[jlachanc]

Like many, I've had to reevaluate the design of my theater due to a new addition to the family, Ella so this thread is named after her.


The top priority for the build is sound isolation and I have been working with Terry Montlick to achieve this goal. Terry will also be designing my acoustic treatments. He's very knowledgeable on this subject and has been instrumental with the design; I can't recommend him enough.


In addition to Terry, I'd like to also thank the countless number of intelligent people who contribute to this forum who have some way or another influenced this build. This room would be no where the same without you all.


Jason

 

[jlachanc]

Here’s some shots of the room as it was before.

Front:

[note that EP600 sub, which is a big part of my sound isolation issue]

Rear:

Right side:

[note the messy wires, those will be a thing of the past in 2.0]

Annoying HVAC soffit:

Left side:

Some the equipment includes:

Optoma H79 projector

Stewart Firehawk 110” diag.

Outlaw 990 pre/pro

Outlaw 7700 amp

Axiom Epic 80-600 speakers (7.1 config)

PS3

Toshiba HD-XA

 

[jlachanc]

As mentioned we are going for the maximum sound isolation design, (within reason).


The room is located in the basement. The left and rear walls are against the foundation, the front is adjacent to a unfinished storage room, and the right wall is to-be built.


The plan is to incorporate the following design aspects:


--Room w/in room design. No part of the room will touch the house except for the concrete floor.

--3 layers of drywall in the room, (walls and ceiling), with 2 tubes of Greenglue between each layer.

--2 layers of drywall on walls outside the room, excluding foundation walls

--HVAC will be tied to the existing house, but acoustic flexible ducts will be used to avoid sound transmission. I originally wanted to go to a mini-split system, but both performance and cost considerations deterred me.

--Equipment will be external to the room.

--Communicating doors will be installed.

--Stage filled with 2500 lbs. will be used

--False screen wall

--Two level riser


Here is a simple diagram of the room I used for design discussion purposes with my builder, it is not to scale, nor does it represent the exact shape of the room.

Here is a chicken scratch actual layout of the old room:


Note that the room is a bit of an odd shape, which is due to the odd shape of the foundation. Though this area is only about 25-30% of the basement area, it was really my best choice due to the fact that the stairs are located right in the middle.

The ceilings are 9’, but there are two large trunks running through the room (outflow and return) that feed both the basement and main floor of the house. Re-engineering these would have been cost prohibitive, so I am stuck dealing with them as part of the design.

 

[jlachanc]

Here’s pics of the tear down of the HT 1.0 room:

Empty front:

Partial riser:

Tape showing where low voltage wires run to avoid any mistakes when the drywall is removed:

Bar:

Note, the fridge pocket there is where the gear will go.

Stuff piled up in adjacent room:

Gutted back:

Gutted front:

Note: that frame to the right is the old screen wall. It was taken down whole and will be moved back ~30” into the storage room so a false wall can be built.

Annoying HVAC:

Riser remnants

They were actually able to salvage quite a bit of it.

 

[jlachanc]

Here’s a shot of the some 30 gallons of greenglue I’ll be using!!

I’d like to say thank you to John Hile at http://www.soundproofingcompany.com/ for his assistance wit my order and answering my many questions. These guys have top notch customer service and are very experienced; I would not hesitate to use them again.

 

[jlachanc]

Some shots of the new double wall construction:

Front:

[you can see the storage room there]

Right-front side:

Rear w/new wall

Left side

Doorway

New ceiling joist

There is only a ¼” gap here due to the crappy duct sagging in the middle. We are going to drive long screws though the duct to push it up another 1-2”


Coffered ceiling in rear of room under riser

 

[jlachanc]

Here’s the new acoustical flex duct installed. I’d like to thank BIGmouthinDC for letting me know about this stuff. It works amazingly well. I put my ear close to the return air inlet and could not hear any sound though the pipe from the furnace which was only 15’ away!!


Return air duct

This will be behind the false screen wall


T’d outflow duct

This helps to add more 90 degree turns to the design. It cuts down on airflow, but my main goal is to turn over the air in the room since it is always cool down there. I am considering adding additional oil filled electric registers to add heat in the winter time. The basement is always 10-15 degrees cooler than the rest of the house.


While we were at it, we add some extra returns to the other part of the basement and one to my wife’s office which has 3 outside facing walls and is always hot or cold depending on the season.

Sealed off old return that was in the room

By the way, these pics represent only 4 days of work for my contactor. They are really flying!!

I will post the electrical soon.

 

[BIGmouthinDC]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jlachanc /forum/post/14179699


Here’s the new acoustical flex duct installed. I’d like to thank BIGmouthinDC for letting me know about this stuff. It works amazingly well. I put my ear close to the return air inlet and could not hear any sound though the pipe from the furnace which was only 15’ away!!

Looking good.

I must have posted the link to the Flexmaster web page 20 times but You are the first I can recall that ever followed my tip. Where did you get the stuff?

 

[jlachanc]



Quote:
Originally Posted by BIGmouthinDC /forum/post/14180379


Looking good.

I must have posted the link to the Flexmaster web page 20 times but You are the first I can recall that ever followed my tip. Where did you get the stuff?

Thanks!

Actually, it was easy, I went to the website and did a search for local supplier. Luckily they have one here in town. I just sent my HVAC guy there; they did not have it in stock, but it only took 1 day to get it. He said it is like 3x the cost of conventional flexduct, but from what I have seen, (or not heard, really), it's worth it. Thanks again for the tip.

 

[jlachanc]

Most of the electrical rough-in is complete and we are past the first electrical inspection, as well as HVAC. The Framing inspection is this coming Monday.


I am going to build a soffit above the stage after the drywall is installed and some can lights will be put in there.


Soffit wiring

We also ended up adding a sub-panel in the basement. It was not mandatory, but the old one was about maxed out and since we are planning to remodel the kitchen in a year or two, it made sense to do it now.


I forgot to have the electrician run a 220v line so I could put in a heat register. I’m also going to have him install a whole house surge protector.

 

[jlachanc]

I am having all the work done to code and we had an issue this week with the electrical inspector. Basically, I did not want to install outlets every 12ft. as required by code in order to reduce the number of holes in the drywall. I am planning to put several outlets in the riser which will be built and wired after the walls are sheet-rocked.

The inspector would not sign off on the wiring without the outlets, so we put them in where the columns will be with some extra wire. Once the room is rocked and the columns are installed, we will put them in the columns. This way we only have to punch a small hole in the 3 layers of drywall for the romex. Though I may likely cover them up with wall treatments after the final inspection, so I don’t have to look at them.


Extra wire

 

[jlachanc]

Per forum recommendations, I purchased a Grafik Eye 6 zone system, though I’ve currently only identified 5 light zones:

1. Behind screen cans

2. In front of screen cans+2 sconces

3. Three sconces near the seating area

4. Rope light

5. Step lights


Here is the box:

The electrician was concerned about getting all the wires in the box, so we ended up installing an external box outside the room in the storage area. The one advantage of this is if I ever want to use the 6th zone of the GE, I have easier access to it.

Extra light box:

 

[W00lly]

You should embed your photos so they show up in your thread would be alot easier to look through

 

[jlachanc]

I may have gone overboard with conduit, but better safe than sorry as they say. I’ve run it for all the speaker wires as well as to where the projector will currently be mounted, in addition I am running conduit several feet back so I can eventually go to a 2.35 setup.


I have not yet figured out exactly how I want to terminate the 2” conduit at the projector. If anyone has a nice way to do this, please let me know.

Running the 2” video conduit was like trying wrestle a python:

This shows the front of the room. There is an outline of the stage my builder put together to see how it would look. We will have the soffit mirror this design. If this design it looks familiar, it should as I copied from AVS, (sorry I would credit the original designer, but I seem to have lost track of who it was).

This is the backside of the equipment cabinet where all the conduit begins. I’m going to have to clean up this snake nest before the drywallers come so they can move around back there.

 

[jlachanc]



Quote:
Originally Posted by W00lly /forum/post/14181966


You should embed your photos so they show up in your thread would be alot easier to look through

Ok, I'll try. I thought I was doing it "like everyone else".

 

[jlachanc]

I was inspired by Strange_Brew’s Reedzone theater, and decided to cut the corners off my light tray too.

I really light the design of Strange_Brew’s theater and may also be copying his column design



(From Stange_Brew’s website)

 

[jlachanc]



Quote:
Originally Posted by W00lly /forum/post/14181966


You should embed your photos so they show up in your thread would be alot easier to look through

Ha! I think I figured it out. I never realized that the pics could show up in the thread as they always showed up this way on my browser.


I think it's fixed now...

 

[W00lly]

Yes much better

 

[W00lly]

J


You can never have to much smurf tube if you ask me. I did mine the same way sucked greenlee wire pulling string through conduit with a shop vac worked slick

 

[BIGmouthinDC]

Just a comparison:


Your before H79 mounting and wiring (plus extra fans)

Mine: