DIY Reader Home Theater: Mosby
Having lived in our home since 1979, we are the third owners of this tiny 750-square-foot, 1.5 story, 1943 frame bungalow. In 1998 we decided on some major interior and exterior modifications, which I designed and we had done. The exterior changes gave the house a fresh, neomodern look without spoiling the home's original character lines, allowing it to still fit in with our neighborhood. The interior changes opened up our main floor plan. I have since caught the carpentry bug and now design and do my own work. Our Secondary System
History, Research, and Planning
Many inspiring examples came from reading both Home Theater and Audio Video Interiors magazines. A year of serious research went into the project prior to the start. The Web was an enormous resource. This research continued throughout the duration of the project. Various audio forums were an enormous help, such as the Klipsch Audio Web-based forum. One caveat was that the room had to be multipurpose because of the limited space in this house. We use the theater for entertaining and conversation, with the audio system providing a musical backdrop. It includes a wet bar. Commercial-grade, dynamic club lighting adds to the excitement of listening to vibrant music or watching one of our favorite concert videos, giving guests the feeling they are seated in the front row of a live concert. Naturally, these lights remain off during movies.
We wanted the descent into our theater to be impactful, so we chose vivid colors to set the room apart from the rest of our mostly white home interior. We notice a lot of dropped jaws when guests hit the bottom step for the first time. Our scrolling sign at the bottom of the stairs boldly states: "Reality Ends Here!" Indirect lighting hidden beneath the large oak handrail illuminates the steps for safety. Prior to construction, the basement was a typical recreation room. It had horrible-looking, old, resilient-tile flooring, and the walls were two-by-four-studded, insulated, and drywalled. There was a standard suspended ceiling. The terrible part was that the former owners finished the basement knowing that it leaked whenever it rained (a fact they failed to tell us). This resulted in a musty, damp, and unhealthy environment. Our first step was to have the outside of the basement walls excavated all the way down to the footing and waterproofed. Our basement has not leaked since.
Home Office/Postproduction Studio
Demolition and Prep
A clear 11-by-26-foot rectangular space remained in which to build a bath, a walk-in equipment closet, and a home theater with a wet bar. With the cinder-block walls exposed, it was obvious they needed lots of work. We thoroughly scraped, cleaned, and washed them with a water/bleach solution to kill any remaining mold. We tuck-pointed all cracks with mortar. We sealed larger cracks using hydraulic cement, and we sealed all of the block walls with two coats of Dry Loc waterproofing sealer.
The height from the bottom of the floor joists of the home's first floor to the basement floor is approximately 7 feet. Because we have some friends who are 6 feet 5 inches tall, our new ceiling had to be as close to the floor-joist bottoms as possible. We had to consider the placement of all forced-air heat ductwork. The ceiling in the center of our proposed viewing area had to be taller to accommodate our ceiling-mounted projector. This meant relocating a cold-air return duct from the middle of the room. We hired a heating and cooling crew we'd done business with before. They had the job completed in just one morning for $500.
A Second Bath
Our Biggest Issue: Acoustics and Isolation
I also installed the same rubberized membrane used on the utility-room wall over all of the theater wall studs from top to bottom and put drywall directly over the membrane using drywall screws. All drywall joints are sealed with elastomeric caulk. The result is that there are no perceptible buzzings or reflections of sound penetrating the theater's walls, which would be caused by sound hitting the cinder-block walls and then redirecting back into the theater. The speakers sound very direct and unrestrained. A special suspended ceiling that uses 2-inch-thick, 2-by-2-foot melamine foam Sonex Harmoni tiles fortifies the directness of the sound. The tiles are fireproof. There is no audible reflection off the ceiling, which is hung 4 inches below the joists. The flat-black color of the tiles enhances our viewing experience, because there is no reflected light from the screen. The tiles also help isolate the theater from noise in the room directly above the theater.
My Budget
< Previous Post | Blog Home | Next Post >
No comments have been added to this entry.
|
Sponsored Technology Center
|
