My Hideaway construction Begins

So my dedicated HT will be started next week as well as a separate play room for my kids (In basement). The HT is going to be 30x11x8’6”, so it’s pretty long. The back 8’ will have a 10 person poker table for Monday night football/poker night. I have attached a sketch. The projector (Epson 8500UB) will be ceiling mounted at 14’ from the screen about 8” down, the screen will be the wall itself and anywhere from 90”- 112”. Audio is comprised of ONKYO HTIB 9400THX 7.1, front speakers will be front wall mounted at 40” high. The side surrounds will be wall mounted 6’ high at 1’ behind seating position. The rear surrounds will also be wall mounted 6’ high and 9’ behind seating position. The angles will be exactly as recommended, 22° for front, 100° for side and 150° for rear. The sub is TBD.

I have a few questions regarding HVAC and sound proofing. The room will be in the basement of a 2 story house, all bedrooms are on the 2nd floor. I want to sound proof as much as I can and even though I would love to use whisper clips as well as DD/GG my budget does not allow it. I’m limited to R13 for walls and R19 for ceiling with 5/8 drywall on walls and ceiling. The reason DD/GG is out of the question is that the GG alone is $900 for coverage of 33 panels, cost prohibitive at this point. I could however just use two layers of drywall with no GG. Would this be a good idea or will it cause more harm than good? If so do I go with two layers of ½ , 3/8, 5/8 , or a combination of the three? They also sell this joint gasket tape (link below) that is supposed to decouple and dampen sounds, not as good as whisper clips but better than nothing I guess. Would this tape be beneficial? I could also use acoustical caulk for all the edges since I won’t require too much. Would this also be a good Idea? Oh and I will also be using putty pads on gang boxes.

Now on to HVAC, the basement is naturally cool all year round, the original plant was to run a dedicated send and return to both halves of the basement. I know fear that by doing so the noise in the HT may travel through the ducts to the rest of house especially bedrooms. I think I have two options, the first is to not put a return or send in that room and just keep door open when not in use to avoid air getting stale and bringing in some cool/warm air. The second is to somehow recirculate the air from the other half of the room into the theater room. Similar to the door being opened but more efficient I guess. Any ideas?


http://www.tmsoundproofing.com/gasket-tape.html

Sketch.pdf 34k .pdf file

There will be a second row eventually. For now funds only allow 1 row. Forgot to mention that I'll also be placing a left over 50" plasma on the other 11' wall. Doing the basement was primarily for the kids. They have so much crap they need all the room they can get

Also posted this question in a seperate thread.

I need some advice on the HVAC set-up for my basement HT (30x11x8.5). The room has foundation walls on 3 sides and on average is at 68° in summer and 66° in winter. Below is a link to a YouTube video that might help illustrate what I’m about to ask.

I believe I have three options. The first is to build dead vents both return/send that draws air from adjacent basement room, seconds is to tap into existing HVAC system, third is a combination of the two. Mini-split is not an option due to cost. Regardless of the option I go with they all have the same basic construction within the HT. The rear of the room will be empty except for a poker table. I would like to build a soffit that runs the length of the 11’ wall and place both the flex tubes for the send/return in that soffit and fill with insulation then DD it. Vents will be on opposite ends. In this area it will be out of the way from the rest of the room. Any pros or cons to this? Also once the flex tubing enters the adjoining room which is a unfinished storage area can the tube and fan just be kept exposed? Is building a soffit with insulation around it needed if sound in this room is not a concern?

Now for the options:

1. Dead vents to draw the air from adjacent room- The flex tube here would be about 15’ long and I was thinking of adding the fan 3’ from the adjacent rooms flex tube end. This way the fan is as far as it can be from the vent in the HT. Is this sound construction? Do I need a fan on both the return/send or just the send?

2. Attaching to existing HVAC- Here the construction in the HT would be the same as option 1. Difference is that when the flex tube enters the adjacent room one vent will be tied into main trunk for send and the other to the return trunk. Here I may snake the flex tube a little bit since the main trunks are close to the HT wall where the tubes exit, about 5’. So I’ll probably add 10’ and just snake around and then circle back to main trunks. Is this sound construction? Anything I can do here to minimize noise transmition to the rest of house through HVAC?

3. Combination of the two- Here I would set it up the same as option 1, where it differs is that I would add a Y to the send flex tube in the adjacent room b/w the fan and HT. I would then add another flex tube to that Y and attach the other end to the main trunk. I would then add a damper b/w the Y and main trunk. I can close the damper in winter when the HVAC is supplying heat, but still get cooler air from the adjacent room by turning fan on. In the summer, I can open the damper to get the cooler air conditioned air and turn off the fan. I could also open the damper to varying degrees to fine tune the theater temperature. Now with this approach not sure if I should do the same to the return and tie it to the main return trunk with a Y as well?

Any other ideas?


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBxbIr6yuSQ