Things I wish I would have done differently in my project (1 Viewer)

[Darren{Moo}]

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.

 

[Ralph Summa]

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

 

[Glenise]

Nothing!

It just keeps getting better as I get more accessories!

 

[Alfonso_M]

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

 

[Shane_M]

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

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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.

 

[Greg S]

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

 

[Randy Laporte]

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

 

[darron Z]

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.

 

[DavidNighorn]

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

 

[Brett Robert]

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.

 

[Bob Hill]

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

 

[Todd_Brown]

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 .

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

 

[Dave Simpson]

Ain't it the truth. Testify, brother!

Cheers!

DS.

 

[Tom Rosback]

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.

 

[darron Z]

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 .

 

[Torgny Nilsson]

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.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

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!

 

[David WS]

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.

 

[Dave Poehlman]

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.

 

[Jason D.]

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