DIY Home Theater Project

**MatrixDweller** · **10-24-07, 09:40 PM**

Well I've started finishing my basement to include a dedicated theater room. It's been almost a year, with procrastination and my bank account being the reason it's taking so long. Here is the basic layout of the room that I whipped up in Visio. The room dimensions are not the best but I'm maximizing the space I have. A wider room would have been nice, but building around the furnace and allowing room for an average sized bedroom/den and bathroom were limitting factors.

**MatrixDweller** · **10-24-07, 09:48 PM**

Here are some pics of the room in construction.

Before the subfloor:

Building up the stage, seating platform and sleepers for the subfloor:

Closeup of seating platform:

Stupid bulkhead...if I ever build a house I'm putting the furnace somewhere to minimize the need for bulkheads and I'll dig the basement a foot deeper to give more ceiling height.

One of the staggered stud walls

**MatrixDweller** · **10-24-07, 10:06 PM**

Here's some more pictures of the room under construction. I stuffed the stage and seating platform full of pink insulation to stop any resonance. It sounds pretty solid when I thump on it now and not like a drum.

I put Roxul Safe n Sound in the ceiling and any wall that didn't face concrete. I would have put it everywhere but the wife stepped in and cut my budget. The door pictured is a Safe n Sound solid code door. It was also my first attempt at hanging a door. Since it's heavy it needs 3 hinges. Eventually it will be sealed. The furnace room will get a similar heavy door.

Here's a shot of the front receptacles. I ran conduit under the subfloor and up through the ceiling for the speaker wire and projector cable(s). I used the grey Carlon stuff. I ran cat5e and RG6 coax through the ceiling as well along with a phone line. The power outlet shown is a dedicated 20amp circuit.

The orange boxes are for low voltage and work perfectly for their intended use here. The projector has a dedicated 15amp circuit (overkill I know).

This shot shows my new best friend in yellow. Hanging drywall on the ceiling is a lot easier with a lift and can be done by one person.

**Scuba Diver** · **11-09-07, 03:45 AM**

It looks like it is coming together really well. Do post more pictures.

**MatrixDweller** · **11-09-07, 12:34 PM**

I'm just about done the drywall (arggg). I'll post some more pics over the weekend. I decided that a single door would be better at the entrance. I will be able to mount the rear surrounds better, a single door is cheaper, and a single door is easier to apply soundproofing to.

I will be using Safe n Sound doors on all and applying seals and thresholds at a later date. Since I went staggered stud, all the openings are 6" rather than 4" so I have to custom frame instead of buying prehung doors. I could probably have them made but at an added expense.

**Big Worm** · **11-09-07, 03:29 PM**

Nice work.

Good choice on switching to single door. I really do love the double door as a grand entrance, but with theater rooms it becomes very hard to incorporate.

**MatrixDweller** · **11-15-07, 12:37 PM**

I kind of need to also because the room is narrow (10ft approx). If I had a double door then the rear speaker placement would suffer. My RB81's a quite tall at 19" so placing them close to the slightly lower ceiling (7 3/4 ft high) and over the door could mean a few bumped heads. I really don't care so much about the people's heads as much as what it could do to the speaker however

.

**Sonnie** · **11-16-07, 12:09 AM**

The speaker is definitely more important, eh?

Looking good... I know you have to anxious to get finished.

I moved this to the Design and Construction forum since it's still under construction. Once you get your finished pics you can post a couple of those in the Gallery.

**MatrixDweller** · **11-16-07, 09:17 PM**

Sorry about that. I should be 95% complete by the end of the month. I'm just finishing up the mudding and taping of the drywall. Then to paint, put down carpet and finally the trim and doors.

3 kids and a full time job seem to always get in the way so the end of the month is still just tentative.

**Prof.** · **11-17-07, 05:48 PM**

I"ve just been looking over your plan, and you show three seats across the front row with a door immediately to the side of those seats..
In a room that's 10' wide, you won't be able to fit three seats across and still be able to open the door..
My room is the same width as yours and three seats fit virtually wall to wall as you can see in this pic..Unfortunately I wasn't able to get far enough away to show the full width, but the sides of the outer chairs are almost touching the wall..

**Captain Crunch** · **11-17-07, 07:12 PM**

I love my black leather but man do those seats look comfy!

This is coming along really good keep those pics coming......

**MatrixDweller** · **11-18-07, 02:45 AM**

Measuring from the wall to the 30" door fully opened it is about 92 1/2". The couch (sofa) I plan on putting down there is 85" at it's widest. I looked into Berkelines but I could only fit two of them.

**Prof.** · **11-18-07, 05:58 PM**

Quote:

Captain Crunch wrote:

I love my black leather but man do those seats look comfy!

......

The're too comfy actually...When you recline in them it's very hard not to doze off!!

**Prof.** · **11-18-07, 06:05 PM**

Quote:

MatrixDweller wrote:

Measuring from the wall to the 30" door fully opened it is about 92 1/2". The couch (sofa) I plan on putting down there is 85" at it's widest. I looked into Berkelines but I could only fit two of them.

Sounds good to me...
Keep us up to date with your progress..I'm very interested to see how it all turns out..

**salvasol** · **11-19-07, 04:07 PM**

Quote:

...Measuring from the wall to the 30" door fully opened it is about 92 1/2". The couch (sofa) I plan on putting down there is 85" at it's widest. I looked into Berkelines but I could only fit two of them.

Maybe this is an odd idea ... but, What about opening the door to the outside (not to the inside)??? or What about a sliding door??? ....

in that case you can place the seats exactly in the middle of the room.

**mrstampe** · **11-21-07, 10:38 PM**

Quote:

salvasol wrote:

Maybe this is an odd idea ... but, What about opening the door to the outside (not to the inside)??? or What about a sliding door??? ....

in that case you can place the seats exactly in the middle of the room.

A sliding door or "pocket door" is not a bad idea to save space. Just know that in the traditional installation, these doors are typically hollow core and when closed, leave an uninsulated "pocket" in the wall. To retain the great space-saving feature of this door, it would have to be solid-core with a thicker wall section to accomodate insulation around the pocket -- still possible but more difficult.

**MatrixDweller** · **11-22-07, 11:50 AM**

I have thought about switching the door around to open into the smaller room. Most doors are that way, they open into the room but the room is only 10x9 so I was thinking more about saving space in that room. I probably will end up switching it.

A pocket door is definitely not an option. The wall is currently 6" thick using staggered studs. The pocket would negate the staggered studs and to then be effective I would have had to make the wall using a double wall. Too late now anyway. The drywall will be primed and painted this weekend.

**mrstampe** · **12-02-07, 01:40 PM**

Your HT room build is giving me a lot of good ideas for my own. I'm anxious to see your progress as the finished walls come together, and the HT "guts" get plugged in. Any hard-learned lessons or suggestions would be appreciated.

**MatrixDweller** · **12-02-07, 02:21 PM**

Plan, plan, plan. That's the biggest thing. I had the framers come in (they were friends and did it for cheap) and didn't have a set of plans drawn up. I just had the idea in my head.

Make sure when building bulkheads (man I hate basements for that) and walls, be sure to have nailing (screwing) surfaces for drywall. This goes back to point 1 about planning. Also plan to minimize bulkheads and you'll save a lot of work.

I was uneducated about room acoustics when the walls were put up. If I had of known more I would have dimensioned the room a little differently. I may have incorporated non-parallel walls (although in a rectangular house it's awkward).

Build the stage and seating platform after, and have it rest on top of the existing subfloor. A theater room is cool, but if I ever sell my house the new owners would have a bit of work to do if they didn't like the stage and seating platform.

Run more conduit. I should have run some more conduit from the front to the first and second row of seats for future considerations like bass shakers.

I should have planned the lighting a little better. I've seen quite a few people using low voltage or halogen and using wall washers. I think it looks really neat on the projector screen when you have 3 wall washers. More zones for lighting would have been neat also. Then again I was sort of on a budget, and only spent about $400 on lighting including a 2 zone Lutron Grafik Eye that I managed to get for $190 off Ebay (normally over $400 retail).

**mrstampe** · **12-02-07, 03:06 PM**

Quote:

MatrixDweller wrote:

Plan, plan, plan. That's the biggest thing.

Thanks for the tips. I'm space-limited by slab house construction in Texas (high water table and no basements). When we move back to Missouri in a couple years, a must will be unfinished basement space for ground-up planning and construction. Better start saving now!!

I'll keep watching for your pics as they become available.

**MatrixDweller** · **02-20-08, 12:34 AM**

Well after a brief interruption I've begun working on the HT again. I've taped and mudded it and will be priming it shortly. The lights work and I hooked up the Lutron Grafik Eye. I like it but when the lights are dim the light bulbs hum. I've heard rough service bulbs don't but I don't think they come in PAR format. Any tips on getting bulbs that work with dimmers would be helpful.

Here's a few more pics of the progress.

Front

Rear

**02-20-08, 02:10 PM**

Hey is this picture of yours, you've got these single and double wide orange boxes. Are those just standard boxes that you cut the back off of? Or did you buy them that way. I'm thinking of doing something like this for each of my speaker locations, and a double wide where everything comes out of the wall to my HT receiver. Anyways, let me know what's up with those.

**MatrixDweller** · **02-20-08, 03:00 PM**

They are low voltage boxes. I bought them at Home Depot for about $2 and $3 respectively. You should be able to get them pretty much anywhere that has a decent electrical supply section. If you can't find them locally here's an online source.
http://www.smarthome.com/25431.html
http://www.smarthome.com/25432.html

They are pretty much essential if you want to attach a wallplate. You could use the steel boxes but they have sharp edges and can damage the cables. You could try to put grommets on the steel boxes but after all the trouble and expense the orange boxes are a better option.

The tricky thing is getting the vapor barrier behind and in front of the box. That's why you see the red tuck tape in the picture. They also make PVC fittings that go around electrical boxes. They aren't needed on inside walls but you may add them to help seal the room better for soundproofing.

**MatrixDweller** · **03-13-08, 10:19 AM**

Well it's pretty much done. Here are some pictures of the room painted without carpet.

**MatrixDweller** · **03-13-08, 10:25 AM**

The carpet is down and I've moved my gear down, set up the projector and hung the screen. The screen is also a DIY project. I used a sheet of white Formica over a fir frame and used casing for the border spray painted black.

All that's left to do in the room is put three doors on, the trim, and then of course room treatments.

Here are some shots from the main seating position with the lights out and projector going. The movie is Casino Royale on Bluray playing through a Playstation 3 to Denon 4306 to my Epson 550 at 1080i. The last image shows some great definition in the lettering and graphics on James' cellphone.

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