Attic Home Theater

[Cinema Builder]

Hello all,
Well finally got around to getting this thread started. Planning started a few years ago to turn our stick-built attic into a home theater. This will be for our own personal use and a showcase for some of our CinemaBuilder products.

In addition to the theater, there will also be a bathroom, library, and a huge walk-in closet. The peak roof height in approx 10 feet. The closet could have been another room, but the ceiling height in that area is only 6 feet.

See the next post for the plans.

[Cinema Builder]

Below are some of the engineering drawings (and mark-ups) that occurred during our Planning Phase for our attic home theater.


The attic will consist of a two-level home theater, a bathroom, a library room and a large walk-in closet. The home theater screen is located on the wall that is at the bottom of the Part 1 image.

Part 1

[Cinema Builder]

Here's the second half of the plans.

[Cinema Builder]

Below are a variety of pictures of the attic before construction began.


The first and second levels of the home theater side of the attic.



Part of the second level of the home theater and the home theater closet (which will be made on each side of the cathedral peak). The peak is due to a cathedral ceiling in the bathroom below).


The HVAC location which will have wall placed in front of - which will become the wall where the home theater screen will be placed. On the other side of the HVAC unit is the "Library".


The existing attic stairs - in an "L" configuration will be redone into a "U" configuration due to headroom issues as you get to the top of the stairs.


The corridor in front of the stairs that leads to the new bathroom (basically where the current plywood is shown).


Looking from the "Library" into the "Library Closet" area.

[Cinema Builder]

Framing Underway!

Hi all,
Well the framing phase is finally underway - always thought to be one of the hardest parts since we have existing ductwork, air handler and various vents that have to be worked around - all the while building a floor system capable of handling all the load bearing requirements.

So here are some more pictures:


The first and second levels of the home theater side of the attic.


Part of the second level of the home theater and the home theater closet (which will be made on each side of the cathedral peak). The peak is due to a cathedral ceiling in the bathroom below).


From the second level of the home theater, looking at the first (lower) level and the HVAC unit.


Working in an attic isn't the easiest - one wrong step and you have a big hole in the ceiling below.


The "Library" closet.

[Cinema Builder]

Here's the illuminated poster case we're going to be using around the theater when it's done - they're really great looking in person.







They're very thin - only 1 1/2"


The poster case is called a Edge Glow Movie Poster Case ( http://www.cinemabuilder.com/product...e/edgeglow.asp )

We're also going to place some of the matching smaller 8x10 glowing picture frames with pictures of various hollywood star photo's along one of the walls as well. Should look great when it's all done.

[Cinema Builder]

I know it's hard to get an idea of the space from a few pictures, so I've posted a couple of home theater construction movies.

Select the following link: home theater construction movies and scroll down to the footer of the page and select "About Us". Then scroll down and select the "Cinema Builder Home Theater" pages.

Here's a direct link: http://www.cinemabuilder.com/our-hom...e-theater.shtm (but this link might break in the future as the site always seem to be changing)

Currently I have two movies on the site, one on the Framing Phase page and one on the Framing subfloor phase. Keep in mind these are over 20MB each, so they will take some time to download.

[Cinema Builder]

Here are some pictures with the subfloor:

The new staircase


The home theater side - part 1 (showing the future Home theater closet as well)


The home theater side - part 2


Closeup of the future Home Theater equipment closet


The home theater bathroom


The library

[Cinema Builder]

Some pictures of the low-voltage wiring that was run under the floor throughout the attic. Wiring included multiple: Coax, CAT6, HDMI, & Component cables. These will be run up into a structured wiring panel on the home theater closet wall. We used (and we recommend you use) flexible wiring conduit when running your cables (to make upgrading in the future easier). We also ran some of our cables outside of the conduit, so we can leave the conduit open for future cables.





Conduit running under floor - cables will come up from recessed floor outlets

[bpape]

Looks like you've got quite a project on your hands there. Keep us posted.

Bryan

[Prof.]

That is one serious construction job...It will be very interesting to follow the progress..
How much width do you have before your head touches the roof? It doesn't seem very wide by the photo's...

[John N]

Are you putting in any dormers?

[Chris in Dallas]

How are you going to insulate your roof/cathedral ceiling? I think you might want to investigate a radiant barrier for the underside of your decking, some low profile baffles to accomodate continuous soffit vents, a ridge vent (if you don't already have one) followed by some spray polyurethane foam for high r-value per inch, so you can put your gyp directly on your rafters.

ETA: Those are 2x6 rafters in there. You'll need a maximum 2" deep baffle, which should run all the way to the peak. You'll only have 3.5" left, so the only thing that's gonna give you a decent r-value will be a really high value poly foam. Check out the kits offered by Tiger Foam. An added benefit of the foam is damping of outside noise for a quieter theater room.

[bpape]

While I agree with the R Value, unfortunately, the foam will also provide very little in the way of sound isolation. I'd likely use an RSIC-1 system to get a bit of extra depth so you can use standard insulation and also provide the isolation.

Bryan

[Chris in Dallas]

I was just figurin' that height was at a premium, and you would want to go as low profile as possible. Are you going to use the baffles and a ridge vent for structural ventilation? That, combined with a radiant barrier, will reduce dramatically the depth of insulation that would otherwise be required.

[brandonnash]

Any progress on this theater? I've got a large space unfinished upstairs that's not much different than yours. Trying to decide on which to use either that upstairs or a finished 2 car garage that is approximately 22x22x8.5. Dimensions on the garage area aren't that great, but it would be broken down then rebuilt.

[Cinema Builder]

Hello All - plan to post some new pictures soon. To answer the questions about the insulation - I wanted to wait until we were done a little more to let you know how it worked out.

We have 2x8 joists, so R-30 was a problem with providing an air gap. We ended up using high-density foam sheets. You get R-15 for every 3", so we used standard duct chutes and then placed two sheet thicknesses between each rafter (cut to size with a table saw).

Overall it worked pretty well except the rafters weren't straight, so getting the foam to be a tight fit was a bit of a challenge. But this was our only real solution, as building down the rafters to 2x10's or 2x12's would cut into the headroom more than I liked. Overall, we have 10 feet at the center, going down to 2 1/2' high knee walls.

So overall, it worked, but it was more expensive and more time consuming than expected (like most home improvement projects :-) )

[Chris in Dallas]

You should be able to fill in the gaps between the rafters and the foam board with a spray polyurethane foam. You can buy a kit that delivers an expanding bead from a straw-like nozzle. Or, you can buy a lot of cans of "Great Stuff," which is the same thing in individual cans.

One more thing: put a 1/2" thick sheet of polystyrene foam board under the rafters before putting the gyp up. This will create a thermal break for your rafters. Otherwise, you'll have hot lines. It'll cost you that 1/2", though.

[Cinema Builder]

Chris in Dallas wrote:

You should be able to fill in the gaps between the rafters and the foam board with a spray polyurethane foam. You can buy a kit that delivers an expanding bead from a straw-like nozzle. Or, you can buy a lot of cans of "Great Stuff," which is the same thing in individual cans.

One more thing: put a 1/2" thick sheet of polystyrene foam board under the rafters before putting the gyp up. This will create a thermal break for your rafters. Otherwise, you'll have hot lines. It'll cost you that 1/2", though.

Yup - we did use the spray foam for the gaps - but it was pretty time consuming. We used a smart vapor barrier between the drywall and the joists/foam to provide an extra layer of protection. So far, it's worked pretty well.