Harvest Ridge Theater (A CJ Project) - Page 3

In my last update post, I had completed wiring for the can lights in the remainder of the basement. Over the next three weeks (leading up to Christmas), we completed the wiring of the basement. We added a over 53 outlets, 29 switches, added four lights to the storage room, five sconce boxes in the theater, boxes for rope lighting in the trey ceiling, step lights, riser rope lighting, wiring for 5 cans to shine on the screen, 2 lights to show off the speakers behind the AT screen, marquis light, ticket booth light, and 10 new circuits. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the work. I don't know what I was thinking, but I didn't get photos. Sorry.

As we were finishing the electrical, we put the insulation back on the rear wall (walk out to outside). I did manage to take photos of this. You can see the boxes in some of these photos.







...more....

...cont....

In the equipment room, I installed four separate electrical circuits. Three were install to power the equipment rack, and one for the remainder of the work room. Since I don't yet know what hardware I'll have in this room, I over engineered it ;-)

Work room electrical behind the future home of the equipment rack:


If you look closely, each outlet is listed with the circuit number (number contained in a circle). The box on the right (circuit "11") is a "dead outlet" This will not be wored to power. It's terminus is in the theater on the back wall where the projector will be. We're going to install an outlet on each end. The projector will be plugged into one end. The other end will have a male to male jumper cable that will be plugged into a power conditioner/UPS. I figure this is sort of a poor man's Powerbridge. http://www.powerbridgesolution.com/a...tallation.html

The blue smurf tubes will go to the surround speakers (sides and rears). I may wire to 2 front presence speakers, but I'll feed them through a conduit to the front.

Here's how we terminated each of the new circuits:


We didn't connect them to the panel for safety's sake. We weren't sure whether the inspector would want to see the breakers installed or not, so we erred on the side of caution.

All of the electrical boxes in the theater are Carlon adjustable electrical boxes. We'll be installing two layers of 5/8" drywall in this room, so the adjustment feature is critical. They were more expensive, but they'll be worth it in the end.



Here are some photos of the back of the theater.
Right side:


Back:



Left side:


You'll also notice that we've installed a 2" electrical conduit to the back of the theater leading from the equipment room to the location of the projector hush box. We used the gray electrical-type based on the recommendation of someone on this board. They said that the sweeps (elbows) will make it much easier to snake cables through. We're also going to install one to the front of the theater for front speaker wiring.

One of the soffits that traverses the theater was used as the central raceway for the new electrical circuits. The electrical panel is on one side of the theater and the equipment room is on the other. We found cool wire clips to secure these wires.



These are available at HD ($16.00 for a box of 20), but they sure saved a lot of space. They are made by Gardner Bender Electrical.


Here they are in action:


Next post will detail the inspections and how they turned out.

CJ

It is a regular box. I picked up the smurf tube push in connectors (they self lock when pushed into the right sized hole), then drilled a hole in the sides where I wanted the tubes to terminate.

One tip...when you drill the holes, don't try to drill through the reinforced spaces where the fixture screws go. Oh, and DO use something to clamp the box down. It does tend to wheel around in circles when the bit catches as it's nearly all the way through.



CJ

I had to think about this for a bit. I see your point. I'll go the route of the home made power bridge connector.

Thanks for helping me see this...exposed connectors are bad. When it's said like that it really is a no brainer.

CJ

Easy: As Michael said, there area large variety of techniques that can be used to stop the transmission of sound through walls. I've chosen to use a number of different ones at the same time.

The dual layers of 5/8" drywall will add mass that will retard sound tranmission, particularly the low frequencies. GG will also help stop sound transmission.

The sound clips stop flanking noise, particularly up into the joists above (sort of building a room within a room.

The dual walls separated by an air cavity will create two independent obstacles for sound to penetrate. R-13 insulation will act to fill the void and stop resonations. It will also provide a bit of sound deadening. The air dap has some purpose...but it escapes me now. I think it has something to do with sounds ability to transfer through dissimilar marterials.



I think you're confused about the back. There's no brick on the back of the house. My plan is a walkout and as such, the foundation walls are cement on the sides and only a foot or two on the back. The foundation walls have a stamped brick pattern, so it's a bit confusing.



...really? Seems a silly question to ask. It's currently a personal preference. When we were looking, very few builders provided decks, and when they did, they were absolute crap. I can do better, just not as quickly.


The french door was standard in their plan. We asked that we swap it out with a slider when we signed the initial purchase agreement, but Toll said they don't do sliders below grade. Seemed a little weird to us, but it wasn't a big deal, as we were planning to finish the basement ourselves after closing. I also looked at really good sliders at big blue, and I could do MUCH better than their upgraded model for $1800.

I'm really impressed with Toll's quality and designs. Every builder is going to have some issues, but I've been really impressed with the quality, service, and the entire experience. There are many builders that we looked at. None of them were in the same ballpark as Toll. The higher end ones were really light years ahead, but we weren't in that league.

CJ

Easy:

...actually, no. They didn't use 1/2" sheathing in my neighborhood or any of the ones in NoVa that I looked at. They use something called Thermalply. This is quite thin, but they claimed it had the same insulation properties of 1/2 sheathing. They did not use a separate vapor barrier (they said the Thermalply was a vapor barrier as well).

Va code was changed in 2006 to require sheathing and vapor barrier for all houses started in 2006. Toll changed and began using 1/2" sheathing and tyvec for all of the houses in my neighborhood. The one behind me was the first delivered in 2006 and I watched them put sheathing and tyvec up.

From what I know about sound transmission, the sheer mass of 1/2" sheathing would be superior to the Thermalply. I can't tell any other difference. If I were building a custom house, it's tyvec and thick sheathing for me.

CJ

Michael:

Sure hope so. I would really like to be able to hear the difference...sort of a before vs. after deal. I really believe the test results, but I'd like to hear the results of each technique with my own ears.



CJ

Easy:

We'll have to agree to disagree. There's folks that are unhappy and those that are happy. Please vote with your feet and avoid Toll for your future purchases. I'm in the camp of the happy Toll owners. If you really need to complain about Toll, please do so in one of the blogs that you referenced.

Complaints about builders is WAY off topic for this forum.

..now, back to the business of this forum.

CJ

Say..thanks for the note. Makes one blush...

I know it's way in the future, but I've contracted a bit of a bug for woodworking. I'm really interested in building small furniture.

When we built the house, we figured that one upgrade project would be to add a large deck across the back of the house. We're thinking multi-level deal with built in seating and possibly support for a hot tub. We are also thinking of adding a screened in porch under the deck, since that space is usually wasted. That plan has turned into a small woodworking shop AND a screened in porch under the deck.

My deck will be nearly 10' above the grade, so we decided that the theater was first. I can always sit on deck chairs on the lawn until we get around to building a deck, but I can't watch a good movie on a huge screen without building out the theater.

I'm in LOVE with the composite decking material. Winchester is home to TREX HQ, and I've got a friend who is a VP there. I don't know if there is a deal [discount] in the works, but like I said, I really like the composite decking.

That will be next year's project...provided I ever get this one finished.

;-)

Some will have noticed that I posted a new thread asking for assistance with my ceiling. I had a design that included a octagonal tray ceiling. I never really liked the design, but that story is included in the thread (linked below).

Here's a before and after photos:

Before:

Front screen wall


Rear wall



AFTER:

Front screen wall


Rear wall


Here's a link to the ceiling help thread: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=992661

Thank you to everyone that provided comments including Biggy, Todd, Michael (Cathan) and Scaesare.

CJ

No worries. It's hard to tell who's yanking the chain and who's being sincere. No worries.

I'm exceedingly proud of the fact that I was able to graduate and start a new life on the other side of the country...country that I'd never have seen otherwise. I have done well so far (knock on wood).

Made major progress on my build, and I think your note will be the catalyst to get me posting in my own thread again. Look for an update soon.

BTW: I graduated number 3. Number 2 went on to be a drug sales rep for a major pharmaceutical company, while number 1 is a teacher in a small state college in OK.

CJ

Thanks, Mark.

This weekend, I was quite busy. I hired Bryan to do the room design and make a number of suggestions. I pulled down the side soffits this weekend so that I can drywall the ceiling and walls to create a soundproof envelope. It was hard to pull them down, but we decided that since we're going so far with soundproofing, it was worth the little extra time to pull them down in preparation for drywall in the theater.

Bryan also made a recommendation that we run the HVAC ducting through the new soffits that we'll install after the room envelope is in place. It's going to be really hard to pull down the ducts and redo them from outside the room.

More updates this evening.

CJ