[sprtfan]

I'm going to be helping a friend redo his theater room to fix a few problems in the original design. The room is 18' by 12'. The room is open to a very large game room. One of the biggest problems is that the 12' wall behind the seating position is just a layer of drywall with the other side of the wall being an unfinished storage room. The room also has to 4' wall's that separate the theater room from the game room that are hollow. When playing music, these wall's noticeable vibrate at fairly low listening levels.

Also, the ceiling is hollow with an air duct running down the middle of it.

The plain is to put drywall on the wall in the storage room and fill it with insulation. We are also going to cut holes in the top of the 2, 4'ft walls and blow in insulation. We also want to build the 4ft walls out and narrow the distance between them from 10'ft to 6'ft and put in a solid wood french door.

Also, we are thinking of putting in a new ceiling underneath the existing one and insulating it. The idea for the ceiling is to have it start 10" lower than the existing ceiling on the 18'ft sides and have it tapper to 5" in the middle of the room. Not sure if this is a good idea or would make any difference.

After the room is done, he would want to build/buy some bass traps for the corners and some other room treatments.

I was hoping some people here would give some feedback and add some suggestions on what we should do and what treatments would work best. Here is a rough draft of the starting room.

 

[Ethan Winer]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sprtfan /forum/post/0


One of the biggest problems is that the 12' wall behind the seating position is just a layer of drywall with the other side of the wall being an unfinished storage room.

I don't see that as a problem. Thin walls pass bass, and absorb a little bass too, and that's a Good Thing unless you need sound isolation between the rooms. However, walls should not vibrate and rattle on their own, so you should lay fluffy fiberglass insulation in the stud cavities, and press it against the drywall to damp any vibrations.


> The plain is to put drywall on the wall in the storage room and fill it with insulation.

 

[sprtfan]

Thanks for the information! Probably the hardest part of the project was going to be taking out the shelves in the storage room to put up the drywall and it sounds like it is not needed.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Ethan Winer /forum/post/0



> The idea for the ceiling is to have it start 10" lower than the existing ceiling on the 18'ft sides and have it tapper to 5" in the middle of the room.

 

[Ethan Winer]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sprtfan /forum/post/0


We were under the impression that it would be acoustically better to have it sloped.

I don't see how that will help with either the in-room acoustics or to reduce isolation to the upstairs. Angled walls and ceilings can be useful acoustically, but not if the angle is only a few degrees.


> I'm thinking that the hollow section would be less than ideal acoustically?
Maybe the room is not all that bad and we should be focusing on the treatments first instead of after?

 

[sprtfan]

Thanks for all of the information. I'm glad we found out before we got started. We will blow insulation into the ceiling and side walls and put insulation behind the back wall as well. We will still put in the french door since they want the room to be closed off anyway.

Instead of building a new ceiling to take care of the problem of the duct running through the middle of the room, would it be enough to treat the area with a few inches of 703 instead or something else? Could we run the risk of over treating the room if a large portion of the ceiling is covered? If not, we can still build the 2nd ceiling.

Thanks for the all the information. I think we should be able to get started in a few weeks and with the confidence that we are going things right. After we get done, we will add bass traps floor to ceiling for each corner and buy some panels for the back and side walls for treatments. If this is to much, please let us know. Thanks again.

 

[Ethan Winer]



Quote:
Originally Posted by sprtfan /forum/post/0


would it be enough to treat the area with a few inches of 703 instead or something else? Could we run the risk of over treating the room if a large portion of the ceiling is covered?

It's pretty difficult to over-treat most rooms. The more common problem I see is when people treat only mid and high frequencies and don't have enough absorption at bass frequencies.


--Ethan