# DIY Home Theater Project



## MatrixDweller

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.


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## MatrixDweller

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


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## MatrixDweller

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.


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## Scuba Diver

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


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## MatrixDweller

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.


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## Big Worm

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.


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## MatrixDweller

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 :heehee:.


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## Sonnie

The speaker is definitely more important, eh? :whistling:

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. :T


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## MatrixDweller

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.


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## Prof.

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..


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## Captain Crunch

I love my black leather but man do those seats look comfy!:T
This is coming along really good keep those pics coming......


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## MatrixDweller

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.


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## Prof.

Captain Crunch said:


> I love my black leather but man do those seats look comfy!:T
> ......


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


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## Prof.

MatrixDweller said:


> 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..


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## salvasol

> ...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??? ....:huh: in that case you can place the seats exactly in the middle of the room.


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## mrstampe

salvasol said:


> 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??? ....:huh: 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.


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## MatrixDweller

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.


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## mrstampe

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.


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## MatrixDweller

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).


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## mrstampe

MatrixDweller said:


> 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.


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## MatrixDweller

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


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## Guest

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.


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## MatrixDweller

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.


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## MatrixDweller

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


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## MatrixDweller

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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## bassman_soundking

MatrixDweller said:


> 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.
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> 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.


I have never seen formica used for a projector screen, but that looks amazing!! I am surprised at the contrast and detail! Where did you get the formica, and could you give me a stock or model number for it? thanx


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## rickp

Its called Wilsonart Designer White, I ordered mine through Home Depot and I love it!


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## bassman_soundking

cool, thanx for the reply


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## MatrixDweller

Actually what I used was Formica brand laminate in Matte White (not sure of item#). It's a normaally stocked item in the Home Depots around where I am (Ontario). It was about $50 for a 4x8 sheet. I tried to order some WilsonArt Designer White laminate but it was going to cost about $150 and it was special order.

I've since redone my screen usinf Formica again because my 3 year old put a hole in it. There's no backer board on it so if hit hard enough it will chip, crack or puncture. My new screen is the same, but I made it slightly bigger and went with a velvet wrapped frame for the border. IMO the velvet is the cat's meow. It brings a new world of class to the screen. I plan on making a couple masking borders for the top and bottom for 1.73:1 material.

I also used select, primed, pine for the frame this time rather than cheap 1x2's. I had to pick through what they had there to get straight peices, but the they were still pretty cheap. The primed pine was about half the price of poplar and about 2/3 the price of unprimed select pine. It's not seen so who cares how it looks.


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## bassman_soundking

I have never seen a screen shot from a projector look so good. My friend said it is fake, that there is no way a projector has such contrast and sharpness and clarity.


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## MatrixDweller

You can see my receiver in the bottom of the last picture. The contrast might be a little off since I took the picture with a digital camera with all the lights off and the camera on a tripod. It's only off a tiny bit though as I can atest that the image really does look sharp and the blacks are pretty good on it even though it's an older projector. A newer 1080p projector would look even better. 

I have a 30" CRT HD TV and my parents have a 47" Sony Bravia LCD and I like the image on my projector better. Not because it bigger, it's just all around nicer to look at. Some of that could have to do with the room set up because the ceiling and front wall are black and there is 100% light control. I contemplated upgrading it to a new Panasonic PTAE4000 last fall but could see $2K doing better somewhere else in my room. I'm sure I would see a difference in PQ but what I have right now is more than good enough.

Ask others in the projector area what they think of their projectors and have a look at their screen shots. I wouldn't say that my shots are the best on this forum. This thread would be a good place to start -> http://www.hometheatershack.com/forums/home-theater-projectors/4182-projectors-still-secret-2.html


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## halesway

Wow - love the Formica as a DIY.
Did you trim the sheet or are you just running it 96x48? I just read the thread an didn't see a screen size noted. I have similar dimensions in my recently started room, but I've got a bulkhead at the front of the room, which will push my screen height down 10 inches, and my room is 2 ft shorter. I've just started framing, and will have to take some pictures. I love the front shot, as it's helped me to picture a 10ft wide stage and how it'll set-up.

I was thinking the formica would adhere nicely to MDF and attach using a french cleat....hmmm cheap DIY for now mean I could spend more on a projector. 

Cheers


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## MatrixDweller

The laminate sheet was about 49" high and I had to trim a little bit off one of the sides to fit it to the frame. I guess when they cut the sheet they were a little off as it wasn't a perfect 96x48 (I'm not sure if that's common). 

The inside measurements of the screen are 80x45 inches to give a perfect 16:9 ratio and almost 92" diagonal. The border is 2¼" wide so the full width is about 7' which leaves 1½' on either side.

I didn't use a backer board, but I would think that it would work very well considering that's what they do with counter tops. You'd just have to make sure the glue was even and get one of those rubber rollers so that you can smooth out any bubbles.


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## halesway

Thanks for the quick reply....
Perfect a 92" in a 10ft room. I now had a template.
I am not going to build as high a stage because of my bulkhead, so probably just a 2x4 on edge so 40 inches with plywood topping it.


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## MatrixDweller

Do you have any pictures up of your build progress anywhere? Depending on your bulkhead you could use it to your advantage and make it the top of a shadow box or use is as a cornice box for a curtain.


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## halesway

MatrixDweller said:


> Do you have any pictures up of your build progress anywhere? Depending on your bulkhead you could use it to your advantage and make it the top of a shadow box or use is as a cornice box for a curtain.


NO pics just yet. I'm actually going to build a small cove/channel behind the bulk head to hide a drop down projection screen. I've researched most of the cases/cabinets and will run power into the 'channel'. But I don't think budget will allow a tab tensioned drop down screen in the near future. So what's happened is I've got a cold are intake from outside and between that a 10 inch space to the cold air return on the furnace - this space runs the full length of the theater width, 6 inches from the front wall.. So I'm going to build-up a mounting point to the floor joists which run perpendicular to the bulkhead.


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## MatrixDweller

The bulkhead running through the center of my room is warm and cold air return HVAC and there's an intake for outside air attached via an insulated flex pipe/tube.

I'm considering a revamp of the room. I think I want a built in wall rack for the gear, or move it to a room and have it completely hidden. That means running wires again. THe only trick one will be the HDMI cable to the projector as I didn't run conduit to the rear of the room. I might have to cut drywall to get it done.

The other thing I am very close to doing is putting up some super chunk bass traps and treating the whole front wall. Shouldn't cost too much (less than $100 maybe). I'll be posting those changes in the weeks to come.


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## MatrixDweller

I've made a couple additions to my build. I've also aquired a Radio Shack SPL meter so I'll be having some fun pretty soon. I hope to add some treatments in the next couple of months.

The first addition is a hidden door bookshelf of which I created a thread of it's own.

Second, I've added a rear seating table/bar. I will be putting two or three bar stools back there for additional viewers. I'm also going to move my computer back there in the corner. The bar is made from a single piece of 1 ¾" thick sawn hickory. I had it planed then I sanded, and stained it.


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