What's new

Thinking about starting to build a home theater room in my basement (1 Viewer)

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
My basement is completely unfinished, so it needs a lot of work. The basement will likely be split into 2 rooms since the stairs come down right in the center of the basement and I'd like one room dedicated for the home theater while the other half will be for whatever else we need. I just got done measuring the basement, it is about 904.5 square feet measuring at 33.5 feet by 27 feet. The half that will be dedicated to home theater measures approximately 14 feet by 27 feet, so it would be a long room. About how much in MATERIALS am I looking at spending for a room this size? I mean everything from ceilings, walls, floors etc, not including electrical? I have an idea on how much a contractor would cost, but I'm probably going to be doing the work myself so I'm just curious as to about how much in materials I'm looking at. Any help is greatly appreciated.
 

Robert_J

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2000
Messages
8,350
Location
Mississippi
Real Name
Robert
It depends on how elaborate you get. For a basic room, measure off the the walls, determine your lumber, drywall and electrical needs before making a trip to Lowes or Home Depot for pricing. They even have books on remodeling that can help.
 

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
Okay awesome, I'm gonna be determining how about how much I'm gonna need as far as lumber and drywall tomorrow. The room is gonna be fairly basic, I just want the acoustics of the room to be as good as I can get them. I'd say having 1 or 2 slightly raised levels for seating is the most elaborate it's gonna get.
 

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
Okay, that makes everything a lot easier. The video attached below is a good idea of how I'd want the room to look, minus the lighting in the floor and under the screen etc. The speakers won't be built into the walls either. The room in the video is about the same size as the room I'm going to work with, measuring about 14 feet by 23 feet with 9 foot ceilings. My room is 14 feet, by 27 feet, with 7.5 foot ceilings. That's the biggest difference, my basement has very low ceilings unfortunately.
 

Jim Mcc

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Feb 11, 2004
Messages
3,757
Location
Oconomowoc, WI.
Real Name
Jim
Don't forget about insulating the walls and ceiling to help with soundproofing. Any idea why the OP's pic doesn't show up on my computer?
 

Norm Varney

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
4
Real Name
Norman Varney
Robert_J said:
Acoustic treatments can come after the room is built.
Well, some sound quality treatments could be added later, but noise control needs to be addressed before construction.
 

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
The walls and ceiling will certainly be heavily insulated. I'm talking more about the design of the room itself that would make the room better acoustically for the sound in the room, rather then preventing the sound traveling to other rooms.
 

Robert_J

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2000
Messages
8,350
Location
Mississippi
Real Name
Robert
Insulation will stop the high frequencies but not the low frequency sounds. Mass stops bass. Double drywall with Green Glue. It depends on how loud and low you want to go. I like sub bass and I live with the sound outside of the room. On the other hand, it's just two of us and 99% of the time we are watching the movie together.
 

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
Double Drywall = double the cost, no? If that add's up to be too expensive, then it looks like everybody in the house is gonna have to deal and brace down the china cabinet lmao. Tomorrow I'm gonna start cleaning out the basement and taking everything out of it and buy the lumber. I'll take a picture of the basement when I get some of the crap out of it. Right now it really is a bare basement with concrete walls, floors and no ceiling. It's like a damp cave, this is really going from scratch. Some of the pictures I've seen of home theater rooms are so beautiful that they leave me with my mouth hanging open. On the Runco website, they have a link to a company that designs and builds home theater rooms and the pictures in their portfolio are completely stunning. If I had the money, I would do something like that in a heart beat. The company is called "TK Theaters". Check out some of their pictures, their stuff looks amazing http://www.tktheaters.com/portfolio.html
 

Robert_J

Senior HTF Member
Joined
Aug 22, 2000
Messages
8,350
Location
Mississippi
Real Name
Robert
Double Drywall = double the cost, no?
No. Triple or quadruple the cost. Notice I used caps when I mentioned Green Glue. It's not just a color but a brand of soundproofing glue. One tube per sheet of drywall (32 square feet) for standard soundproofing. That means two sheets of drywall, $13 for a tube of glue and additional labor if you are paying someone to do all of this. As their site says, if you want to stop low frequency information, then 3 tubes per 32 square feet. http://www.acousticalsolutions.com/28~green-glue3?gclid=CO-W2Ijrh64CFSYaQgodChCn3A Don't forget Quiet Rock, the extra heavy drywall for soundproofing. Then there is Resilient Channel which will decouple the drywall from the wall studs. The more sound you want to contain, the more you have to spend.
 

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
Oh god. Odd's I probably won't be doing that. That's 4 times the cost I planned on spending. Other's will just have to deal with the sound in the house lol. If I had the money, I definitely would, but that's A LOT more then then the anticipated 10-12 grand
 

Norm Varney

Auditioning
Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
4
Real Name
Norman Varney
Mass is only one tool for bass attenuation. It normally requires a system approach incorporating sound isolation, breaks, absorption and/or blocking. Adding too much mass can mean poor sound quality. It means the bass will hang around in the room, degrading articulation, dynamics, timbre, etc. Think of the sound of a concrete bunker. As Robert J suggested, two layers with a constrained layer damping material (our RoomDamp2 for example) is a very good, and probably your best bang-for-the-buck, approach. Just know that it will not eliminate structural or airborne vibrations, just lower them. Regardless, be sure to seal any penetrations with acoustic caulking. A small hole or crack will defeat an otherwise quality noise partition. This is a primary concern regarding noise control.
 

Blackdevil77

Agent
Joined
Jan 24, 2012
Messages
38
Real Name
Mario
Started work in my basement. It really is a bare basement right now, I bought lumber for the beams which I didn't put up yet and just finished putting up some sealant on the concrete walls. As far as a projector, I've decided on the Epson Pro Cinema 6010 that will be shinning on a 110-120 inch screen (Still deciding). My local audiophile shop carries them and I saw it in action and it looks beautiful, even in eco mode it proved to be bright enough for a 105 inch screen. My current home theater system will be moved down there for the time being, but will eventually be upgraded little by little to a Parasound A51 amp, possibly the Integra DHC-80.3 Pre amp, Paradigm S8's, Paradigm C-5 and Paradigm ADP-3's. For a home theater room that is gonna measure about 14 feet by 25 feet, you guys think I'll benefit from 7.1? I'm looking at the Sub 25 from Paradigm also, but if I can manage to snag a Sub 2 for a price I can swing, I'll try to go for that, but that would be a stretch. Also, I can run whatever electricity I need in this room, from 240 volt lines to multiple circuits for components that may need a lot of juice. I have room for 9 more circuits in my power box and it's getting enough juice to do whatever I would need. Not to mention the box is in the same room as the home theater will be. Do I have to keep the amp or other components a certain distance from the power box to avoid interference of any kind or is that not necessary? Here are some pic's of what it looked like before I started anything. I'll take more pics as I make some more progress if anyone is interested.
 

Joel...Lane

Second Unit
Joined
Apr 30, 2003
Messages
442
Real Name
Joel
Always interested in seeing others' rooms. Mine's about 3/4 finished. Need to post some pics myself.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Latest Articles

Forum statistics

Threads
356,816
Messages
5,123,862
Members
144,184
Latest member
H-508
Recent bookmarks
0
Top