[CptnRandy]

Fellow HT enthusiasts/obsessives,


I haven't even held our grand opening and already I foresee a problem that's driving me nuts.


Anyone that comes to visit the progress immediately goes to the walls and runs their hands over the fabric! So far, I've grinned and kept my mouth shut, but I dread staining or snagging the stuff.


Here's my questions: Do you that have fabric have the same thing or are my friends all cretins? Am I being obsessive to worry about it? What about kids, etc?


And the big one: has anyone had to repair fabric damage, and if so, how did you make the repair?


Help me rest easy at night!


Randy

 

[ebr]

We all go through it.


I usually tell people not to touch the walls before they even get there but you're right. When someone walks in one of these rooms it's like they turn into zombies or something. Their eyes glaze over and they start staggering towards a wall with a finger extended.


Dunno what it is but people just *have* to touch these walls.


Kids, you just have to be real careful. Last time, my son was pretty much the only one ever in there and he knew not to touch the walls. This time he will have more friends over I'm sure because he's older now and he has more friends in the neighborhood we're moving into now. They won't be allowed in "Daddy's movie room" unless they're supervised.


Worst case, I guess, You'd have to pull off some trim and re-do one section of a wall. For me, this time, I guess that would be a major ordeal since I put the fabric on before attaching the columns and then a bunch of trim. So, let's just hope it never comes to that.

 

[Toxarch]

They touch my walls now and I haven't even put anything on them yet.

 

[CptnRandy]

God, I hate to think about repair - as it is now, I have to remove the trim and columns from the entire wall. Ugh.


Randy

 

[shodoug]

No fabric up yet I am just now getting sources for insulshield and polyester batting.


I am planning to put a sofa table behind my new sofa in the living room, not because I need a table, but because it is impossible to keep people from rubbing their hands across the back of a couch, if it is not up against the wall.


I expect to tell people not to touch the walls, but I will have to see how that goes over. I have a feeling that they will just touch them when I am not looking. Couriosity... Maybe I should just make a sample board that they can touch?


Best Regards,

Doug

 

[Deane Johnson]

I wouldn't worry to much about it. Perhaps there are different GOM fabrics, but that which I worked with was amazingly resistive to problems. It's made for office panels, etc. and very rugged.


As a matter of fact, we did screen curtains from the GOM wall fabric for a dealer's demo theater and had problems getting it to fold properly. It's woven to stay straight and doesn't want to go into pleates. We used steam, a special spray and left them tied into folded position for two weeks before they even began to take shape.


I'm thinking that just touching it will be completely harmless. Of course if somebody's rowdy kids run their toys on it, all bets are off.


Based on our experience, I don't recommend it for screen curtains, but we did make it work fairly well after considerable effort.


Deane

 

[Crown of Iron]

lol,


I have some funny horror stories, not really about wall fabric, but the above comment about how people turn into zombies when they enter the HT made me laugh my ass off....


Well. I struggled a long time to find a Double Sided version of the 1997 Re-release of Return of the Jedi Poster for one of my lightboxes...... I finally get it, well a week later my older brother is coming into town.... He has two very young kids..... WELL, I don't have any of the Posterboxes done yet, so I unrolled the poster onto the floor so he could see how cool it was...


Well he comes upstairs to check my progress and EXACTLY what had run through my imagination happened..... My brother walks in very suprised, and while we talk, I see his youngest son walk into the room, promptly falls off the platform, then runs DIRECTLY TO THE FRIGGIN POSTER AND TRAMPLES ON IT LIKE IT"S A DANCEFLOOR..... It was so shocking all I could do was sit there and smile like the poster didn't mean a f'ing thing to me.


Then my brother looks up at me..."Did you have it laying there to get the wrinkles out?"..........................


"No, not really".........



I could go on for days......I am going to have a STRICT CONTROL over my HT, and anyone can kiss my ass if they don't like me telling them 1000 times, don't touch the walls or I WILL HAVE YOUR ASS!!!!

 

[CptnRandy]

I've got a great DVD, recommended on this forum by others, called the "Drive-In Disc". It has two really awful (unwatchable awful, not funny awful), but it has an entire selection of announcement clips, including "Let's all go to the lobby" and one with a stern man telling kids to "Be quiet or you'll be asked to leave".


I just need one that says, "Keep your **** hands of the walls!"


R

 

[Art Sonneborn]

Randy,

If you make a room like that and you spend the time and money I don't think it is too weird to ask friends to understand the fragility of it. I tell essentially everyone not to touch the screen and to not touch the projectors. I don't have GOM on my walls but wish I did.


You should have seen me giving the ground rules when my stepdaughter had 22 friends over for a movie ! I literally went through a training program.....well not that bad but....


Art

 

[CptnRandy]

I am, BTW, for both effect and control, thinking about putting up the "velvet rope"!


R

 

[eameres]

How soft is the GOM over insulshield? I'm thinking of using (perhaps electrified (that way they'd only touch it once ;-) )) chicken wire underneath to give it some extra support.


Of I may be using burlap from Dazian instead of GOM.


Eric.

 

[amillians]

Randy,


As odd as it sounds, I've had more problems with my friends and family than with any kids--kids you can scare into submission...friends and family are the ones to watch. No matter how I phrase the warning to adults (don't touch the walls, they are fragile; touch the walls and I'll have to kill you; I have placed razor sharp nails behind the fabric, so if you poke the walls, you will be cut; the fabric is radioactive, etc.), the first thing everyone new to the HT does is touch the friggin walls. Some even feel the need to test the resiliance of the fabric by poking it. Perhaps we both have cretins for friends. I know I do for family. Don't get me started on the inlaws.


I think the only way to stop this is to have a "play" station situated outside the room with a mockup of the walls. Let everyone get their jollies feeling up the mockup walls, so they're over the "I have to touch this" feeling once they actually get the HT room.

 

[patrickwebb]

Anyway to supply an electrical current to the wall so that when someone touches it, they get a shock? Could you incorporate X-10 somehow, so that when you see someone about to touch it, you can whip out your Pronto and press the "Zap" macro?










(Just kidding.)

 

[shodoug]

Alex,


I am really going to try to make an area that people can touch.


I know that I am wondering what it feels like. It is often easier to satisfy curiosity than try to deny urges.


Using the extra materials to make an easily replaced panel in the adjacent gameroom might even make it a nicer place to be. It is very live in there right now.


Has anyone else used the sound treatment in other rooms?


Best Regards,

Doug

 

[Crown of Iron]

Amillians ROFLMAO,


I remember back when I first got a Rear-Projection TV, it didn't have a protector over the screen (looked too reflective)


I told the dealer, "Screw it, $400 extra for a protector??" I'll keep that money and protect it myself... heh......


Well, my big brother's daughter (just walking at the time of this story)

I told my brother before entering the room to keep her away from the screen..... Not but 2 minutes later she walks right up to the screen and USES HER FINGERNAIL to scratch a huge, long line across the bottom of the screen....


I should be jailed for the thoughts that ran through my mind at that moment, but again I was so shocked and amazed by what had just happened I just sat there.....staring at the scratch. But I did manage to give my brother the "I'd f******* kill your a** if I could get away with it" look.....


I'm gonna have a rules list hanging on the wall outside the HT... And to get in I will have to sit there and watch as each mofo reads it every stinkin time before they enter.


Oh, and there's the time that after I just had my expensive as hell Mohawk carpet installed in the HT, I tell all my friends, " No more eating, and definitly NO MORE BEER DRINKIN IN THE HT"


I let down my gaurd for just one occasion, and one of my more stupid friends sits his bigass tallboy can on the carpet, which is so thick and soft the cand just falls over instantly. He looks at me instead of picking up the beer, I think he must have thought I was gonna kill him. I should have!!!!

 

[ebr]

Quote:

How soft is the GOM over insulshield?

Over the Linacoustic, its actually not bad at all. That stuff has some pretty good structural integrity. Its over the batting that's an issue. That is soft and easy to depress and get wrinkles. However, just runing a soft hand over it seems to clear it up pretty easily.

 

[patrickwebb]

King,


Those are just the kind of things that are going thru my mind right now. After our baby was born, everyone came down to visit, including my 4 nieces all under 4. Well, of course, they made their way down to the basement and the next thing I know is that they are bouncing around the couches, crawling behind the couch, dancing around right in front of the tv... Well, I just kept the cool head and faked the "oh no big deal" expression when all of a sudden, 'BAM!' and in a blink of an eye, my L Surround was about to come crashing down to the floor! Luckily, I was right there and was able to save it.


Which brings me to my thinking of how I am going to "Kid proof" and "friends over having a good time drinking proof" our new basement!

 

[Diver]

Where were you folks able to find the 1" thick poly batting? My search in local fabric stores has been a waste of time so far.

 

[ebr]

You can double up the 8oz stuff from Joann's...

 

[CptnRandy]

Yep, over the insusheld it's firm, but the batting is "squishy".


I think I may try a "feel the fabric" display - great idea, Alex!


Randy