perfect theater pre-plans?

There is much to be done before you have a shell and you have already mentioned some things, you need plans addressing

Sound isolation, keeping it out and in, if often starts with the framing design
How to provide adequate HVAC and how to not let it become a sound conduit to the rest of the house.
All the pre-wiring necessary

pay attention to how they plan to route the plumbing and HVAC duct work. Many perfect floor plans on paper have been ruined by a major HVAC trunk line hanging down from the ceiling.

It will be six inches larger than whatever you build...

That's plenty of depth, I would recommend wider. It depends on how many seats you want, too - but if I did it over again my room would have been a foot wider and 2 feet deeper. It's 16x22 now, 17x24 would have been better for me. 10' ceiling.

Helps a lot for fitting in two risers and having headroom to hang the projector, and also to give the room a more theater-like feel. But drop the entire area, not just a section, as you'll inevitably make it too big or too small - and doing so also means you've set the use of the room in, well, concrete. If you or a future owner want to use the space differently, it'll be a challenge.

Yes, get the HVAC and electrical sized and dropped to support the theater. I had two 20A circuits dropped into the unfinished area during construction for future use. HVAC planning was done somewhat to add a zoned system to support it - but my conversations with the HVAC guys should have been more detailed... Turned out ok, but I had told them explicitly that there was going to be seating for 12-15, and I have 30-40 people in the game room area for poker tournaments, the load calculations might have been a bit different!


Talk with your HVAC guy, but the important point is that with a large number of people in a nice, sealed up theater with an equipment stack and projector, you will likely need cooling even in the winter. Make sure your system can do that.

If there's a place you can put a sub-panel, it's a great idea. Otherwise 2-3 circuits placed so they can be used anywhere in the theater / equipment area is probably enough. But do get those things staged now.

Yes, do that, at least the Theater Layout Service, and you'll need to check with BIG to see if he likes to ski...


Jeff

For HT plans, I would try to nail that down ahead of time. If you're going to pay Shawn for the layout service, then do it during the architecture phase of your new home. It's so much easier to change things on paper and this way you have a target state everyone can work towards. Here is some advice I gave another guy in a similar situation, basically new construction:

I have mixed feelings about doing the HT with the house or later. On the plus side, it forces you to deal with things that may otherwise be overlooked. You mentioned HVAC now or later. Now will force them to deal with duct routing without dropping down into the theater, electrical, condensate removal, exaust vents if includes a gas furnace, and even the little things like the grading & spacing for the HVAC compressors outside. On both my build and JPA's we were unable to use a dedicated HVAC in our theaters because we didn't have a good place to put the extra external compressor. There are so many intertwined dependencies. I'm looking at some expensive soundproofing to isolate my mechanical room from the HT, and in retrospect I wonder why I didn't carve up the basement differently and designate the mechanical room on the far side of the basement well away from the theater. It would have cost me a couple hundred dollars tops for longer lines vs the 5 figure quotes I've received for dealing with the noise now.

As far as dimensions, I tend to think as big as you can afford. I was told 20x30x12 was a good start. I orginally had 10' ceilings spec'd but sight lines to screen position I wanted meant I needed 12'. I am glad I got the extra space, wish I had more. I lost a few inches when they framed the room, a few more when they re-framed to square things off, sound proofing takes space, surface mount components, acoustic treatments, fabric wall, columns, sconces. You'll loose a few feet in the front for the screen wall (with less room locking you into low-profile products). Ideally you would have an equipment/projector booth in back. Just big enough for the projector can restrict future upgrades. There are some highend builds with the ass of a projector sticking out the rear wall or protruding into the theater space. Others have had clearance issues with the location of exhaust vents (out the back on some projectors). Room within a room construction has the best soundproofing performance and is much easier for builders to build (more idiot proof, plus easy to inspect before drywall goes up). The main trade off is space. I wish I started with longer than 30' maybe 35 or 40' of raw unfinished space. It's easy to pull a wall in, nearly impossible to move it out. A couple of builds have used spancrete to put the theater under the garage. Combining the area under the garage with normal basement room sizes could create an otherwise unrealistically large theater. Even a 3 car garage on it's own isn't a bad size. I wish I had known about spancrete when I did my mine. The only downside to going big is the non-linear price increase as everything compounds.

10' is adequate, but 11' or more is ideal. Best thing to help determine dimensions is how many seats you want. Then determine your budget.

I should have made that point clear as well, get at least the design work done while the house is under design/construction, even if you don't have the funds to actually do the build until later. I was in this boat during my home construction - the theater was going to be left as an unfinished room until later (waiting for my old house to sell). But at the time, either the Layout Service wasn't available, or I wasn't aware of it. Either way, I didn't use it.

So my room was planned from my mostly-educated guesses and what I thought was "enough" space and dimensions and so forth. Spending the $600 for the layout service then would have given me a bunch of tips that would have made the room even better.

Even if you come back years later, and want to totally change the design again at that time, that will still be money well-spent. You're going to be buried in home construction details, and the theater planning is several times more detailed than most every other room...

Jeff

It's a relatively cheap way to get extra ceiling height. Dennis originally suggested it for mine. I forgot how much is was for me, I think $1200 which is nothing compared to the price of a house. It was really good bang for the buck, I thought. With the extra space, I can put everything inside the theater space and not have to worry about building backer boxes which are a PITA.

Dennis has answered the 'drop entire theater vs cement riser' question before. Paraphrasing, drop the whole theater because
1) resale is better if you have the option of a theater room being used for something else
2) the area under the riser can be used as a giant bass trap.

It's also easier to tweak/modify a wood riser. With cement, the shape and seating distances are quite literally set in stone.
Edited by rabident - 1/9/13 at 5:33pm

hashofet when planning your theatre, I would suggest getting the electrician to place electrical boxes where you want the lighting to go and if you are wall mounting your tv get him to place a wall outlet. I would suggest a conduit behind the tv screen wall to where you are going to house your AV equipment. Another thought is, will your theatre just have one entrance into it with the bar or multiple? I don't know if your basement by code has to have drywall on exterior basement walls or not, but you should plan for either conduit or running your wires early. 200AMP service is required, unless you putting in a central heatpump system or jacuzzi or hottube, as those would require 400amp service. Also suggest getting the electrician to put a whole house surge protector, as they are only around $100, and protect all your appliances. We just finished building our house in Eastern Canada. If I could of I would of made the room larger for my theatre room, but it is 11.5' by 16' where two partial walls come out. If I had more money I would of made it larger.

In regards to our contractor, he said he would never use web joists again, they may be easier to work with for other trades but the sound carries on the other floors right through the whole house as it is open.

I don’t have any experience with the Erskine Group however if I were in your position I would call them now. If you are going to use their services then why wait when they may have a recommendation that could be implemented easiest with the design and construction. I'm sure they would rather hear from your sooner rather than later when a change cant be made.

Oh one other thing, if you want a lower tax rate, make sure you finish your basement after the tax assessment is done on your home, not sure how much you pay in property taxes, but it might save you a little down the road.

Consider putting two layers drywall+Green glue between the ceiling joists BEFORE they put any ductwork/plumbing/electrical in the theater. Soundproofing will be easier later. Do not frame out the theater room without isolation clips (see the IB-2 and IB-3 clips at http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/soundproofing-products/soundproofing-clips/). Do not put HVAC/Mechanical room next to the theater. Don't put windows in the theater room. Consider how you will be pulling HVAC supply/returns to the theater. Both have to be high. Supply at front, return at back. Your registers will need to be several feet away (the more the merrier) from where the duct penetrates the theater. So, ensure that you can run 6" insulated ducts for 10'+ lengths INSIDE the theater (in a soffit) from where the enter the theater. Allow for a separate HVAC zone in the theater - you will need to cool even in the winter. Keep the equipment in a different room and provide for at least 40 amps supply to the theater gear. Dont put any structural columns where the theater might be.