Scott that is almost the same size as my room which was 17' 8" x 15' 1" before the inner walls went up. I ended up making two decisions becuase of the length one I went with in wall speakers and two I went with theater rockers for the back row. Both worked out great for us and we have been happy with the theater. I look forward to following your build.Long time lurker, first time builder of a single-purpose room. I have had two theaters, both open to other spaces and not as perfectly tuned as I would like. I am looking to build a more permanent installation and have spent a lot of time planning for a larger room in my house that we have now agreed would be better not to alter, which leaves me with a smaller space. It is not the smallest discussed here, certainly, but I am struggling with positioning. I'm not ready for a build thread yet, so let's call this my questions thread.
The new space is a max length of about 17'3" (probably a liitle less after refinishing walls) and a width of about 15 feet, depending on exactly where I place the new divider wall. I am planning for making it as close to 15 feet exactly as possible to ensure room for a centered door on sidewall to open inward without hitting seating and to have not much less than 30 inches per side to walk to the back row. There is a little bit more width available but I plan to use that for a dramatic entry way. The final dimension is also a disappointment as I lose the 98inch height of the original room, all the way down to 91", which makes riser height a concern.
I suspect I will not have room for a false wall and perf screen, so have been assuming I'd have a solid screen fairly close to the wall with speakers below. I've not had a perf screen before and I frankly am not sure I can localize voices below the screen anyway, but perhaps visitors could. The projector throw will become a problem if I bring the screen too far into the room. Do I need to reconsider the screen?
At 17 feet, I am not sure about seating placement. I envision two rows, ideally 4 up front and 5 in back for nine total. which will seat my kids, their cousins, and the parents all at once. First guess: eyes/ears somewhere around 9 feet and 15 feet, but that puts the front row smack in front of the door and close to the centerline, which is an acoustic concern. Suggestions? I originally considered a bar in the back of the room in my first design, but that would have been a 3rd row in the other space. Can a bar be done comfortable enough to be a valid second row?
I did the riser calculations for my larger space but it has been so long I will have to start over on interpreting my spreadsheet for riser height. At 91 inches I wonder if I need to give serious thought to cutting into the slab to lower the center of the room. I did see a DIY on that, but I think my wife will want that done by a contractor, more for speed than quality.
Any thoughts on this space?
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Switching to a smaller room
Long time lurker, first time builder of a single-purpose room. I have had two theaters, both open to other spaces and not as perfectly tuned as I would like. I am looking to build a more permanent installation and have spent a lot of time planning for a larger room in my house that we have now agreed would be better not to alter, which leaves me with a smaller space. It is not the smallest discussed here, certainly, but I am struggling with positioning. I'm not ready for a build thread yet, so let's call this my questions thread.
The new space is a max length of about 17'3" (probably a liitle less after refinishing walls) and a width of about 15 feet, depending on exactly where I place the new divider wall. I am planning for making it as close to 15 feet exactly as possible to ensure room for a centered door on sidewall to open inward without hitting seating and to have not much less than 30 inches per side to walk to the back row. There is a little bit more width available but I plan to use that for a dramatic entry way. The final dimension is also a disappointment as I lose the 98inch height of the original room, all the way down to 91", which makes riser height a concern.
I suspect I will not have room for a false wall and perf screen, so have been assuming I'd have a solid screen fairly close to the wall with speakers below. I've not had a perf screen before and I frankly am not sure I can localize voices below the screen anyway, but perhaps visitors could. The projector throw will become a problem if I bring the screen too far into the room. Do I need to reconsider the screen?
At 17 feet, I am not sure about seating placement. I envision two rows, ideally 4 up front and 5 in back for nine total. which will seat my kids, their cousins, and the parents all at once. First guess: eyes/ears somewhere around 9 feet and 15 feet, but that puts the front row smack in front of the door and close to the centerline, which is an acoustic concern. Suggestions? I originally considered a bar in the back of the room in my first design, but that would have been a 3rd row in the other space. Can a bar be done comfortable enough to be a valid second row?
I did the riser calculations for my larger space but it has been so long I will have to start over on interpreting my spreadsheet for riser height. At 91 inches I wonder if I need to give serious thought to cutting into the slab to lower the center of the room. I did see a DIY on that, but I think my wife will want that done by a contractor, more for speed than quality.
Any thoughts on this space?
The new space is a max length of about 17'3" (probably a liitle less after refinishing walls) and a width of about 15 feet, depending on exactly where I place the new divider wall. I am planning for making it as close to 15 feet exactly as possible to ensure room for a centered door on sidewall to open inward without hitting seating and to have not much less than 30 inches per side to walk to the back row. There is a little bit more width available but I plan to use that for a dramatic entry way. The final dimension is also a disappointment as I lose the 98inch height of the original room, all the way down to 91", which makes riser height a concern.
I suspect I will not have room for a false wall and perf screen, so have been assuming I'd have a solid screen fairly close to the wall with speakers below. I've not had a perf screen before and I frankly am not sure I can localize voices below the screen anyway, but perhaps visitors could. The projector throw will become a problem if I bring the screen too far into the room. Do I need to reconsider the screen?
At 17 feet, I am not sure about seating placement. I envision two rows, ideally 4 up front and 5 in back for nine total. which will seat my kids, their cousins, and the parents all at once. First guess: eyes/ears somewhere around 9 feet and 15 feet, but that puts the front row smack in front of the door and close to the centerline, which is an acoustic concern. Suggestions? I originally considered a bar in the back of the room in my first design, but that would have been a 3rd row in the other space. Can a bar be done comfortable enough to be a valid second row?
I did the riser calculations for my larger space but it has been so long I will have to start over on interpreting my spreadsheet for riser height. At 91 inches I wonder if I need to give serious thought to cutting into the slab to lower the center of the room. I did see a DIY on that, but I think my wife will want that done by a contractor, more for speed than quality.
Any thoughts on this space?
1 - 10 of 10 Posts
Scott that is almost the same size as my room which was 17' 8" x 15' 1" before the inner walls went up. I ended up making two decisions becuase of the length one I went with in wall speakers and two I went with theater rockers for the back row. Both worked out great for us and we have been happy with the theater. I look forward to following your build.
Thank you very much. There is a lot of good material in your build from which to draw. I have also considered commercial-style stadium theater chairs for the second row but was hoping to avoid it to keep the look consistent. I do think I would like my front row a little closer. How far into the thread do I need to dig to find details on the seating and screen?Scott that is almost the same size as my room which was 17' 8" x 15' 1" before the inner walls went up. I ended up making two decisions becuase of the length one I went with in wall speakers and two I went with theater rockers for the back row. Both worked out great for us and we have been happy with the theater. I look forward to following your build.
I really appreciate all the detail in your thread, though, and am jealous you got Jeff's support. I'm in Northern Virginia and always assumed I'd hire him on when I got around to this. I think I might have cried on coming back to the forum and finding his "Retired" banner.
I bought a full set of inexpensive in-wall speakers when I was thinking my next build would be somewhat temporary. They are JBL SP8ii and SP8Cii, which I still have not actually heard. I am not sure if I will really put them in the wall or instead put them into columns to eliminate the hassle of wall penetrations and backer boxes. The ceiling ones will need the boxes, though, given my low ceiling. Now that I think about it, I am considering going with an intermediate/temporary build in the new space using bookcases as a room divider instead of new walls with clips/channel, which will take a lot more planning. The theater is actively used despite not having walls or proper speaker placement.
9 people and a projector in a 15x17 ft room will be an extraordinary HVAC load, be sure your system is up to the challenge.
I would opt for an AT screen and in-wall speakers so you can elevate the speakers for unobstructed listening in the back row.
Check out the Full Circle Cinema seating layout for 9 seats. Pictures on his first page.
I would opt for an AT screen and in-wall speakers so you can elevate the speakers for unobstructed listening in the back row.
Check out the Full Circle Cinema seating layout for 9 seats. Pictures on his first page.
Actually filling the theater with adults will probably be rare. more likely a gaggle of kids, but I will be closing off a room that does not have it's own AC venting currently so my plan was a mini split sized to just this space. We have 4 zones on propane now that we are looking to convert to natural gas, so there will likely be some other HVAC changes in the house that can be done in coordination with this addition.9 people and a projector in a 15x17 ft room will be an extraordinary HVAC load, be sure your system is up to the challenge.
I would opt for an AT screen and in-wall speakers so you can elevate the speakers for unobstructed listening in the back row.
Check out the Full Circle Cinema seating layout for 9 seats. Pictures on his first page.
There is a nearly full height crawl space adjacent so there is a lot of room if I need to do dead vents or build a new dedicated utility room. There is extra room at the end of the existing nearby utility room, too but I was thinking of using that for the theater equiplment as it is conveniently the size for a decent rack and faces a useful wall outside the room. I also expect to have an empty soffit on one wall that could accommodate some excess duct work if needed and will run along an exterior wall.
Have a better suggestion for where to head with HCAC plans?
The gold standard would be a ducted minisplit with sound attenuating duct work. Also provision for adding fresh air to the return to overcome the build up of CO2. Since you could build an adjacent utility room it would be a natural location for the air handler. The advantage of the ducted versus wall hung is to get the fan noise out of the theater space and allow for easier hook up of the fresh air intake.
Ha, found your seating post and I see you and I discussed it two years ago. Jeff had chimed in, too. At least we are consistent. I knew the build looked familiar...Scott that is almost the same size as my room which was 17' 8" x 15' 1" before the inner walls went up. I ended up making two decisions becuase of the length one I went with in wall speakers and two I went with theater rockers for the back row. Both worked out great for us and we have been happy with the theater. I look forward to following your build.
Sorry to bring up an old post to quote but this part was relevant to me so moving it here from the Baba Yaga build.It is possible to mount clips and channel directly on a masonry exterior foundation wall, BUT it won't offer as much vibration isolation as placing framing one inch in front of the foundation walls. You also need to check with your local building codes as your location in PA may have minimum insulation requirements for finished basements and the space available with clips and channel may not be big enough to satisfy that requirement. Just a FYI if you use isolation methods to frame those walls in front of the foundation you can skip the clips and channel. Frame the wall one inch short and secure the top plate (I'd double up) with IB3 clips every 48 inches. Place thick strips of rubber mat under the bottom plate.
I'm assuming your builder is having inspections and when you take possesion of the house the basement will probably be insulated even though it is not finished. That insulation should meet the minimum of the local building code.
When constructing your ceiling don't box in your beams and ducts, just ladder down on both sides and span the bottom with your double layers of drywall hanging 1/2 inch below. If you are doing clips and channel on the ceiling, hang the ladders after the ceiling drywall is up, and attach to the drywall and channel above. Then the ladders are decoupled and they won't need clips and channel.
If I move forward in this room I will be redoing a finished basement room that has one wall framed against a cinderblock exterior wall and one against a cinderblock wall to a crawlspace that is below finished living space. Wall three is a wood frame exterior wall and wall 4 does not yet exist and will be framed in. As it is new I would have the option of double-stud or other in-frame isolation techniques.
I am not entirely clear on the nature of the framing as I have not taken down drywall, but my guess is the two walls adjacent to cinderblock are not load bearing but the 3rd wall is.
What should I plan to do here? hat/channel on ceiling and only on the 3rd and 4th wall?
Also, I appreciate the recommendation to ladder down to cover the beam but my 4th wall will be near, possibly under the beam and will need to support one or two heavy doors. What is the best approach to connecting the wall to ceiling? Would one ever isolate the door frame from the rest of the wall?
So, we are considering another reconfiguration. It would move into another room adjacent to this one. It is a little longer at about 19 feet and a little narrower, at 14'10" . It is about 8 inches taller as well, though there are ducts that will need rerouting. My wife really wants a 4 seat front row, which is tough at that width. Might be able to make do with a love seat configuration to remove one of the arm rests.
This new room bumps out from the house so 3 of the walls are exterior. Given the already challenged width, how important will it be to isolate on the exterior walls? What is the thinnest solution I should attempt? I think my exterior walls are 2x6 studs, may be possible to recess channel but there would be a lot of fiberglass insulation to manipulate. Good opportunity to switch to spray foam?
There is a window at the end of the room that is likely to be seating. It is well placed and could remain with a blackout curtain, but it will look a little low with a riser. Would it be better to cover it over with drywall?
Any advice on switching from metal ducts to flexiduct? I'm thinking it would be better to have multiple individual flexi runs than one big shared duct. The duct serves the room above it as well, of course at the far end of the room. Assuming I should split that before it enters this room and run directly to those two floor vents above.
This new room bumps out from the house so 3 of the walls are exterior. Given the already challenged width, how important will it be to isolate on the exterior walls? What is the thinnest solution I should attempt? I think my exterior walls are 2x6 studs, may be possible to recess channel but there would be a lot of fiberglass insulation to manipulate. Good opportunity to switch to spray foam?
There is a window at the end of the room that is likely to be seating. It is well placed and could remain with a blackout curtain, but it will look a little low with a riser. Would it be better to cover it over with drywall?
Any advice on switching from metal ducts to flexiduct? I'm thinking it would be better to have multiple individual flexi runs than one big shared duct. The duct serves the room above it as well, of course at the far end of the room. Assuming I should split that before it enters this room and run directly to those two floor vents above.
Flex duct will help, but not much. If you're really concerned about keeping the sound out of there, you need to think about mini-splits and dead vents. Me? I just said f-it and ran flex duct behind my DDGG, and it's fine.
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