[jmhug]

Long time AVS lurker. Been working non-stop on other renovation projects in my current money-pit but I'm in the design stage of my basement finishing project. The idea is to have the theater portion of the basement be multi-purpose so the basement can be used for a number of purposes including video gaming, band practice space for two of my daughters who are in a band, overflow for family gatherings in the winter etc. A portion of the basement will have a full bath and laundry room. There is about 900 sq ft of usable space once I consider mechanicals and necessary storage space.


My question is this, has anyone done a riser that disappears into the floor? I would like to make one section of the basement that will have the projector and screen a space that i can convert between theater style and general purpose- essentially slide one of the couches/loveseat/chair sections etc back behind the other and have the riser come up out of the floor. My advantage (or disadvantage) is that an existing ~3' deep 5x9 pit in the basement needs to be framed in (I'm assuming where a boiler used to be located). Luckily it's at the rear of the area I planned on using my projector and screen in. I was thinking about framing in the subfloor a certain number of inches deeper than the surrounding floor and then somehow raising the riser up out of the floor when needed for dedicated movie watching. I'm not sure about the mechanism required to "lift" the riser section but that will come together once I know better what the weight requirements of the system will be.


Anyone seen this before or done this? Any thoughts on a reliable lifting system. I was looking at electronically controlled 1 ton scissor lifts placed in the corners of the pit subfloor but am open to any and all suggestions including that I'm crazy.

Thanks!

 

[Suntan]

I was contemplating it at one time, but having a flat floor made it rather difficult to accomplish for a reasonable budget (that and the wife said no way!)


A view of your potential floorplan would be beneficial in getting a better idea of your layout.


-Suntan

 

[jpdeuce]

As I was reading, I was thinking that most of us have to deal with a lack of headroom already in our basements. Normally, this would require building the entire floor up, so that this part of the floor could rise from that. However, this pit you have has me intrigued. I've seen some cool stuff done with motorized arms (they look like shock absorbers)...but I forget what they are called. The show I saw used 2 of them to lower/raise a storage box to the ceiling of a garage...and it was strong enough to raise a person. I would assume a similar type setup could be done to raise and lower the floor.


I think my only "issue" with the setup is having to move the couches around all the time. For me, I would have to compare how much time I think it would be in one or the other positions, and then how much effort it's going to take to make this happen. I'm guessing I would end up in the "effort/cost does not outweigh the disadvantages of just having a permanent riser".