Galaxy Theater Construction Begins

Just a shell so far but a dang heavy one! - I hope to finish by Xmas and will be doing the actual theater finish myself. Stay tuned to this page for more as the project continues.

Galaxy Theater Page

Yes, ICF stands for "Insulated Concrete Form". The foam stays on both sides and has built-in high density plastic "stud strips" every 8 inches that connect to the imbedded webs. Drywall, etc. can be directly screwed to these.

It cures very slowly due to the foam and hence is much stronger than the same concrete poured in normal forms. Mainly we used it here because of the large soil backfill needed but it also should be ideal as a wall for the theater - which is why the inside walls of the theater are also done with it.

Framers due next week so stay tuned.

Central Oregon High Desert.


Theater Raw Dimensions (before acoustic treatments or proscenium) 14 W x 23' 7" L x 9' 2" H (w/o soffits)

Electronics Bay Raw Dimensions 9 W x 20' 6" L x 8 H

Theater dimensions will be modified somewhat by proscenium, drywall, soffits, and acoustic panels.

One 14 inch riser for the rear 8 feet of the theater and recliner seating for 6 or 7 (depending on costs)


Originally I had planned that but I guess that I am too much of a purist about stars and they don't look real enough for me.

A few more details:

I plan to use my present PJ for the time being (Screenplay 7200) and wait until some of the new generation 1080P PJs come out in the next year or so.

12 inch soffits and a 10 inch soffit island for the PJ.

6 zone Grafik Eye GRX-3506 controlling: Front floor, Front seating, Rear seating, Two colors of soffit ropes, Embryten LED wall wash cans. Also Embryten LED step lights for entry and riser steps.

Entry to front as yet unframed will have a 5 foot entry alcove

Equipment control by Niles IR unit into electronics bay. I have an RF Pronto now but recently it has started acting funky and it seems to be some sort of interference from my neighbors so I elected to go all IR.

The AC folks came up with a neat buried AC duct (the cap in the floor is the output, temp cover) that I had not seen before. The outer is 16 inches and there is an inner 12 inch duct that is perforated. Between them is loose fibreglass. Kinda like a big 12 foot long muffler.

All equipment except PJ and speakers on open racks that I can walk around. No more wire games!

The Electronics Bay will also contain my PCs (my office backs up to it) and routers, etc. as well as a HTPC that I can feed to the theater, Billiards room, or breakfast area. I am doing this in lieu of the spendy and here today gone tomorrow home media standalones.

I plan to finish the billiards room first (easier and the table is already at the distributor) and then the HT. Maybe a nice PJ will show up by then if I am lucky. In any case, I hope to finish the HT by XMas...

I am really curious as to how the ICF does with sound. 4-6 inches of concrete bonded to 5 inches of foam oughta be great but we shall see....

Thanks, that's my other hobby! (actually the older one)

In fact, a new remote observatory that I am building in NM in cooperation with a group of amateur astronomers is what enabled me to stay where I am (which is getting light polluted) and build the HT addition. I no longer have to worry about being forced to move to keep doing astronomy. OTOH, my cables to my onsite observatory have been disconnected until I get the Electronics Bay done (they ran thru that patch of ground), so my astro is out of business for the summer!

Yes, I will be able to switch the observatory control PCs to display on the HT screen. I have it that way now in the old theater and it is great for group demos.

That is the electronics bay room. The theater is 14 wide x 23+ long....

A few new pics after quite some time. I am trying to finish the rest of the remodel by April so I can get the theater equipment and do the fun part.

Considering an RS1 and anamorphic system.

Take Care

Galaxy Theater

Yup. I had one from years ago when we lived elsewhere so reinstalled it. Right now it is inactive since I had to swing it out of the way for the excavators to get in there to backfill, but I expect to bring it back on line as a secondary system once we start installing equipment. The primary signal is DirecTV (cable sucks as we are kinda rural). I need to look into what equipment I want to get, if any, for the BUD. I need to look at the options again, I have not checked the BUD scene out for a year or more since we disconnected it for the remodel.

I used LED rope light from 1000bulbs.com. The shade shown is yellow although there is a white strand in the soffet(s) as well. They are controlled on separate zones by a GRAFIK Eye 6 zone controller. Each color is a zone and the other 4 zones are the wall wash (also LED from Enbryten) and the three pairs of halogen cans, front, middle, and rear.

BTW, the LED ropes work quite well with the GRAFIK Eye, with no flicker even at very low settings. The wall wash LEDs did give some flicker but they still go quite dim and the low limit on the GRAFIK Eye can be set to avoid this. LEDs are spendy but long lasting and almost no heat. I suspect cheaper in the long run and way less hassle.

Take Care

Yes, the photo is a pretty decent color rendition. Only the yellow was on in the photo. The white is a kinda bluish white as with most "white" LEDs but that works well with the light sky blue paint on the ceiling. I did not include a photo of that since I still need to put up the inner soffit white rope.

If you go to my main home page (just nightskypictures.com), you will find a link to my email. I would be happy to answer any questions about ICF that I can. It definitely has both some major advantages as well as some minor disadvantages.

Take Care

It is one of the things about ICF that can be a bit tough. There are plastic "studs" imbedded in the foam every 8 inches but they do not have the same retention as wooden studs.

Soooo.......

If you need major, heavy duty holding (like door framing) - concrete anchors or j bolts.

For drywall, a combination of screws in the plastic studs and expanding poly foam or water based adhesive.

For stone, metal lath screwed to the plastic studs with special screws.

For siding, careful screwing on the plastic studs.

If you need to attach lots of stuff to the walls later, I would screw and glue plywood or OSB to the ICF and then put the drywall over that with normal methods. That way, you can get good attachment anywhere on the wall. We did that in the theater so as to be able to nail the acoustic panels anywhere we want and have them stay nicely. The same was also done on the PC wall in the electronics room so as to hang the wall cabinets, surge strips, etc.