Greedo's Cantina - Page 2

Thanks Tim, that helps me visualize it a bit better. I guess I still don't understand how using the clips and drywall attached to the beam will provide better decoupling/isolation than simply building a soffit around it that won't touch it at all. This beam is going to be hidden behind the false wall, so I'm not concerned about losing any height or any appearance.

Yes! Just a simple soffit that hangs from the ceiling. I just worry that it won't do much to prevent flanking, especially since the sub will be near it (behind the false wall).

I guess I just worry about it still getting hit with LF waves that would propagate throughout the house since there are many joists that sit right on top of this beam. The drywall wrapping the soffit won't do much to attenuate this.
Edited by greedo - 1/20/13 at 1:42pm

Thanks, JPA. I'm obviously over-thinking a lot of this. I'm just nervous that I'll put a lot of effort into doing some mitigation, only to find I blew it in another area that completely screws up everything. It'll be easier when I can start actually working on it instead of just planning.

Scheduled a contractor to come in and put in an egress window for the basement bedroom. Unfortunately he can't start until April, so that'll delay a lot of the work I hoped to accomplish in the next two months. Oh well.

So far I've convinced the missus about having a dedicated space with a door; so I'm working on soundproofing ideas a lot. I'll be using DD/GG on the ceilings and walls, decoupling the walls from the joists with clips, and hopefully manage to get the HVAC guy to put the basement on its own zone without killing the budget.

I want to put up an AT scope screen roughly 100" wide with a decent ($3k at most) projector. I'll use zoom instead of an A lens, and a manual mask for the CIH stuff. I have some speakers I plan to recycle (B&W inwalls, plus an ASW600 sub and a CDM center channel) but I'll need to buy my L/R. I may stick with B&W, but I don't really know a lot about speaker brands, and though I have B&W now, I didn't really do a lot of comparison shopping/research before I bought them. They sounded great in the HT showroom, but I'm open to other brands.

While I'm waiting for April to get here, I can finish up my floorplans, and work on insulating the joists. Right now there's just pink fluffy stuff jammed in there, but I want to replace that with rigid foam and seal it up nice and tight. That shouldn't take too long. If I get really productive, I'll probably put the DD/GG between the floor joists. I plan on doing 2-3 layers where I can, depending on time, money and energy. All of the joist bays are empty except for one, so I'll be able to add a lot of mass.

The rigid foam will go where the joists connect to the mudsill. I'll be using fiberglass in between the joists in the ceiling after I put in the DD/GG between the individual joists.

I hope the HVAC guy can understand HT requirements. I've looked at how a dead vent would work in the room, but I hope he can get a return in there that'll work out.

One thing I need to remember to ask him is how sealing up the whole basement will affect makeup air for the furnace. I know that I need to have the furnace room setup to allow air into it, but I think the entire basement is going to be pretty tight when I'm done. Or at least I hope so. I'd love to have it be nice and warm, as well as helping to keep the utility bills down. The last two years have been crazy cold in Nebraska at times, and though our gas/electric prices are reasonable, I hate spending so much.

I plan on having the equipment rack in a closet/access area behind the home theater room, with fans venting that closet.

Anyone know how many BTUs a projector like the Panny AE8000 puts out?

Quick question about HVAC, where should the registers and returns go? I can't remember if the returns should be in the back or the front of the room.

NVM, reading JPA's thread, someone mentioned the supply should be in the front and the return in the rear.
Edited by greedo - 1/25/13 at 7:41pm

Now I'm running into a bit of a planning conundrum. If you look at this picture, you can see I'm planning to insulate the basement with rigid foam including the floors. The floor will be 1" foam topped by two sheets of 1/2" ply. The problem I'm running into is the stairs. They were built with no expectation of much flooring at the bottom, just carpet pad and carpet, with carpet on the treads. If I raise the floor up two inches, the first step will be out of whack. Code is a variance of no more than 3/8". The building department says I can put a landing there to get around this (the landing would basically extend the last tread all the way to the wall. This won't be so bad if you head left after going down the stairs, but going right you'll come to the theater door, and it just seems really awkward as well as making decoupling much more of a PITA.

I'm tempted to have a contractor just build new stairs, but that seems like it's going to be expensive, and I'm hoping someone with more construction experience might be able to point to a good workaround. I really want to stick with the insulation plan, as I've been to too many basements with either mold, or hard floors, or just feeling cold.

Any ideas?

I was going to have a very small stage originally, but if I do use a landing, maybe a more expansive stage that would also serve as a step would fit well. The riser would be about 7" high before carpeting.

If I were to use steel studs instead of wood, would that have a bad effect on sound isolation? I assume I could still use IB-3 brackets to decouple from the ceiling, and I'd obviously have to use some backer boards to hold the whisper clip stuff. That might make it more work than it's worth since I plan to use clips on almost all the walls.

Anyone have any experience with steel?

Had a good meeting with the HVAC guy who seemed really receptive. The only issue is that installing a zone will be cost prohibitive; this means that if I start cooling the theater in the winter, the missus will complain... Have to see how that goes. He was the sharpest sub I've talked to, understood how tight the room was going to be, and is planning to size it with two 7" flex supplies, and one return at the back. Since my ceiling is low, I'm thinking of running the supplies to the front in the joists, then having a single soffit at the front (in front of the screen) to hold the flex. I'll get two 90 degree turns that way. I have to sketch that out to see how I'll like it. I had originally planned on a smaller soffit just for lights in front, but that might have to go. I can always put cans in the joist area in boxes.

The other option (if adding a zone is cost prohibitive) is to add a Mitsubishi cooler and have the theater room use that. That's a couple grand though, and I don't know if that's the best way to spend my budget.

Been cleaning out the basement and finishing up the plans to submit for permits. I'm finishing about 800 sq ft. in total, so planning a bathroom, bedroom, craft room, and of course the HT room. I hope I'm not biting off more than I can chew, both financially and ability wise, but nothing ventured, nothing gained. Next week I plan to start insulating the rim joists, the walls, the floors, and laying down the subfloor. My better half has agreed to having a door in the HT, so I'm going to go as hardcore as I can with sound isolation. Speaking of which, I have an existing duct that I need to see about replacing with a flexible supply. This would be directly centered right down my HT ceiling:

Finalized my plans tonight, but now I have yet another question. I'm putting my HT equipment in a closet at the back of the theater, with an access door outside the HT. The rack will either be a bespoke wooden rack or an MA rack depending on my budget. But I'm worried about how this will affect my soundproofing?

Here's my final layout:

I thought about building it without an opening, but as Tim points out, changing a disc would be a pain. I hate to go to all the trouble of isolating the room and then having a huge flanking issue if I don't soundproof the closet. But that seems like it'll be a lot harder than the room itself. I'll have to think about this. If I don't have the closet accessible from within the room, I have a lot more options.

I have an HTPC right now, but even so, there are times when we'll want to watch something on BR that I won't want to store on my drive array. Tedd had some good ideas, and here's my reply for everyone else:

The room next to the bath is my utility room with furnace/hw heater etc. The narrow room next to it is storage, and the bigger room is a craft room. I thought of putting the rack under the stairs, but the wife vetoed it. What I may do is put all my gear behind the screen wall since it's so deep. I just need to make sure that a) I have easy access to whatever disc playback I have, and b) that no lights show up through the screen wall fabric. This will also make it easier to construct, with less soundproofing stuff. I'll probably end up keeping my servers and switch/patch panel in the narrow storage area to the southwest of the pic. That'll keep them from creating too much sound.