Sandmans Home Theater Construction Begins! - Page 4

Update:

Double Layer Drywall Is Done on walls and 3 Layers on ceiling with GG in between. Also All finished Mudding. Equipment Rack is the Last to do because the AC guy needs to get in above It to run the Supply and return Lines and make the Duct Boxes to feed the room.

Also finished Pre Cutting all the 3/4" MDF for the Soffits.



Here are some boring Drywall flicks







More to Come...

An Update,

We are no Longer going to use MDF for the Soffits, actually we were never planning on using MDF (a misunderstanding on my behalf). The Soffits are going to be framed out with 2" x 2"s and left open to be used as bass traps and will get filled will Cotton Batts or a mix of Cotton/R-19 and the Frame will get wrapped with a paper so the Highs don't get Sucked up then covered with GoM.

The Light Trays will still be made out of MDF and part of the Columns too. The Left over MDF will be used for another project I have to do in our home once this project gets completed.

I been getting a couple PMs from people wondering about how I am treating the room. I recently brought BPape in on my project to consult me on how to acoustically treat my room and he is doing an awesome job.

So Far we Tackled the Bass Absorbtion Issues by turning the Soffits and Columns into Bass Traps and Making some Bass Trap Panels for behind the Screen wall Using Cotton Batts.

We are now working on treating all the reflection points on the Walls & Ceiling. He is a great guy to work with and loves talking about this and thinking out great solutions.

More to Come...

Updates...

Its been a slow week due to my helpers grandmother passing away and him having to go to NY to attend the Funeral and Wake. So this week I got the Duct Work installed by a pro (cost $250.00). I Framed out The Platform and Stage by myself this week as well.

I also got my Supplies for the Bass Traps and treatments for the room from BPape which was extremely good priced, he is really working with me.

I am holding Off on doing the Soffits until my helper comes back.

Here are the Cotton Batts for the Bass Traps along with other Stuff That Arrived from BPape. It was allot of Boxes! Boxes were Big but not Heavy, after all its only cotton and fiberglass.



Here is the Duct work that got done. We used Duct board instead of Flex to reduce sound transmission because the Ducts act like a muffler and pretty much kills sound going through it. I already tested them out by placing a Speaker blasting in front of the Duck openings and went inside the home and Heard absolutely nothing coming through the exchanger or supplies. The Ducts still need to be encased and sealed with 3/4" MDF...


Here is the Platform the Chairs will be on, the Platform was built in 2 parts made out of 2" x 12"s and took about 5 hours to make by Myself. It will contain Outlets and Conduits and will be filled with Insulation. The Widow in the Back will be Sealed once all my materials are brought in. The window was a big convinience, saved walking through the house with everything...


Here is the Stage, which will be filled with about 4,000 lbs of sand. The Stage was built in 4 parts which are not tied together yet in the pictures below.
The stage was made with 2" x 10"s and Took about 4 hours to make.

Front View of Stage


This is a Side View of the Room to show the distance between the Stage and Platform


By the way, taking these pictures was impossible without a Wide Angle Lens, I could not Capture the whole side. I forgot I had one, so I ended up using it

More to come Soon...

Thanks for the great comments guys, you guys keep giving me motivation.

From what it says on the bag, it takes 11 50lb. bags to fill a 4' x 4' x 4" area. The Main stage without the little radius sections in front is 43" x 181" x 9.5" tall. After you take out all the Space for the 12 Joists in the middle that takes away 18" from 180" which ends up being 163" x 43"x 9.5" ID

So 163" x 43" x 9.5 is 66,585.5 Square Inches and 11 50 lb. bags is 9,216 Square Inches. 66,585 divided by 9,216 equals 7.2 so 7.2 x 11 bags is 79.47 bags.

I ordered 80 bags (4,000 lbs.) plus I had 2 here already, so I have 82 bags total.

But who knows, my math could be way off?

As far as not attaching the front Stage to the walls, that was my first intention to avoid transfer of vibration to the walls. I even used Foam on a roll all around the sides of the stage that meets the walls and left a half inch gap all around the stage. But after talking to BPape which is consulting me on this project, he said it would be fine to tie the stage into the wall. I still think I rather not tie the stage into the wall and will talk to him further on that. I personally rather keep the stage floating.

The Distance from the first row of eyes to the screen is 120" The width of the screen is 120" or 138" diagonal 16:9. I personally like a Big Picture and will be sitting up front. Second Row of eyes is 185" from the Screen.

The Big Question for Me Now is whether to have a Lip or not on the Stage and Platform. A Lip will be great to run a rope under for accent lighting. I may be running Fiber optics for my rope lighting instead of rope lighting. Its just a Pain in the ass to keep having sections of the rope burning out on you when Fiber is Lifetime with only having to change one or 2 bulbs when they go.

Thanks
Ruben

Yeah, that was some real Bad figuring on my behalf You was right.

Well Today Marks one Month since I started constructing The Theater. I feel it would of went a bit faster if I had more reliable helpers. But, Looking back at my first Post in this thread, I just realized how much things got changed along the way.

For One, I stated the room was going to be 20' x 16' x 8.5 ceiling
it ended up being 20'-4.5" x 15' -1" x 9' Ceiling.

I Stated I was Going to do Double Drywall with RSIC Clips on The Ceiling
it ended up Being 3 layers of 5/8"s Drywall with Green Glue between each layer.

I stated I was going To use 5/8"s & 1/2" Drywall
I ended up using Double layers of 5/8"s

I stated the rear Platform was going To be 10" high
It ended up being 12" high

I stated all lighting will be Low voltage
Now all lighting will be High Voltage or ?line Level I should Say.

I started with 60 Pieces of 5/8"s Sheet Rock and
I ended up needing 84 to complete the room

I thought I was gonna Need 1,000 lbs of Sand to fill The stage
I ended up needing 4,000 lbs.

Well Today was a Gruesome day.

I had to go to Home Depot and get 14 Sheets of 3/4" Plywood to finish the Platform and Stage. Spent 4 hours in Home Depot waiting for them to find someone to Drop the wood and then I had them rip all the sheets to the rough sizes I needed to finish the Stage and Platform.

They had also shorted me 30 Bags of Sand on the previous delivery so I had to pick that up as well. They had previously delivered 20 Sheets of warped 5/8"s plywood I was gonna use for the stages and I decided to return it and get 3/4"s allready ripped to Size.

Well The gruesomeness was having to load all that Sand and 14 Sheets of Plywood on the Home Depot Truck by Myself, Drive home unload It all by myself. Then Load up the 20 sheets of 5/8"s to bring Back, then unload the 20 sheets at Home Depot to return it.

On top of all this it was like 500 degrees out here today and all my clothes were Soaked from sweat like If I jumped in the pool.

After all that work, I was burnt out and called it the Day.

The biggest and hardest part of building is all the Loading and unloading and hours spent at Home Depot. One good thing about Home Depot is that you can return something from 2 years ago without a receipt and get a store gift card.

On a better Note, my neighbor is a contractor and gave me one of his guys to help me complete this project (*wish I would of known this before all the loading and unloading). So I will have a new helper starting Saturday (Today). He will have the awesome Job of Bringing the 4,000 lbs. of sand inside the house and start filling the stage.

Last Night I did Manage to get the Platform Wired up, conduited, and insulated. The platform will have 4 outlet boxes (2 on the Front Riser and 2 on the Back floor) and one double gang box for Cat 5/Phone line/cable.

Yeah, I am already in the Home Depot System as a Suspend. The managers all know me well there and know I spend lots of money there and see me there almost every day.

I have returned literally Thousands Of Dollars worth of merchandise to Home Depot without the Receipt. Even though I save all my Receipts, it is too Much work too look though all the boxes for them and then try to find that 1 Home Depot receipt I need a few months down the road.

Well the new helper arrived at 2pm on the dot today as I asked him to. We banged out bringing In all the Sand, Plywood, and 2"x 2"s and Got the Stage Lined and filled in under 3 hours. We worked only a few hours today just to do the Heavy Stuff.

About 35% of the Sand was Damp the rest was dry. So I put all The dry sand on the Bottom and the Damp Stuff on Top and got a powerful fan blowing on It now. The Stage ended up using 76 50 Lb bags to level it to the top. So I had 6 bags Left that I will just throw inside some of the cavities in the Radius sections of the Stage and use insulation for the rest of unfilled cavities. I threw those extra 6 Bags on top of the stage for now to dry out.

Here some Flicks, A Bit Messy, but you get the point
I took away the 2 radius parts of the stage to make filling the stage easier.





Come to find out my new helper use to build boats for a living and he is a very detailed carpenter, so that will Save me allot of work.

We continue on Monday.

I also went to Home Depot today and picked up my outlets and other things for the Platform. I will have a Plate on Front of the Riser of the platform that will contain a Stereo RCA Input, A Cat5E Input, a Phone Line, A SVHS Input and a Coaxial Cable input which will all run to the equipment Rack. I also have an 2" Empty Conduit Running from the Front of the platform riser to the Rack as well. I think that should cover all my needs for front of the Platform for now. This plate will serve usefull for when I need to hook up a video camera or a video game console that a friend may bring over as well getting online with a laptop, etc.

This is what I put together...



More to Come on Monday.

I never tried them, and I was going to have 3 of them pre-installed in My chairs at The factory to see if I like them, but after talking To a few people about them, I decided to pass on them. But I am still planningg to install outlets around the chairs for them in case I try them in the future and like them. So I should do the bananna plugs too as well, but like you said, I will not know where to position anything untill the chairs arrive.

So for now, I guess I can leave my floor boards untied untill the chairs arrive. I ordered my chairs on Sept 13 from leather direct so it may take another 4 weeks or so before they arrive due to them being a Leather and microfabric combo.

By the way, leather direct really worked with me on pricing. Their prices were already the best I found online, and they dropped even more off the chairs to accomodate my budget and give me the top grade Leather and Microfabric combo I wanted.

Get Those Bad Boys installed and let me know how ya like them.

Just a quick update The sand looks pretty much dried up already. I shoveled it around and it is coming along quite fast. It should Definately be 100% dried by Monday.

Also, if it is still a Slight bit damp when I close the stage up, won't it still dry up inside?
And if it doesn't, is it really gonna get much mildew in there? I just don't Know how anal I should be about having the dryest possible sand.

Ruben