[FiveCar]

A big thank you to all of the advice on this forum. I lurked for about half a year, built my theater based on all the advice, and have been enjoying the theater for almost two years now. Finally got around to thanking all of you!


Photos available at my member gallery, but I've also attached three as teasers.


Stats:

• Build time: 9 months, nights and weekends, 20-30 hours a week
• Size: 22' wide, 25' deep
• Screen: 11' wide Da-Lite acoustically transparent screen
• Sound: 7.1 setup. Triune speakers in front, BR-1's in side/rear, Titan III 15" sub.
• Projector: Was Infocus SP4805, now Sanyo Z4
• Accessories: Xbox360, MCE, PC
• Materials cost: $6000
• Contracted cost: $4400 ($3k for carpet, $1.4k for drywall mudding)
• Gear cost: $7000 ($4k for Berklines, $3k for speakers/PJ/amp/etc)
• Value of AVS Forum member advice: Priceless

I basically did most of the things that were advised around 2004:

• Berkline 090's (super comfy, couldn't be happier)
• Guilford of Maine fabric (pricey, and I'm undecided on whether it was a good purchase)
• Linacoustic (1") behind all of front wall, ear-level-and-below on all side walls, and on most of back wall.
• 2000 lbs of sand underneath sub & front speakers.
• Grafik Eye 3-zone light controller
• IR repeater to drive gear in separate gear room

I pretty much did all of my own work, with the exception of carpeting (Home Depot) and drywall mudding (which I worked alongside two professionals to do). The theater adds 500 sq. ft. of interior space to the house, which easily surpasses the money I've spent on it.


For those of you working hard -- let me tell you, there were lone-tear moments when it seemed like it would never end. But I've been using the theater for over a year and a half now, and it is awesome. It's so great to have friends over, to be able to share something so outrageously non-existent at "normal" houses -- it's just a pleasure to have something so thoroughly enjoyable. If you're still building, keep at it! You'll make it! And you'll love it!


If you're considering building, bite the bullet! Do all your own work -- it'll save you a ton. If you ignore the carpet and chairs, the theater pretty much cost me $7000. You'll really get much more enjoyment out of being able to say you did it.


Once again a huge thank you for all the advice on these forums. As you can see from my theater, it was pretty much built directly off the advice contained in these forums. Thank you!!

 

[crackyflipside]

Looks good, so did you acoustically treat the room yet?


It makes a universe of a difference to the sound.


Edit: Doh! I just read the linacoustic part!





BTW: love how clean the theater is, not too fancy, real nice look!

 

[Rahl]

Why do you feel that way about the GOM?


Love the theater!

 

[mchristopher89]

How tall is that ceiling??? It looks like it slopes up from 8' or so up to ??unknown??


It looks like you could put more chairs in there. Any reason why not? (That step on the left side looks -- ummm -- very big...)

 

[mbgonzomd]

Looks great! Tell us a little about the room before the build. Was this a complete add-on, or an existing space that was redone?

 

[UneatenFries]



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


[*]Contracted cost: $4400 ($3k for carpet, $1.4k for drywall mudding)

If you don't mind me asking...

Was the $1.4k include the purchase and installation of the drywall, or just the mud-work? I ask because I'm finishing my entire basement along with my theater (about 1000 sq ft total) and I'm considering contracting out the mudding and/or drwall work.

Thanks,

Ron

 

[UneatenFries]

Oh BTW, that's a BEAUTIFUL looking theater you've put together. Great job!

 

[kezug]

Very nice. If you get a chance, try and post a link to your front screen wall to this thread as I will probably be using your setup as reference for mine

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=769702


Also, while everything looks outstanding and clean...I am curious why you didnt choose a GOM color to match your walls for your side/rear speaker panels?

 

[ImDiesel]

man, that looks great...

 

[patrickd12]



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


If you don't mind me asking...

Was the $1.4k include the purchase and installation of the drywall, or just the mud-work? I ask because I'm finishing my entire basement along with my theater (about 1000 sq ft total) and I'm considering contracting out the mudding and/or drwall work.

Thanks,

Ron

Expect to pay in the neighborhood of $1 to $1.5 for everything on dry wall. I live in the mid-west and I think that is probably on the low end in terms of the national average. If you hang it yourself you won't save much maybe 15 to 20 cents a square foot. The mudding will costing about 30 to 40 cents a square foot plus the cost of materials, for 1000 sq ft. maybe 300 bucks more.

 

[FiveCar]

Rahl [re: GoM] -- The GoM was "beaucoup de bucks." The reason I'm not too bought off on it is that most of the fabric I used didn't need to be acoustically transparent (say, the sound-absorbing sections under ear level, in the back wall, etc). Only the stuff covering speakers (front sides, rear grilles) needed it. But I bought all GoM because it matched nicely. It's good stuff, but nothing out of the ordinary compared to normal fabrics (unless you need the acoustic properties).


MChristopher89 [re: ceiling and chairs]: The original ceiling goes from 9' in the front to 14' in the rear. It's nice to have that height for two reasons: back row folks don't feel crowded, and my original projector (Infocus SP4805) had a huge offset. However, it makes the room a bit more acoustically tricky -- I've not installed fancy bass traps or anything. The front row now has more chairs (4, which fills the front from stair to stair). Originally only had 3 because I thought I'd make two side tables (for remote controls and what not).


MBGonZomD [re: original space]: The original space was part of a 5-car garage (thus my login, FiveCar). The original owner of our house was a car nut, so he had a huge garage built, complete with a lift! The theater takes up two of the five original spaces, and is so high because the lift could put a car clear above your head. Since we only own 2 cars, it made no sense to have a huge garage. Thus the theater was born. Although the ceiling is original (without lights, which we put in ourselves), none of the side walls were there. We framed in the side walls, complete with columns. We also raised the floor off the ground to provide better insulation (and to make room for the sand).


UneatenFries [re: drywall]: I hung all the drywall myself. Let me tell you -- buy a drywall screwgun if you're going to do anywhere near the level of drywalling as this project. We put up a total of about 80 sheets of drywall, using more than 3000 screws. Not something you want to do with a cordless drill, especially if you're by yourself. I had two professionals mud alongside me, for two reasons: a) it would have taken me way to long, and 2) frankly, mudding is a skill that needs to be learned. I didn't have the skills to do it perfect (realize especially that the wall sconces make critical work of any drywall project -- imperfections really show through). Money well spent, at $35 an hour.


Kezug [re: matching GoM]: For speaker grills in the side and back, I deliberately chose black because I wanted them to stand out. I guess I could have gone matching, but it seemed nicer to me for some reason. Perhaps because it matches the front wall's black (both were GoM).


By the way, for any of you facing resistance from spouses or friends: when I started this project, my wife was a bit concerned about it, and not completely supportive. But it was because she had a hard time visualizing the final outcome. Now that she's seen it and used it, she loves the theater! So my advice would be to show your spouse some photos of completed theaters so that they can understand and better support the great outcome!

 

[FiveCar]

Oh, and before I forget, there are more technical details about various parts of the theater contained in my photo gallery, as comments to each picture.