sound treatment products for your theater. I bought all my clips, acoustic sealant, putty pads and of course Green Glue from Ted, one of their co-founders that frequents AVS. I also bought their acoustic door seal kits for both theater entry doors. Unfortunately, I did not RTFM before I installed them and screwed up royally. The end result was that the aluminum track at the tops of the doors, was about 1 inch too short, making them worthless. No option but to buy new. Anyone who has bought these knows they are expensive, so I was prepared to have some sticker shock when I talked to Ted. I was shocked when Ted said he would get them sent out at no charge, even after I made it clear it was my mistake and I had no issue paying. Those guys are great. You would do yourself a disservice if you do not consider them when you build your theater.

Thanks for the great service Ted!!!

Shan

Got the screen wall done tonight. Since the frame was already in place, it only took about 3 hours. Time consuming, but pretty easy work. I'll get started on either one of the side walls or the front soffit tomorrow.



Can't wait to start on the side walls...that's when it will really come together.

More to come soon.

Shan