Dan's DIY Home Theater

Okay...so I'm finally getting my theater going. I'm finishing it with the basement, and the theater is proving to be the stalling element of the project. I'm having a hard time making decisions and understanding the best way to do things, and it's slowing me down.

First things first...the room. The room is 17'3" deep and 15'7" wide. I have 9 foot ceilings. There are no windows in the room, but there is a double door on one side. Please see the following snapsnot of the layout on graph paper (I'm working on a nice google sketchup, but I don't have time to finish it right now).



I am planning to have a fairly simple stage at the front, a 10" riser in the rear, and two rows of seats. I am hoping I can get 5 seats in the back row and 4 seats in the front row, but I have plenty of time to figure that out. Right now I figure out the riser, and the hvac.

Looking at the room, the wall opposite the door is a concrete wall...the foundation of the house. The room to the right of the door (the top of the picture) borders a family room, and the wall labeled "screen wall" borders a guest bedroom. The wall with the door borders a hallway (obviously).

Okay...back to the HVAC. I live in Utah, and the temperature in the basement has an amazingly consistent temperature. Because of this, I'm going to just pull heat runs off the existing trunk line for the upstairs (we have a rambler) for all the rooms in the basement except the theater. The idea is that most the time, the vents in the basement will be closed because the temperature down there is so ideal year round. The only room I'm concerned about is the theater. I fear that it will get hot in the there with a bunch of people and a projector (all other equipment is rack mounted in the utility room). What are my best options for HVAC in this room? I'm going to build a soffitt/valence around the room to give the ceiling some depth, and I'm thinking I may be able to install a mini split system inside that valence. Does anyone have any thoughts or opinions on that? Will that sufficiently cool the room without any sort of return air? I fear the air in that room may get stale or stagnant. I'm also thinking of installing the projector in the valence, and if I do that I'll mount a whisper quiet fan with a vent to outside. Can anyone offer any suggestions on what I can do to heat/cool this room?

Second question...the riser. I'm going to make it 10 inches high, I am just uncertain on how deep to make it. I realize that 17'3" is somewhat short, and I'm hoping for a 110" screen. Can anyone give me any advice on deep to build this riser? I'll make it the entire width of the room...it's just the depth that's in question. I would like to get all reclining seats, if possible.

I'll get the wiring to the room finished up this week, and I'd like to get the riser built this weekend. I also need to get a handle on the HVAC so I can figure out which way to go there.

Thanks in advance.

Dan

So, I've been doing some thinking, and I am thinking a 6 foot riser might make sense. If I go with Berkline seats, that will leave me over two feet of room in front of the seats.

Thoughts?

I'm also thinking that the seating configuration may be 4 in the back and 3 in the front, although I'd love to do 5 in the back and 4 in the front if I could make it work. Has anyone done 5 wide in a room 15' 7" wide before?

Spaceman, thanks for your reply! I haven't used the Riser calculator. I don't have all those detailed measurements to use the calculator, but I am not married to 10" by any means. Are you thinking that 12" would make more sense?

I have considered soundproofing for this space. The ceiling is insulated, and the walls will be insulated. I will double up the drywall, and use GG between the sheets. I will make sure that the stage and riser and screwed AND glued together, and I am planning to lay some roofing felt/material between the concrete and the riser/stage. I am not overly worried about soundproofing to the extent of building a "room within a room". We're not big loud sound people...just going to be watching movies as a family.

Roger Dressler, thank you so much. I like your thought of using rear seats that recline, but have no footrest. People will be able to exit the row from either side, so I'm not overly concerned with having to walk past a reclined person. At most, it would be one person (if I squeeze 5 seats in the back I guess it could be two), but I don't see this being a huge problem.

I like your thoughts on using the minisplit in that fashion. Across the hall from the theater, is a storage room. I think it would be fairly easy to mount the mini split to the ceiling in the storage room, and I could run duct work in to the room, and around the room inside the soffit. I could also create a return air duct, and hide it in the soffit. The other good thing with this is any sound that traveled through the duct, would just go in to the storage room. The storage room is under the front porch and entry way, but the ceiling in the storage room is insulated as well. I will definitely start to look more seriously at the minisplit.

I am going to mount the screen directly on the wall, and mount the front surrounds in the wall as well.

Just curious...is that drawing of your theater is did you sketch that up as a drawing of mine based on what I posted? I am not very good with Google Sketchup...the biggest issue I'm having right now is making the "walls" and "objects" an exact dimension. Right now I am dragging the mouse, getting it as close as I can watching the dimensions in the corner, and calling it good. Is there a better way?

I realize that SierraMikeBravo...I've just been trying to figure through the solution in my head.

So...I'm thinking that a 6 foot deep riser will work...now I just need to figure out the height. Spaceman has me leaning towards 12". Part of it will depend on how far down the soffit goes...if I drop the soffit down 10 inches, and have a 12 inch riser, that gives me just over 7 feet of clearance. Although I do have a friend that is 7' 6" tall...he's used to having to duck anyways

I just got off the phone with the theater chair guy. Now, I'm thinking 6' 6" deep riser, at 12" high. This will allow for 5 of the "Lane 175 Grand Slam" or "Palliser Blade" on the back. They can be curved and recline, and it sounds like I'll have enough room. Then I will build a step on either side that is 2 feet wide, and it will give me plenty of room to clear the straight row of 4 in the front.

I'm getting excited!

Dan

Thanks for sketching that up for me. I'm thinking of having the middle 3 straight, and then the last two curved. That's the idea that I'm kicking around right now. I've got 3 kids, and I want to make sure we have room for their friends our family when we all get together.

RE: Google Sketchup - Thanks for linking me to that Google Sketchup Link. I think I'll spend a little more time playing with that.

RE: HVAC - You hit the nail right on the head with what I was thinking RE: the heating and cooling runs.

RE speakers: the Ls/Rs being in-wall, I haven't decided for sure. I have speaker wire ran for both applications at this point, so I am undecided. I had/have the wire available in whatever quantity I need, so I'm playing it safe and planning for the future as much as I can. The L/C/R are going to be in-wall, but not behind the screen. I'm planning to put them on either side of the screen, and just below the screen. Subwoofers...I have given it thought. I've ran 4 dedicated circuits and 4 x RG6 to each corner of the room. Well, not quite the corner...they are on the front and rear walls, about 18 inches in from the corner. I figure this way I can play around with subwoofer placement.

RE: the interpretation of my theater. That is a very cool drawing, and I would give anything to be able to work something like that up quickly. You're interpretation is not quite right though. The riser is the full width of the room, and there is a double door (63" opening) that enters just in front of the riser and step. Currently I'm thinking a riser at 6' 4" long and 12 5/8" high, going the full width of the room. Then on either side I will build a 6" stall step, that is two feet wide. The set of 4 seats will fall nicely between the steps with about 6" of clearance on either side.

I am planning to drop my soffits by 10", but I am not 100% certain on that yet. I'm at my office, and when I get home I need to take a closer look at the HVAC. I'm guessing that the ductwork will probably be between 6" and 8", so if I go 10" then I'll have plenty of room.

I think I covered all the points that I meant to. Thanks so much for your help thus far.

Now, I need to decide whether or not I want to do columns. I'm leaning towards doing them in some form of stain grade wood, and doing them after the drywall. I'll put wall boxes in where I want the sconces to go, but I may build stain grade columns over them, and mount the sconce on the column. This is a less pressing issue however...

I wish I had two years. Wife wants the basement done, and she has good reason for it. It's winter time, which means I've got more time on my hands (I ride a bicycle ~300 miles per week March - October) and she wants it done before next cycling season. So, I'm in full blown basement finish mode. I'm hoping/planning for drywall in early January. I'm guessing I'll be done with everything up to that point by mid-December...so I'll have a couple of weeks to look, ponder and make sure I've covered all my bases.

Thanks again guys...I'll be back with many more questions I'm sure

That rendering above is correct, it was the one below that I was referring to when I said I didn't think you were understanding it exactly right.

Thanks Roger...we're really excited about it! I'm going to pickup the lumber for the riser this week. Here's a question for everybody. RE: the stage and the riser, is one layer of 5/8" tongue and grove OSB on the top sufficient? Do I need two layers? Also, what's the reasoning behind filling it with sand? Is that really necessary? We're not "big sound" people that are going to blast the volume at unmanageable levels while the rest of the family is trying to sleep...

Thanks Spaceman. I met with the drywaller last night, and we are going to double up the drywall (except on the wall that is up against concrete), however I don't think we're going to use the green glue. I think for ease of electrical and what not, I'm going to build the stage and riser before the drywall goes in. The sub(s) will most definitely sit on the stage and/or the riser, so if it makes that big of a difference I will do it. My local HT guy said he personally wouldn't do it, but he's a guy that specializes in the "$5k theater in a box" type stuff. He's a good friend, a fairly smart guy and I trust his judgement, but I think he may have limited experience in the ground up building of a dedicated room.

How does filling the stage up with sand affect the electrical that is ran inside of it? I would think that could be problematic. I don't want to cut any corners, but I also don't want to spend time/money foolishly. There comes a point of a diminishing return. I want to find that balance between reasonable cost and reasonable performance.

I was going to put "step lights" and/or rope lights under the lip of the stage. At least, that's what I'm thinking right now.

Dan

That sounds like solid advice, thank you. I will leave any/all electrical out of the stage. So...now you're got me thinking. Is it a bad idea to build the riser and stage prior to the room getting drywall? I am most definitely going to have electrical work in the stage. Part of me really wants to get that all done prior to the drywall, but I guess I don't have a really good reason for it. I guess I just want to be done with woodworking before the drywall goes in. Get the heavy woodworking tools out of the basement, and not bring them back (save a chop saw which I'll need for the finish carpentry).

Thanks for sharing. If you don't mind me asking, what's the reasoning for the roofing felt on the floor?

I made some good progress in the basement this weekend, and a little bit of that was in the theater...I got the riser built (mostly anyways)! I need to finish up one side of it (all lumber for that side cut) and I need to build the steps.

Anyways, as I'm planning out the room and getting ready for drywall I had a question on the soffit. I am going to do Soundboard and RC Channel on the ceiling, and a layer of Soundboard and drywall on the walls. My question is...should i build the soffit before the drywall is installed, or after? The soffit is going to contain some duct work, but I have figured out how I can work out the duct work post drywall if the soffit should be built post drywall. I am planning to do a star ceiling in the middle of the room, and then have a soffit that includes access lighting and houses the duct work/lights.

So...do I do the soffit before or after the drywall?

Thanks in advance!

Dan

No thoughts?

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So you're saying it would be a better idea (in your opinion) to build the Soffit in the room AFTER the drywall? If so, I think I agree (just seeking confirmation).

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