Hello to anyone that would like to follow along as I build my first completely dedicated theater. Now this is not my first theater but it is however the first I have ever built from the ground up. Meaning I have a movie room currently that was an extra room that I added all the equipment and furniture to make it feel like a theater. It's around 18' x 12.5' give or take and consist of an Epson 8500 Projector, 110" diagonal 16x9 Elite screen, Denon 2809 Receiver, SVSound SCS Speakers and PB12 NSD Subwoofer. I am not planning on using any of this equipment in this new theater. This info is more for reference of where I am coming from.
Edit: I will add a few pictures of my current room later.
The new room is part of the unfinished side of my basement. I have only started studding it this week and from stud to stud is 19' in length. I will be lossing up to 2' for a false wall with an acoustically transparent screen. The width I need to check again but I believe is right at 16.5'
Room before we began the project.
"Cleaned" out.
Most of the studs in place. The window will be behind my screen.
I still have a lot of work left to do on the studs. Like frame in that window, figure my false wall and put up the rest of the studs. I also need to build a soffit. I have some ideas of how I plan on building it and where but will need to take some more pictures to help illustrate whats going on.
Please let me know of any suggestions or questions you may have. I should be updating this thread pretty regularly.
Some goals for this room... seating for 10. Two rows of 4 theater seats with the rear row on a riser then two single chairs. 130" wide 2.35 to 1 AT screen. Clean reference level sound.
Equipment I am looking into.
Panasonic and JVC projectors.
Seymour and SMX screens
Onkyo and Denon receivers
Chase, ED, and JTR speakers
Panasonic, Sony, and Oppo Blu-Ray players
The only thing I'm pretty sure about is I really want the JTR S2 subwoofer.
Remotes!!! I could use some pointers on remotes. I use a logictech harmony 720 now but will be wanting something with at lease RF if not wifi.
I am open to discussion and have played with and seen in person just about everything I am looking into other then a few of them. Most notably the Panasonic 8000 projector. If anyone knows where I can view one in the Kansas City area please let me know.
First of all, I love your thread name. I'm a big Disney fan.
Could you make a quick sketch of the room? That might help people visualize it a little more to give better advice. Be sure to include obstructions like HVAC trunks and support beams too.
I know that you mentioned soundproofing in another thread. Have you given it anymore thought? I would highly recommend it.
What are your acoustical treatment plans? Fabric walls with treatments behind them? If you want clean, reference level sound then you're going to want to seriously think about them.
I wouldn't plan too much in terms of equipment at this point. The important thing is to get the room design and construction laid out and completed correctly the first time. Equipment comes later.
Yeah, I am working on a sketch now. I have drawn a few of them but now that I have really started a few of my plans have changed. I should be able to get it finished and on the thread tomorrow.
As for sound proofing I do think I am going to go ahead and do as much as I can. However I only know the basics and will have to research it a lot more.
I do plan to put up fabric covered treatments. I also want to keep this room about as dark as posible (while still looking good) so I will be using very dark fabric to soak up some light as well.
I 100% agree about equipment. However I do like to talk about tech and toys and I like researching. But i do agree that all of that will come later. There is always something better and cheaper just around the corner and I don't need any of it until the room is finished.
Subscribed! Good to see another KC dedicated room in the works. I love the name. It is clever and fanciful.
First thing before any more studs go up I would talk to Ted. Seriously, just stop working now and pick up the phone. I think you mentioned you had put up some studs so that they were in direct contact with the ceiling joists. Ideally, you would a gap there and attach the top plate to the ceiling joists with IB3 clips. There may be something you can still do or retrofit it somehow without taking it all down. Maybe just notch out a 1/4 '' where the joists are? I have no idea. Just call thesoundproofingcompany and they will let you know what your options are. If you tell them your budget they will let you know what it would cost and then you can decide for yourself if it will be possible to move forward with them.
I am really not trying to spend your money here but as I mentioned in my thread I thought the soundproofing was phenomenal at the recent Omaha tour and I would do everything you can. At first I just did not think it was in my budget but then I decided to make significant cutbacks on my equipment purchases in order to put more money into room construction. Just a thought.
Did you say that your walls were built with a gap between the foundation wall? If so that will go a long way all by itself.
I'm a bit jealous you are able to start from scratch. Definitely decouple everything from the ceiling? I guess it's more Important if you have family.
Take some care that sound doesn't creep along the foundation and up as well? Just getting that from all I've read here and what I wish my room had without a significant demo. Subscribed!
Quote:
Originally Posted by jedimastergrant /t/1437368/stitchs-great-escape-theater-build#post_22555477
First thing before any more studs go up I would talk to Ted. Seriously, just stop working now and pick up the phone. I think you mentioned you had put up some studs so that they were in direct contact with the ceiling joists. Ideally, you would a gap there and attach the top plate to the ceiling joists with IB3 clips. There may be something you can still do or retrofit it somehow without taking it all down. Maybe just notch out a 1/4 '' where the joists are? I have no idea. Just call thesoundproofingcompany and they will let you know what your options are. If you tell them your budget they will let you know what it would cost and then you can decide for yourself if it will be possible to move forward with them.
I am really not trying to spend your money here but as I mentioned in my thread I thought the soundproofing was phenomenal at the recent Omaha tour and I would do everything you can. At first I just did not think it was in my budget but then I decided to make significant cutbacks on my equipment purchases in order to put more money into room construction. Just a thought.
Did you say that your walls were built with a gap between the foundation wall? If so that will go a long way all by itself.
Ok the project is on hold. I tried to call the soundproofing company but no one is available. Being a Sunday I kinda figured they would be closed. So today I am cleaning up because it has become quite a mess with tools and wood scraps all over the place. I am also drawing out the floor plan and taking some more pictures.
Here is a look of the screen wall from me sitting at the distance of my back row.
The tool box is there to give an idea of how far out my AT screen wall will be. Also the yellow tops of the saw horses are 130 inches apart. This is the distance of the screen.
This is from the front row.
From beside the tool box looking back. You can also see where I need to frame in the theater room from the HVAC system.
Better view of the HVAC area. I originally was thinking about building in my equipment rack in this area. I like the idea of giving this area as much room as possible so if I ever need to replace these items. There is a lot of room on the other side as well.
He are the two trunks that will be covered by a soffit.
Side view. Yes its a complete mess. Sorry. If you can look past all the mess and see the window; that is going to become a bar area. The wall to the right of the window will be cut down. The room on the other side of it is my current theater. As the dark area on the far left will become a workshop area.
A good side view of the theater area. On the far side wall it goes in 10 inches. The next photo will show it better.
I am thinking about making this into a hidden shelf (closet) for movies. I am not sure how I want to make doors for this. I want it to be flush with rest of the wall and have treatments on it.
Thats probably enough for now. Let me know any thoughts.
Agree. Soundproofing is priority at this point in the build.
One bit of advice I can give on the drywall after I have mine up... Lowe's/Home Depot usually have the light weight stuff. If you can find and get the "standard" (aka heavy stuff)... use it. Weight and density makes the difference.
I need to use 1/2" instead of 5/8" (because of the retrofit depth requirement) and all the local home improvement place only carry 1/2" in the lightweight.
I had a time restriction and had to get the drywall in a rush. I ended up going with the 1/2" light weight stuff with QuietGlue Pro in between. It still works well, but I can say with 95% confidence, the heavyweight stuff would add a bit more STC to the whole project. Don't get me wrong, prior to doing the project EVERYTHING could be heard through the wall, even conversation voice levels. Now it has to be cranking and even then only hard bass is the only thing that is semi-audible.
Cool Tim, I'll be following along too. If I'm looking at it right it's nice that you don't have to deal with HVAC or the beam in between your projector and screen right? Grant's jealous abou that right off the bat.
On your gear list I think you can eliminate CHT and eD from your list, that narrows it down to an easy decison.
Didn't you say you are eventually planning on moving so you don't want to pump too much money into the room itself?
You are correct the beam makes up the right wall if you were to be sitting were the seats will go. The HVAC trunks are in the room but are also running along the right side wall. If I can balance the room correctly I plan on matching the soffit on the left side as well. Giving it that raised ceiling look.
Correct again JTR all the way for me.
Yes, we don't plan on this being our forever home. However we do plan on being here for quite a few years. So I am doing a bit of a balancing act on how much I want to put into the room its self versus equipment that I can always sell/take with me. I plan on treating the room quite a bit and will probably add the channels, green glue, and double drywall. I'm still debating that last part. I'm much more worried about about sound going out then sound coming in. I know it will help both. But is it really worth it to me is the question. It's only the two of us and we mostly watch everything together. The other part of me is thinking... If we do have kid(s) their room(s) would be above the theater. So I do need to take that into consideration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by stitch1 /t/1437368/stitchs-great-escape-theater-build#post_22611031
You are correct the beam makes up the right wall if you were to be sitting were the seats will go. The HVAC trunks are in the room but are also running along the right side wall. If I can balance the room correctly I plan on matching the soffit on the left side as well. Giving it that raised ceiling look.
Correct again JTR all the way for me.
Yes, we don't plan on this being our forever home. However we do plan on being here for quite a few years. So I am doing a bit of a balancing act on how much I want to put into the room its self versus equipment that I can always sell/take with me. I plan on treating the room quite a bit and will probably add the channels, green glue, and double drywall. I'm still debating that last part. I'm much more worried about about sound going out then sound coming in. I know it will help both. But is it really worth it to me is the question. It's only the two of us and we mostly watch everything together. The other part of me is thinking... If we do have kid(s) their room(s) would be above the theater. So I do need to take that into consideration.
We are in our 7th year of our 3 year house. It is WAY easier to do the work now vs down the road and you have to move all your stuff, dust, etc....NIGHTMARE.
Some folks might even argue that the green glue helps with the overall acoustics. Absorption of low frequency sounds from resonating the drywall, etc. Just my $0.02, but knowing what I know now, I would have re-done my room from the start.
We made some progress this weekend. The window has been framed, back wall has been fully framed, we bought the frame for the door and figured out where it's going to go. We did some work in the bathroom but thats a different conversation.
We also decided to tear out our ceder closet. It can be seen in the messy picture up above. This will give us a lot more room for both our bar/kitchen area as well as the storage/workshop area.
Some other decisions were made. We picked where and how we are building our equipment rack. It will be on the right side just passed the suport beam. It will be built into the wall allowing rear access from the storage room. I have a pretty good idea of how I am going to build the door for the closet where I'm putting my movies. This well depend on the stage and screen wall. We are going to be doing some sound proofing. But more on that later.
Once I get the rest of the ceder closet ripped out and cleaned up I'll post up some photos.
We got some work done this evening. We took the rest of the ceder closet out. We had to rewire a few things. We cleaned up a bit and started planing out the kitchen area. Tomorrow we plan to frame in the door for the theater, complete the bathroom, and start the soffit. If time allows I would like to frame my racks closet.
Some photos of my progress. I feel I should apologize in advance. I have a different phone and I'm not sure the camera is as good.
This side is now much bigger due to taking the closet out. We placed the table where we feel the wall should go.
Heres just the area behind the table. This will become a work shop of sorts. This area will not be finished.
Looking the other way. Gives you an idea where the kitchen will be added. That wall/door will not be there once we are done. We want to open this area up to the rest of the basement.
Here is a shot from the new theater looking out tords the kitchen area.
And heres the other direction showing where we're at with the theater. Hopefully the door will be framed in tomorrow.
That looks like a nice big space to work with, I think it's going to be awesome when it's all done. How big is the entire basement? You probably said already. It's great to see that it's starting to happen, I bet your excited!
I have a favor to ask. I asked Grant this too. Do you mind if I come over and help/watch you do the false wall when you get to that point? I have a selfish reason of course, I want to see how you do it and if I go that route sometime down the road maybe I could enlist your help?
BTW, I went ahead and bought all 3 speaker stands for the Noesis from Jeff, I figured I'd just get it all done right away so that when the speakers get here I can immediately set them up.
Yes, we are super excited to see any progress. I'm not 100% sure what the total size is but I think its in the ball park of 1400sq ft. From what you can see in the photos there is also an office, bathroom, and my current movie room. They are also works in progress just like everything in this house.lol The bathroom should be done today. The office just needs the desk built. The current movie room really just needs baseboards and some touch up paint but will probably stay the way it is till we are done with this side.
Of course you can come over and see any of the stages of the build. I'll give you a heads up when we get the the false wall.
I can't wait to hear your room with all three noesis! That's really going to be an awesome setup.
Well its time to head back down for some more work. I'll update again tonight.
A little update. My dad came by and helped my figure out my door. The frame is only temporary we need to make a few changes and get some more wood. But heres a few pics.
After a far too long hiatus, we have started working on the theater/basement again. We bought the rest of the studs needed to finish studding the kitchen side and the soffits. We tried to get some studding done tonight but didn't get started till late and then ran into an electrical snag. We were able to figure out our issue but by the time we got it sorted out it was getting late and I was kinda upset at the setback and figured it would be best to start up again tomorrow.
He was nice enough to have my wife and I over to look around and ask questions. He really put a lot of good ideas in our heads and showed me just how much work is involved.
One other bit of progress we made is we finally figured out how we are going to cover where our HVAC and water units are. I will post a picture tomorrow. But there is this poll right next to them and we originally thought we would have to rig up some kind of barn door like system in order to cover them up. Well after looking at a different project my father was doing for his closet; it finally hit me that we could just build a column around the poll and have normal doors framed to it. It all seems so simple now. But we have thought about this issue for a very long time and couldn't come up with a real solution till now.
So, the goal for tomorrow is to build the soffits, frame in three doors, and start putting linacoustic in the ducts. We should be able to start much earlier and work later tomorrow. I have high hopes we can get these three steps done tomorrow.
This is pretty ruff floor plan. I have been meaning to put something like this up for a while now. The area it is marked Play Room is where my current theater is. You'll see a little - on the right side along the wall before the kitchen. Currently there is a wall right there. That will have to come down soon. Also, the wall on the back side of the kitchen does not currently exist. I have all the studs to add it and should be framing it this weekend.
Overall, this should give everyone a good idea of what the goal is. Feel free to ask any questions I know its pretty ruff.
Well, we have made progress but everything is like a domino effect. We really needed to get the main door to the theater studded to be albe to build the soffits. We decided to switch to a different door. That made it a big change in out design. So, That stopped us from finishing either of those. We are currently working on them today.
We did build the frames for the other two doors and put them in place. We plan to stud out the other two walls today.
I can't get the trunks apart to save my life to install the lineacoustic material. Grant, did you run into any issues with that?
Hopefully I will have more to share tonight and I'll post up some pics.
So you are trying to gain access to your existing ducting to line it with the duct liner? Of course that is the intended application of this material. However, I did not attempt to do this. Instead, I just tore out all of the existing metal duct work that communicated directly with the room and replaced it with flex duct. I left the metal duct work in place if it was going to other rooms in the house.
I used the linacoustic for lining my supply plenums in a separate soffit that we created inside of the shell. We just made them out of wood much like you may have seen in some of Big's builds and then lined it with one or two layers using the impalers. I will also be lining the inside of my hvac return system. Something I am not looking forward to working on.
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