# Chime in....



## concreteHT (Apr 5, 2010)

Starting from scratch all. If you view my attachment you will see pretty much a blue print of the area I'm working with.

Best advantage to this room is - NO windows or outdoor light whatsoever; concrete floors, walls, ceiling is corrugated steel under my garage floor. This is below my garage.

Worst pitfall of this room - I beam and two posts& only 8' ceiling and beam takes it down to 7'. Errr... 

I want to face the wall with the door with my projector. I guess my main concern starting out is what concerns should I have, if any with building it out? I'm using steel studs. I've read about the insulation, mats, etc. But if you're starting from scratch what else is there to consider. I've got my heart set ont he Panny AE4000, unsure about the best screen for a completely dark room. But thats for later consideration. My worry is how to best sound proof the room and learn any tricks of the trade when using steel studs so I don't waste my time and money. I wanna do this right!

MY BEAM IS GOING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ACROSS THE ROOM. I have considered getting an engineer to figure out how I can remove one post which would make life much easier, otherwise I have to deal with arranging seating and the screen and the view angles corresponding to the two posts which are nearly equal distance from either left or right side wall. You can faintly see the post (circle) in the pdf that is attached however those locations are not scale, the rest of the room is. i just saw another post with goolge sketchup and i'm going to make an attempt at using that program tonight.

thanks!

I've got all my materials ready to start framing, if you were helping me what would be my plan of action?

Thanks in advance for any and all comments/advice! :help:

**************as of 4/12 the plan is to put the screen on the wall furthest from the door, right of the beam. So if you are looking at the pdf, it would be the bottom right. First row is on the floor and then since ceiling height is limited we are only doing one riser with second row of seats and behind that a bar. The only issue I see now is sound deflection since the front speakers will hug the wall on one side and be nearly 10' away on the other side, otherwise this will be a nice setup and me and my wife are pleased. I'm preparing to lay the steel stud track.. I'm doing some other cool stuff, like recessed ceiling with rope lights ON LEFT SIDE OF BEAM ONLY. Last, I was laying track and realized i have no ducts in this room, BUT its the same temp in the room 365 days a year, so i probably will get some kind of wall heater/a/c like you used to see in hotels, vertical, and stick it right next to my door with maybe a small vent to get fresh air in. Either that or a good ozone air cleaner. I dunno. Ok, please have at it, hope the pictures help you all make suggestions, Using steel studs, only one riser likely will be six to seven inches max, fronts will be in wall i think, surrounds i will likely build into columns and rears maybe in ceiling. I want to use triads or something similar that is totally enclosed. 

I also want two subs but i've heard one usually is enough? I'm dying to get this done and get the effects of a totally dark and totally enclosed concrete HT. Oh and projector is gonna be either the Epson 8500 or 9500. Is it true there is no projector you can pull out of the box and do 2.35? You have to buy a $10k lens too???? If so I will settle for the 8500 unless one of you convinces me otherwise to drop the extra... thanks all and have a good Monday!


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## bpape (Sep 14, 2006)

Why would you face the door wall with the PJ and the seating? I'd recommend facing the 21' wall when seated. That will give you not only more room behind you, but also better symmetry left to right and have the door out of the way in terms of reflections and allow you to address the corners symmetrically.

Where and how does the beam run in the room?

Bryan


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## concreteHT (Apr 5, 2010)

the beam runs the width of the garage; 29' width and there are two posts, slightly visible on the "PDF" which make it impossible to use the 21' wall. I will take some pics for better accuracy.


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## SierraMikeBravo (Jul 1, 2007)

Hi!

It's really difficult to visualixe where your beam is running relative in the room. Best advice I can give is for anyone starting out is, make sure you have a complete plan drawn and laid out before you worry about specing out equipment or build materials. That is, of course, if you want to do it right. Best wishes!


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## Matteo (Jul 12, 2006)

Shawn, I think the beam is running right to left on the picture with the two small circles being the posts that are supporting the beam. It runs from right to left from the 22' wall to the other 22' wall.

Concrete, wow, that is a tough situation. I agree that if you could remove the right post your life would be easier. If it were me, I would try using the 19'1" wall as the screen side. That would give you 21 feet of depth, so you could easily have a riser, 2 rows of seating and some bean bags. If you can remove both posts, the right 21' wall would be my choice. 
As far as sound control, you shouldn't have a problem with sound leaking out. Make sure to use solid doors and not indoor doors. That will be your weak spot. For sound control in the room, do a search for concrete walls and I think there should be a lot of information on that. You will want insulation between the walls for sure. 

If you can't move the posts, you will have to have your seating positions left and right of the posts, so it will reduce the number of seating positions you will have. 
Find out about the posts in your room and we'll go from there.
Matteo


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## concreteHT (Apr 5, 2010)

engineer that designed my slab says the only way to take out posts is to "START" with a $2000 beam, not including my costs and pain to support my garage, get out the old out the beam pocket, yadda yadda yadda; sooooo cant move the posts. My wife wants to have seating in the center of the screen and then flank on the right and left with seating angled towards the screen. We "WANT" three levels but ceiling height looks like that will prevent us to add a third. see attached for our initial thought on the setup. i will add the link for the photo with our idea for seating. Based off ceiling height we can only go with a max 110" 16:9 screen, or step down to 106".


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## SierraMikeBravo (Jul 1, 2007)

Thanks Matteo!

Beam is an issue, but there could be some alternatives. We would have to see some photos for recommendations. Others are correct, keeping the theater length wise is the key for a number of reasons.


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## concreteHT (Apr 5, 2010)

SierraMikeBravo said:


> Thanks Matteo!
> 
> Beam is an issue, but there could be some alternatives. We would have to see some photos for recommendations. Others are correct, keeping the theater length wise is the key for a number of reasons.


I will take pics today guys. Using that wall is so impractical though because of the beam (lower ceiling height almost dead center of room) and the pole (10' from the wall where the screen would be, which splits the room in half and makes seating directly in front of proposed area impossible) But it will be such a dramatic challenge to keep the theater length wise like you all suggest, I sincerely hope there is an answer!

I will be posting several threads with different concerns I have here in the next day or so regarding:


Epson 8500 vs panny ae4000u vs epson 9500
best screen material for a dark room with no windows
soundproofing a concrete room
riser design for theater seating
16:9 vs 2.35:1
 steel studs vs wood studs


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## Matteo (Jul 12, 2006)

A lot of good issues. If you use the Shack's search engine, you will find a lot of good threads on those topics. It may help you to narrow down the questions you have. 
Matteo


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