Things I wish I would have done differently in my project - Page 2

Things I wish I had done differently:

1. Installed a full size fridge istead of 1/2 size one.

2. Planned for more media storage "Nobody is going to have over 500 DVD's" Yeah, right.

3. Finished everything off before installing the projector. This slowed us down to a crawl finishing things.


Bob

That is a big concern that I am constantly thinking about. I just bought another Boltz.com rack (fits 252), and I'm already starting to worry about storage. I'm up to 545 and growing.
Todd

Ain't it the truth. Testify, brother!

Cheers!

DS.

I would have added more vents and returns for heat / AC in my 11' x 17' room. One 8" circular vent and a 12" x 12" return are not enough.

Tom - you can get an in line fan booster at home depot that will increase the cfm's from your duct ( runs all the time). also try to resrict some of the other ducts in other rooms via the vent cover plate louvers while opening the HT rooms wide open , this will also help .

I also wish I had run my projector cable and power outlet and so that they could have both run under the drywall and down through the center of the ceiling mount. As it is, they are both offset about 1 foot from the mount, so I have ugly black cables dangling for that distance. I have yet to figure out how to hide them well.

I wish I wouldn't have put in so many recessed lights. I leave about half of them unscrewed otherwise it looks like a friggin cafeteria in there!

Dave Poehlman,

Why not install a programmable dimmer? You can pick up a nice Lutron set (for 3 way if necessary) at Home Depot for ~ $40. Even cheaper if it's not for a three way switch.

I actually do have them on dimmers. Not programmable ones, but dimmers nonetheless. So I can control their brightness.

I guess it's not so much the brightness that bothers me but the coverage. I prefer the more dramatic look of spread out recessed lights. So, I unscrew a few of them and it just feels like a more relaxing atmosphere down there.

It's weird how light placement can change the mood of a room.

Dave,

How far did you space them apart....I would like to learn from your experience before installing mine. I was thinking of spacing them about 7-8' apart...is that about right?

-Jason

Wow! Nice thread.

My contractor is starting to build my dedicated HT next monday, and it's getting scary to plan everything!

Glad I came by, because I was forgetting the stupid central vacuum piping! (LOL)

Keep them coming. Reeally useful.

planned for a projector (i built it with RP in mind... now i'm thinking projector)

run cables through PVC pipe... didn't even think of that. now have to figure out how to rewire when the time comes.

use better wire or biwire.

this IS a great thread!

I would have moved EVERYTHING out to do the construction!!
It really pays to do that before you start.
Otherwise you are working around stuff.

At this point I am 2 to 4 weeks away from the first screening. I still must get carpet installed.
I've been reading and maybe i should put down subfloor first
I don't know

I would have done a few of things differently.

although I ran cable for 4 speakers in the rear area I wish I had run at least 2 more.

spent more time on the screen lighting. perhaps a couple of recessed lights on either end of the screen pointing down and on wireless.

my HT is a room convert so I still have the swinging door. I should have installed a pocket door at the entry to save space

I think I should have looked closer at in-wall speakers versus free standing. The subs would have stayed out though.

I have just about finished a basement with a family room with a 7.1 system installed.
I am glad I:
1. Framed in a space in a wall and built a simple in-wall entertainment center (27 inches wide, floor to celing) to hide the components. Paid a cabinet shop to build a face frame for it, looks sharp, required minimal finish carpentry skills.
2. Kept the components in the wall cabinet and buried all cables going to the RPTV and speakers in the wall.
3. Brought home my components first and hooked everything up before I put the last piece of sheet rock up behind the TV and buried the wires for good. If I hadn't, I would have been one coax cable too short. I thought that I was going to be able to rely on the HD DirecTV receiver to decode everything for the TV, but it won't pass a marginal signal so I needed another coax from the attic antenna to use the DTV antenna input to watch some local OTA HD channels. I had the whole room taped, mudded, and primed with the exception of one piece along the floor where the cables were. If the components would have been out when all the sanding was going on, none of them would be in working condition now. Sanding makes a huge mess!!!
4. Installed an antenna in the attic.
5. Installed a little sound proofing. I have 24 inch deep floor trusses in the ceiling in my basement. To keep the theater experience from bothering people upstairs, I put bats of 16" deep fiberglass insulation in between the trusses throughout the basement. Doing research on this and other forums, it sounds like there are other more complicated ways to insulate, but considering the budget I worked under, the 16" fiberglass really does a good job keeping the sound from escaping upstairs.
6. Borrowed a variable speed rotozip to cut out the boxes in the sheetrock.

I really wish I hadn't:
1. Framed the whole basement two years before we decided to finish it for good and hang sheet rock. I ended up tearing out about 2/3 of the studs because they had warped so bad.
2. Bought such a large TV. When the TV came home, the door jambs were not installed in the basement. We are building another house now, and I don't know if the damn TV will come out the basement now when we move.

This is a great thread. Good idea. I could to on and on about this topic.

I would have run more cabling for butt kickers and game controllers, etc, into my rear seating riser.

If I ever build a new house, I'm going to run a conduit from the media room up to the attic for antenna wiring, satellite, etc.

darron Z - thanks for the tip on the helper fan.

I would have built a room within a room so to speak. This would reduce sound transmission and help with acoustics.

You just saved me a mistake. Thanks Tom.

As I begin my new HT dedicated room, this is one thread I'll certainly refer to.
Being in the remodeling business, I feel I have considered the important things but am aware it's the small things that become a problem later on. At least I have my oldest son to help with wiring ideas as he is a phone tech and his home is wired to the max for anything! He even has ethernet jacks in the wall at his couch for playing his x-box online.....and all this was wired 5 years ago!

One thing I do intend to do is "arch" or "dome" my ceiling and rim it with indirect lighting and do some wall treatments.......

Jason D, sorry it took me so long to respond... I don't check this thread too often.

Anyway... for recessed lighting, I've been told that you figure each light will project a circle of light with a diameter equal to the height of your ceiling. I have a pretty low ceiling (6'9"). I was thinking I wanted an even coverage of light, so, I spaced them about 4' in two rows going down the sides of my room. I chose this distance also because I have a drop-ceiling with 2X2 tiles.

But, now, I'm wishing I would've just placed them over points of interest in my room. ie: bar, coffee table, entranceway. Luckily I have the drop ceiling, so it's not a big job to change 'em around.

I would say, if you're planning on doing these in a more permanent drywalled ceiling... get them wired up before your drywall goes up (obviously) and take a really close look at the overall effect before you go ahead and seal them up.

We spent so much time on the contruction of the room that by the time we go to what should have been the most important thing, we slacked off. This is the access to where the equipment is wired up. I had planned to do access panels but that never materialized, making access to my equipment rather difficult. Starting over again I'd work on this aspect first.

I would have done a few things differently.

1) Designed in some sort of hush box for my projector. It's mounted on the ceiling and while not too loud, I sometimes find the fan noise distracting.

2) Run DVI cable to the projector. When I finally get around to doing this it is going to be real pain.

3) Run an additional interconnect and set of speaker wires through the wall to the back of the room. Someday I'd like to add a third sub and possibly mount bass shakers under the couches.

LOVE IT...Great ideas. If you put the sub on a stand of sand why put the chairs on a wood riser?

Dont forget to run Cat 5 cable or conduit to run it in the future. You will see...

Man, I was hoping to never reply to this thread, but......
I thought I was being really smart: One flick of the lobby switch it would turn on my ceiling lobby light, lobby poster lightbox, and in the theatre itself: 2 exit lights, rope lighting under riser, and 2 front row seat lights. Last night I turned it all on, walked inside the theatre and shut the door. Inside was perfect. Just enough light to see where you're going in case you need to get up. Then I opened the door, pretending like I needed more refreshment. TOO MUCH LIGHT IN THE LOBBY COMING INTO THE THEATRE! Why didn't I put the lobby ceiling light on a separate switch? I ended up cutting sheetrock and doing it. Not too big a deal. The lightbox lighting is more than enough to see by. Whew, that was a close one!

Things I would have done different...

Spent a little more time planning..... It has turned into an ongoing project...... "Oh I need to add......" or "I have to change that to make this work"

My color choice!!!
It is really starting to bother me - Looks like i ama repainting....

http://home.earthlink.net/~elwe/home...e/dsc00008.jpg

Most of what I'm about to write here has been mentioned, but it'll affirm some of those items to bear not repeating.
Things I do differently
1) Wait to install PJ/Screen
1a) Installed PJ/screen first so no walls for 9 months
1b) reinstalled PJ/Screen after rock went up so no painting for 3 more months
2) Put in LARGE diameter conduit to PJ
I can barely get one coax and one svhs to PJ
3) Pay someone to tape/mud
4)Move ALL junk out of work area
putting up the walls would have been so much easier with all the junk removed.
5) put up the four walls Then put in stage
My stage is now part of the walls as it stretched from wall to wall prior to actually building the walls. For me, it's really no big deal, but if someone got tired of the stage and wanted it out, out comes part of the walls as well.

Good luck in your endeavours,

Robert

Well, I'm almost done, so......

1) What I should have done:
Run power to projector and outlets at the front stage from the dedicated 20amp line coming into the equipment closet.

What I did:
I have 20 amps running to my equipment closet and 15 amps running the lights, projector & subwoofer.

The Problem:
While dimming the lights, the projector flickers. Fortunately, I seldom adjust the lights while watching a movie and the flicker stops when the dimmer is set to a specific level.

What problems could have occurred? :
Taxing the power in the room and creating load problems.
Ground loop feedback with the sub.
I had planned on using a passive sub so I didn’t run a dedicated line to the front stage. Now I use a powered sub and draw power from the 15 amp circuit. Luckily, the sub doesn’t feedback.


2) What I should have done:
Tested the wire runs within the walls before putting up sheet rock.

What I did:
I ran speaker wire through the walls but didn’t pull it completely through the outlet.

The Problem:
After my drywall was up, I tried to pull the speaker wire through several locations and it bound up after only a couple of feet came through.

The Fix:
I had to cut out a small 3”x3” section on the opposite side of the wall and free up the bind. This worked for the two problem locations but if it had occurred on an outside wall or a section that I couldn’t cut open, I’d be in big trouble. Now I have to patch, mud and sand those outside sections again too.

3) What I should have done:
Placed my equipment closet in a better location.

What I did:
My closet is parallel to the first section of seating.

The Problem:
Now it’s cramped when I open the door.


4) What I should have done:
Set a budget and stuck to it.

What I did:
Spent my $5,500.00 in construction and then another $3,000 in equipment that “I just had to have”.

5) What I should have done:
Paid someone to install the insulation. Apparently, it’s cheaper to pay an insulation company to do it. Although, that’s just what everyone says.

5-6 years ago I took one of those bedroom closets with the big sliding doors (interior dimensions 9 1/2' W, 2' D, 7' tall. The door is 7' W X 6 1/2' tall), gutted it, removed the doors and built an awesome ET center in it. Lots of custom molding from Home Depot. Made mostly from 3/4" Birch plywood, stained in Maple. Wish I could post pictures but I have no web site. Anyway, I designed the tv section for a 35" 4X3 GE. Wish I had prepared it for a 16X9. Back then they were $4-5000 and I thought I would never get one. Boy, how things change. I also wish I had installed better cables/wires. Will be upgrading them soon. Should have made the holes for the cables larger as well. Will be doing that too. But biggest mistake was installing the front speakers behind the wall and building the ETC around them. Can't get them out without cutting big holes in the walls! Oh well. Could just push them in farther, cavity is two feet deep, and buy speakers that would fit thru the grill opening. But with a little fore-thought and planning, these problems would not exist. Has anyone mentioned fore-thought and planning yet! Never thought I would upgrade. What was I thinking?!