Things I wish I would have done differently in my project

Tested bass shakers mounted within my riser. One of three does not work!

I would have paid a professional to paint my room. I hate painting.

Divorced my wife.

(JUST kidding, Dear! )

I would have put a wood floor in my basement home theater. I just laid carpet on top of the concrete slab. Works OK but I don't "feel" the bass enough.

Bill

As with any construction project, from the staqrt, just go out and get the right tools instead of making due. The trip to the store and cost is minimal compared to how many times you,ll have to do it over, or how crappy it will come out. The right tools for the job makes so much of a difference.

Also, I would have thought it out a little more as far as where I needed my outlets....Although I will make do, Better planning innitially, would have saved me from the 'creative wiring' I now have to do.

larry

I can think of two things right off, and they aren't necessarily independent. I would have done a better job of planning before building. It beats getting to a point in construction and then realizing there is something that I should have considered before starting. Along those lines, I could have hired a professional to design the HT structure. In fact, that is what I'm going to do for my next HT

Electricity, electricity, electricity - difficult to get done properly.

I would have spent more on water baseboard heat instead of the electric boards (HT in basement).

I should have dumped my crappy electrician from the start.

I should have thought about seats before finishing out the room so that I could have built the rise earlier and put it all the way to the wall.

I would have held off longer on the projector to get the next step up.




Sounds like I have alot of regrets, however, the education of it all has been good and I now know what I would do if I were to build a new theater. Time to tell the wife we need a new house!!!!

I would have consulted with a structural engineer before messing with any joists or structural support pieces... even if i didn't pay for their professional services, I would at least like to hear what they have to say about my plans...

Not necessarily a contribution to the "things I wish I did differently" ( at least not yet ) but just wanted to say as I get ready to embark on our HT, this thread is a great idea to learn from.
Thank you to those that have (or soon will) share your thoughts.

Best Regards
Don

I hope to have my home theater finished by this weekend, but if I had to do it again I would:

1. Run 2" or larger conduit or, even if a bit expensive, run DVI and component cables before drywalling the room;

2. Reinforce the ceiling where I think I might mount a FP so I don't have to jury-rig it later or, get the FP first so I know for sure where it will go;

3. Cut a slot into the ceiling for a hidden pull-down screen so I don't have to either hang it from the ceiling or cut the slot later; I would also run an electrical outlet into the slot so I could upgrade to an electric screen (and run conduit from the component area to the screen for a future trigger cable);

4. Built a wooden subfloor on top of my slab concrete floor to get better bass;

5. Run audio wires for a back center speaker in case I ever wanted one; and

6. Thought harder about whether I want a sound permeable screen so I can place a center speaker behind it. The only screens that are sound permeable are expensive electric torsioned screens and fixed screens (also expensive if sound permeable).

There are also some things I am very happy I did:

1. Run two sets of speaker wires through the walls for each of my front speakers, center speaker, surround speakers, and rear surround speakers. By running two sets of wires to each speaker, I can place one or more subs in the same positions and not lose any of the other speakers, or I could bi-wire the speakers if I ever felt that made a difference;

2. Install a pull down screen rather than a fixed screen. I can hide the screen away, making the room look like it can be used for something other than pure home theater and I can hang art on the wall, install a bookcase, etc. I can also close up the screen to prevent damage when not in use (but perhaps at the sacrifice of some surface tension);

3. Get a projector that can tolerate some ambient light. I don't like the idea of having to shut the room up like a tomb in order to view a film;

4. Get a 4x3 screen and projector rather than a 16x9. I DON'T lose much size at all when viewing widescreen material, and get a LOT more size when viewing 4x3 material such as old movies, etc., compared to someone with a 16x9 projector and screen;

5. Installed a dedicated electrical circuit to my components;

6. Installed dimmers for all lights; and

7. Installed solid core doors and insulated the room to block sound escaping to the rest of the house.

Wow - when I suggested this thread I thought I'd get a couple of nice ideas, however in just a short time I have many! Torgny - I like the idea of a slot in the ceiling for a pulldown screen, I'd like to give that some thought. My only concern is I'm trying to isolate the room so I'd probably have to do that over the ceiling - kinda like a small narrow box that juts slightly down.

As I said in the original thread, I wish I was more careful in my demolision phase with my reciprocating saw, that copper pipe is sure easy to nick! As I am in the early stages, I'm sure I'll have plenty of others..

im glad to hear everyone would rather have a wood floor than slab, helps me decide on what to do now that im getting ready to change my garage over to HT .

Installed a dedicated air/heating unit with it's own thermostat! I can freeze everyone out in the family room, while I sit comfortably in my theater.

Two things:

1. I would have moved a bit of ac pipe that cuts through about a foot of the upper rear corner of the room. I'm going to hide it but I wish that it wasn't there. But I would have needed a HVAC contractor to come in and my project was a contractor free zone - the only contractors that set foot in the 600 sq. ft. finished basement were the carpet installers.

2. I purposely didn't do it here (we are on a five year plan at this house and I couldn't justify the expense) but will do it on the next: Dri Core or some sort of subfloor on the slab.

Just a quick comment about the wood floors for the sub... Based on a recommendation from Dennis Erskine, I built a stage in the front of my HT area & placed the sub on the stage. The idea, according to Dennis, is to have the sub move air...not the stage, floor, walls, etc. Thus, the stage is filled with sand & not attached to the walls.

With the same sub / speaker set up that was previously in a family room, I can honestly say that the bass output in my basement is now 10x greater!

Probably would have sound proofed the wall that borders my daughters bedroom a little more.
Todd

I pre run isolated AC for theater, sound proofing,read surround,rca and svhs to computer room and to upstairs
I would have run a outlet on the ceiling and another inwall vacume pipe up to the ceiling as well for Front projection.
Also soome cat5. My Onkyo TX NR900 has a either net hoookup. I had to do the cat5 under wall molding routine
Everything else I pre ran including rca for zone 2 and in wall vacume pipe to the upper lvl

Gary,

Hadn't thought about the sub on the sand-filled stage idea before. Regarding the shaking of walls, floors, etc. - isn't that why people add bass shakers? I've never used a bass shaker before, but I've thought about it for my next install. Is that not the effect I should be going after?

Thanks. Bill

I wish I had thought to run a piece of conduit from my equipment rack to the floor under my sofa for bass shaker wires. I'd like to play with some, but I'm unwilling to string the wires across or under the carpet.

I would have allowed for better heat dissipation in my component cabinet.

Nothing!
It just keeps getting better as I get more accessories!

Should've added a couple of inches extra in height to my seating plattform, 8.5" now, around 10" would have been better.

I would have better prepared myself and planned everything better before I began.

I would have completely emptied the room instead of working around furniture (no room to store it... should have put in storage).

Ran PVC pipe and cables to allow for equipement rack in the rear of the room.

Hired someone to put up drywall and mudding.

-------------

Have done:
Tore down existing drop ceiling and tongue and groove wood on walls.
Insulated with sound proof insulation
Ran inwall speaker wires
Re-wired electrical for new light fixtures
Installed drywall

--------------

Going to do:

Empty the room completely before sanding.
Install subfloor
build risers for seating
build a stage for TV, front speakers & stereo cabinet.

Yup... still lots to do.

There isn't much I wish I had done different but here goes.

1. Spent real money to put in a better heat pump system for the room (this is 24x24x10 family room and I just cannot get the place warm during winter, summertime is OK).

2. Added some additional audio cabling (not that there isn't a ton in there now) up front since I am possibly changing from an unpowered sub to a sub with a built in amp in the front of the room. With that I wish that I had run some cabling for the possibilty to a sub inthe back of the room.

3. HAD SOME FRIGGIN' HELP!! This was the worst part. I basically did the project on my own and dam near killed me.

4. Need more space for DVD storage. Hey I thought I had enough but the collection is over 400 DVDs and there just isn't anymore room .

Things I did do right (most have been mentioned here)

1. Spent the money on the proper tools to do it right. If you can't do this than at least rent the tools you need to do it right --- THIS IS SO IMPORTANT!!

2. Ran TONS of cabling in the walls (including extra) even though I need more now -- ALWAYS RUN MORE THAN YOU THINK YOU NEED!!

3. Built a closet to house all the equipment!

4. Did 2 layers of drywall (that is some work!)

5. Did the work myself!! While this part does suck, I cannot tell you the incredible sense of pride I get everytime I go into that room and look around at what I managed to pull off. In addition I cannot tell you the smile you get when other people come over and marvel at your work .

As my wife always says .... "The whole process was one of the hardest six months ever but in the end it was all worth it because of the look on our daughter's face for her 3rd birthday party (movie party) .... You did good hun!"

What more can I say!

Best of Luck to all!!

Greg

I would have built more shelf room for my dvd's. I left shelf space for 750 dvd's, I'm now at 810. DAM
my theater

i am building my theater room NOW , have pics would like to show , im a decent builder, not at putting pics on a webpage, could someone tell me the easiest way to get some pics on the site here? thanks.

Soundproofing. My theater is on the 3rd floor and I didn't have a real idea of how much the sound would travel. My daughter's room is on the 2nd floor. This means that I cannot ever watch a movie at reference volume unless the wife and daughter are out of town. A couple grand of extra prep work would have changed all of this.

David

I would have not hung the projector. That way I would have had to finished it. I started other projects because It was up and running. I would run a 2inch pipe to the couch for my control panel. I under estamated the size and ran a 3/4 inch BX/Greenfeild. Trying to get all the cables pulled for my touchscreen $ucked.