A&J's Home theater construction thread start to finish

Hello everyone I am a newbie to this site but I have read many many of your threads. The wife and I are finishing off our basement to get some more room in the house.

Here is a lay out of our basement the foundation size is approx 30'x30' not a huge house so we are making use of all available space. The utility room has all of the hvac hanging down from the rafters so using that space is not an option.




Here are some construction pictures

This is what it currently looks like heading into the basement



This shot is from the east wall looking back at the stairs. To the left is the theater, to the right is the bathroom and egress and behind me the gas fireplace



Although the HT part of the room will be on the south end the room is fairly large being about 22 feet long.



This picture is looking south from the egress window. The plumbing you see will be cut out and raised into the rafters. Then pushed agaisnt the south wall and built in to a shallow depth gas fireplace mantle along with the stack. Out of site and wont looked boxed in.



This picture is looking towards the screen wall



This picture is of the closet. although we are using it for a AV room we thought we might as well make a closet for selling purposes. Now it can be considered a bedroom.



This next picture is of the batroom area where the sink and toilet will be. The two will be seperated by a wall



The next picture shows the shower area, the previous owner used this space for a closet but we thought it would be perfect for a shower. All three walls are cinder block.




I would love to hear opinions and what you think. I will keep this thread updated with photos.

here is a picture of the egress we put in




We had to have one of the supporting posts for the I-Beam moved north approx 4 feet so we could make the main room larger and have all the posts hidden in the walls

Here is a picture of the old footing after it was cut out. The footing was approx 2-3 inches higher then the rest of the concrete





And here is a picture of the new post location and footing, If you look to the left of the post you can see where the old post location was. This allows us to project the picture into the extra space.

This picture is of the vent work I had to do. The cold air returns as well as one line crossed over the rafters. I had two lines running from the furnace to two rooms. (dining room/bedroom) I used the line you seeon the left side and made a T so now I am feeding both rooms off of the left line. And the line on the right will now feed the main room. I also pushed all of the cold air returns against the wall so there were no obvious box in's in the middle of the ceiling.

I have a few pictures to update. Just plumbing stuff. You can see how I wanted the plumbing from the main floor bathroom stuffed into the rafters and pushed against the back wall and built in to a mantle for a fireplace.



Again another picture of the plumbing shoved into the ceiling. The plumbers did a great job. They were able to get the stuff only 14 inches away from the wall. I asked for it to be under 18 inches.



The next picture is of the shower and the valve rough in, we are going with two valves. To be honest this might be my favorite part of the construction is seeing the bathroom come to life. Angies taste when it comes to picking out tile, fixtures, vanities, ect, are impecible so I cannot wait to see the finished product.



The place is being wired for electric and lighting today. I will be doing all of the low voltage wiring myself. Cable, phone, computer, audio, video, ect. I will have more photos soon

I have a few more pictures to update this thread. The last two days were spent running the electric and AV cables. We decided against having the AV cabinet in the room so we decided to move all of the AV equipmeht in to the closet so it will be out of the way. We will used a infrared remote control system to relay the signals into the AV room. The receiver for the remote will be above the screen and is only a few inches wide so it will hardly be noticed. Yet still a perfect place to point the remote at.

The first picture is of the room design with the AV cabinet now in the closet and the speaker locations. I am going with a 5.1 set up because of the small nature of the room.



The next picture is of the fire place mantle I have been talking about. The framers did a great job achieving the look we wanted. Every thing is nice and tight.



The next picture is of the projector mounting position. I need to have the projector as close to the ceiling as I can get it. So using a 2x4's I rigged a pocket where the bracket can fit and the AV cables as well as the power source for the projector. I will be adding a 3/4 inch piece of wood as well as an outlet to cover the top of this and then mount the bracket to the 3/4 inch piece of wood. I ran one hdmi cable 20ft and 3 20ft sections of RG6 cable to be used for componet video. I am debating if I should run a VGA cable and a s-video cable. What do you guys think?



Next picture is inside the closet looking south to where the AV cabinet will go. We will mount the cabinet using the upper half of the wall and use the lower half for storage.



The final picture I have for you is from the south wall looking north. You can see all the electric wired and the cans in the ceiling. Everything is coming along as planed and faster then I thought.



So now that all of all of the major plumbing, framing and electric is done the sheet rockers start on Friday.

No responses yet I was hoping to hear from some of you vets on how its looking and advice. Please post any comments or questions you may have.

are there HDMI video cards? If I wanted to add a HTPC I would need to add a VGA cable or if there are hdmi video cards all I would need is componet and HDMI

Hey thanks for the replys guys,

well ran a vga cable since my pc currently doesnt have hdmi so what the heck.. Your right shadimar you only get to wire it once. I was reading about the rg6 cables to run for componet wires and I used dual shield cables so I ripped all of them out today and re ran the runs with quad shield. Might as well do it right

I was looking at the back of the projector, where is the hdmi slot. I have not opened our box yet because of the return policy. I just want to make sure I got the right cable, my hdmi cable wire has a is flat and thin connector

Where is it on the projector or do I need an adapter

I was thinking the same thing however that big black plug is the hdmi input.. I was thinking too thats the power. but the power is on the side of the unit

I have some new photos

Well I spent the last three nights trying to get it ready for sheet rock. I had to wire the cables twice because after reading what type of RG6 cable to run I pulled out the belden dual and installed zenith quad shield. I ran 4 to the projector and 6 to a wall plate so I can plug in a playstation, xbox, camera, ect with out having to hook it up in the av room/closet

The first picture is of the av room and all of thw wiring I ran. I ended up running a total of 10 coax, a hdmi, vga, 5.1 surround, CATV, ethernet, and remote sensor unit.



The next picture is of the wall plate terminal that will be next to the couch for portable plugins. I will have six inputs three for componet one video and two audio.



I ended up insulating a the ceiling after reading on the net just putting that upo can reduce noise levels by 3-4db and in a small house everything helps.



This gadget will control the heated floors in the bathrrom. We had to have this, Minnesota winters can be very cold.



I decided with the influence of my better half that the remote control unit sensor should be located in the upper left hand corner of the room facing the screen.

Well the sheet rockers came today at about noon and worked a few hrs. they were able to get the bathroom ceiling and one wall done as well as the screen wall and most of the ceiling.



The next picture is of the seating view looking at the screen wall. Sorry about all the blobs the lens must have gotten dirty on my camera



I decided to insulate all of the interior walls before they resume rocking on monday. a couple -db on each wall should help just a bit. Plus it should only cost about 50 bucks to do.

ok I have a few more pictures for everyone. The gypsum board is all up and the second coat of mud has been applied. The room is starting to look like a room











This picture is of the bathroom I am standing at the threshold of the shower. The shower has not yet been started.

we sealed the walls, the grade of the landscaping prevents water from coming in. plus we never had a problem with leaks so there was no need to. The insulation used works as a great vapor barrier. The shower will get cement board then tile

hey thanks,


sorry about not updating pictures but I will do so soon. Since the last update there has only been mud work going on. The walls were sanded monday and last night I vacuumed the walls trying to get all the dust off so I can prime the walls.

I think I might have screwed up running my hdmi cable not leaving enough cable to reach the projector. I was an idiot when I looked at the HDMI cable input and assumed it would be on the right side when I hung the projector. I was looking at the projector sitting on a table. I didnt take in to consideration the the projector will be flipped and the input then will be on the left side. I dont think I have enough cable to make the connection.. grrr. Will a 18 inch extension cable give me any trouble with the picture?

We have been pretty busy with priming, painting, painting again, painting again. Too many colors to choose from.

Firstpicture is of the main room. the line you see accross the wall is a shadow from the work light. I needed it on to light up the room.



opposite side of the room



bathroom (dusty camera sorry)



closet



Nina, she loves dirty floors.



looking down the stairs.

My remote control system.



projector mount



rca panel next to couch for ps2, cameras, ipod, ect. composite, component and RL audio



tile for the shower floor



vanity

Doors go in tomorrow, tile work starts tomorrow too.

well thats all for now I will update soon

Hi James how is it going. The ceiling height is 7 feet just like yours. The projector will be right above us when we are watching movies or whatever. I wanted the recessed part because I didnt want the projector in the way when someone stands up. I figured the HD 70 has digital keystoning so I can get away with tilting it down just a bit. This way the projector will seem like it is flush to the ceiling. There is enough room and a power outlet if I need to add some kind of cooling later. One thing I wish I would have done instead, is use terminal plates instead of just holes for the wires. Doesnt look very clean. I could probably have a nice wood plate made of oak to clean it up. It would look good to and match the rest of the wood work. Which I just finished putting the first coat of poly on.

fun fun

All the doors have been hung and tile work continues. I will take some photos tonight. err this morning

OK I have avideo update.. small movie of the room. Shows the doors installed and the tile laid out in the bathroom.

Just click on the link below to be taken to the small movie file 10mb

basement update

thanks Calvin, I like the progress yours is making as well. Yes that is infloor heating. I think we are a few weeks out from completion. Ordered my wall plates and rca rg6 crimpons tuesday. I need to come up with a plan for the closet though. What kind of rack or shelving I shoud use for the equipment. I am thinking of going eith a larger sub and hiding it in the closet as well. I should get deeper lows with more rumbling this way.

about 10 years ago I was running some highend pro audio gear and I got into buliding monitors and subs. I built a 18 inch sub into a 36 cubic foot box and hid it in my closet. Had the police called on me more then once because of that thing.

I think if I run a 15 - 18" in the closet and a 6" sub in the room I should be able to upset my neighbors from time to time

I sold my older HK avr80 a couple months ago. Man that thing was sweet. I would love another HK however I want a receiver that does hdmi switching