CurtPalme.com Home Theater Forum

[paarlberg]

Attached is my HT space in the basement. I have a wall directly above the inside boxed in area (left and right side of the door on the HT room side) and I either have to put a heavy duty beam across there to support the wall above, or place a wall under it for support. If I do a beam, then the boxed in areas will not be needed and only the wall with the door will remain.

I can place the door any place along that wall. We are looking to prevent the kids from sneaking up and watching the movie from the hallway without our knowledge, so the screen can't go on the wall at the top of the attached layout. It will have to be on the wall where the door is or one of the side ones. I will have to build out the walls around all sides since it is currently concrete.

The true inside dimensions are 16'-5" left to right and 17' to the boxed out area or 21' to the inside edge of the wall with the door in it. So finished with 2x4 along the walls will drop me to just under 16' by about 16'-4" or 20'-4".

The attached show the door as a 6' wide opening, I can probably do 4' and still leave plenty of room for moving furniture in and out if needed..

I am trying to keep my construction costs down during all phases of the full house build. So I would prefer not to have the expensive beam if I don't have to. The preferred layout would be a perforated screen with the front channels behind it and a CRT (not sure, but G90 or better most likely).

Did I mention, we are framing the basement walls this week. My builder suggested the boxed in area to cut costs. It is not a large difference, only about $300-400 between the boxed in and a beam. I know that there will be several other not so large differences that will start to add up and want to stop the bleeding early.

The ceiling finished height will be very close to 7'-11".

Any ideas or suggestions?

[Clarence]

Very similar to my layout... your room is wider.

You'll find that the lenses need to be right above the head of the front row. Then build a riser for the 2nd row behind the projector.

Will you be able to put doors or access panels into the boxed out corners? If so, use them to access the space behind the screen. And the other one can be used for an in-wall equipment rack.

[paarlberg]

Yes, I can do anything I want to the boxed out areas. I had planned on using 1 for an equipment rack (or 2) and 1 for storing movies, my old collection of laserdiscs, etc..

I have also considered making 1 longer boxed in area and moving the door to the right or left a few feet. That would give me a nice long wall.

I may be able to actually put the screen on the back wall and then build the PJ between the boxes above the door level. Then I could easily build a hush box and vent the heat out to an adjacent mechanical room. that may require the door swing out instead, but I could live with that. Atleast then I would know if the kids came in the room.

Trying to make a last minute decision so I can finish framing the area by Friday.

[zaphod]

two immediate thoughts are this...

1) those boxed in areas are gonna be useful, use one for an equipment rack with a glass door and use the other for a three wall cubby of narrow depth media shelves - holds a lot of CDs and DVDs.

1a) if you make one an equipment rack, see about putting a second door on the backside for easy cabling access.

2) don't put the screen in front of the door. if you do, you'll have people ducking under the screen or lifting it when they want to leave for a pee break, or answer the phone, or a kid crying .... and so on. side or end wall is better. i understand that you don't want the kids peeking in, but that's why you have doors - right? They'll probably be closed for light control in anycase.

nice space though, similar to mine that will be built this winter - 13' X 21'

[paarlberg]

I was thinking of putting the screen on the same wall as the door and move the door to one side or the other, not actually covering the door.

My previous dedicated HT was 23'x30' with 9' ceilings. That was quite a while ago (pre HD by quite a few years) and my PJ was a Sony 722.

As far as light, there are no windows in this room.

[paarlberg]

I have attached a larger view of the basement area in case anyone has any other ideas. Entrance to the basement from upstairs is the opposite side of the basement from the HT. The basement is a yankee basement, no direct walk out. The concrete walls around the HT are 6' tall with a 2' high 2x6 knee wall on top.

I could incorporate the hallway next to the HT and use the door on the right side as the entrance and the mechanical area directly below (in picture) can be entered via the theater. That would change the layout, but would require the larger beam, which I am not against, just want to justify the difference. The HT area would then be about 28' x 16'.

Next (just below in pic) to the mechanical room is where my server(s) and networking gear will be located.

[paarlberg]

Got some good news..

Spoke with the lumber yard and I could span the area where the boxed in walls are with a double 9" LVL. I have 12" TJI as my joists, so I can do a double 12" LVL for about $160, or a triple for about $240 if I want to be extra strong there. I can eliminate the wall where the door to the HT and the boxed in areas for now. Once I am ready to build out the space I can make a final decision on the layout..

[Clarence]

[Clarence]

[Clarence]

[paarlberg]

Thanks.. Once I get closer to actually building it out I will get the full room dimensions.

[Sparky015]

The perforations so that you can put the speakers behind the screen is an interesting one. I am in the process of designing out my room now, and the speakers hidden is a requirement of my wife's. Her thought was in wall speakers, but I like this idea better. Anyone have plans out there of how they built this?

Paul