DMGambone's Home Theater Construction thread - Page 3

That's new to me. Mine is just a hole in the floor. I like the washer enclosure idea though.

Well, I'm still wiring the electrical. One thing I have decided on is how I'm going to control my lights. I've decided to use Insteon and mix In-LineLinc with the Keypad to control the 4 zoned areas:
- Theater Wall Sconces
- 'lobby' recessed lighting
- Stage lighting
- Riser lighting.

As I'm wiring, I'm changing the plans on the fly. For example, the lighting in the stage area did not exist in the plans a week ago. Now the screen will be flanked by 2 sconces mounted to the proscenium and small overhead lights will be housed in the proscenium to light up the screen and speakers (IMAX style).

I was at Sharerware's house last week and got a good feeling on how big my theater will be and now that I've actually sat in one of similar size, I'm feeling much better about the dimensions I picked. I also got to hear how well double-drywall and GG works. It was a decision I was have issues with, but I don't anymore.

As always, I'm going to promise real-life pictures and not post any.

Well... I have finally uploaded some photos:

Here's a picture of the rear of the room where the seating and riser would be be:


Here are my ENT for the surround/rear speakers (4 in all) and 2 extra tubes to run speaker wire into the riser (for future butt-kickers)


The lower two boxes are for the riser:


The main light switch junction box. It will contain an Insteon keypad and dimmer switch. Most zones will use the Insteon In-LineLinc module and not the keypad. The dimmer will control the 'lobby' lighting (which can also be controlled by the keypad)


All the current progress photos can be found here:
DMGambone's PhotoBucket page

Good catch on the kink. I'll look at it when I'm down there tonight.

I've order my Insteon keypad and SwitchLink V2 dimmer yesterday and today I'm heading off to Lowes to buy even more stuff:
- Three adjustable single gang boxes
- Thirteen black receptacles
- Twelve ENT 1/2" clips
- Twelve 2 1/2" clips
- Metal Ribbon (normally used to hang ductwork/PVC plumbing) to straighten the ceiling joists. They are 2x10x20 and some of them have bowed a bit since they were hung up. Why the ribbon instead of standard wood or metal crossing bridging? Because the most bowed 2x10 is actually located between the two HVAC ducts. The metal ribbon will allow me to pull it into place and won't effect the drywall since it's so thin.
- Five 4'x4'x3/4" MDF boards to make the enclosures for 5 areas where there will be recessed lights (2 in the lobby/1 in the concession closet) and the future lighting ceiling receptacle (1 for the stage lighting and 1 in the center of the room for god knows what.)

So last night I adjusted the one joist that was leaning up against the ductwork. By using the galvanized metal hanging ribbon that is often used to hang PVC plumbing and HVAC I was able to fix the bow in the joist.

I also started to hang the 2-1/2" PVC for the video and for the auxiliary rise cabling. While doing this I came across a some questions:
- How far back do I run the conduit for the video (given that I current have an Infocus SP 4805 but want to upgrade)? I was going to run it about 3'6" feet from the back wall which would place it about 14'6" from the front wall.
- Should I build the projector hushbox into the ceiling joists or should it be flush with the ceiling?

If I build the hushbox into the ceiling, I'm limited to the size of the projector that I can put in because the joist bay that the projector would be housed is only about 12"-14" wide. That's enough for the Infocus, but way too small for a Panasonic PT-AX100U or Mitsubishi HD1000U (which I'm looking at as my upgrade). But in-ceiling hushbox will save of desirable head-room since the riser will already take up 1' of vertical space bringing the headroom to about 6'8" under the projector.

If I decide to flush-mount the projector hush-box, I guess I would place the video jack and outlet about 2' from the rear-wall and build a nice wide box so that I can place the lens in the center of the box and not worry about how wide the projector is. But the hushbox, of proper height) would be at least 8" tall (exterior dimensions) and 6.5" tall interior dimensions. Given that I could place the hustbox behind the seating area so to avoid bumping into it, this may or may not be an issue.

After writing about it, I think I'm now leaning towards the external hushbox and now know how far back I'm running my conduit.

Thanks everyone!

This weekend my father was over to review the electrical and make sure that I did everything right. I got the OK and once I finish putting in a few wire staples in the right place, I can start closing things up.

It's been a while since I last updated this thread and there are a few good reasons why.

1) I started by own consulting business (Software Development) and so the funds for the basement have shut down almost immediately as I need to use my saving to keep us afloat until the invoices started to get paid (a 2 month span).
2) I found out that my grandmother (who lives in Italy) had a mild stroke and so I made a rush decision to go to Italy for 10 days and visit her since I don't know how much time she would have left. That took a good chunk out of our savings also since the timing was as bad as it could possibly be. However she has recovered nicely since and my wife finally got to meet her after all these years.
3) Speaking of the wife, after many years of trying to conceive, thousands spent on In-vitro and other infertility methods, a miscarriage (natural conception) Shannon got pregnant naturally (again) and now she's in the beginning of her second trimester. Needless to say we were both overwhelmed with joy, and then I was overwhelmed with a to-do list of things that need to get done before the baby is born. Theater is on the list, but it was way way way down the list. Go figure.

However, progress did not completely stop. Since I purchased all materials to get me to the point of first-layer drywall, I have been able to do some things:

- Insulation is 98% complete with only small sections that need to remain open for some final construction work.
- 1 (of 3) light-boxes has been installed.
- Decided to use the mini-split systems from LG to heat and cool the basement. Read about it here : LG ArtCool wall units. I'm going to have 3 units (1 in the theater, 1 in the sports bar room, and 1 in the game room. At 25dB on low and 35dB on high, I think it will be quiet enough. I'm now just waiting on the HVAC guy to give be a quote on how much to do the rough-in.

I'm trying to get a good push to move on the light-boxes (which is holding things up right now with the insulation). Also, if anyone here has experience installing these ArtCool wall units, let me know if I can do the rough-in myself. The HVAC guy is a neighbor and he just started his own business too so he's pretty occupied with real work and forgets about me.

This week I'm hoping to complete installing the drywall in the closet (which contains the 1 light box that I installed). At least I can get that done and move to other areas with 1 item checked off the list for good.

Since I have no camera, here's a Sketchup of how my lightboxes are constructed:

Quick question for everyone:
I have a support pole (hollow of course) that I'm concerned will resonate inside the wall. Have other people filled in their poles or if they didn't, did they notice any resonating?

When I was at SharerWare's theater, he showed me that he filled his in with sand and I tell you, that thing doesn't ring 1 bit. Real nice. The guy who is helping me suggested that I might try great-stuff since I'm just concerned with the ringing. Not a bad idea and a lot easier to put in instead of funneling sand in, but will it damage (i.e. rust) the pole over time?

Any thoughts?