Building a new house in the spring and... (1 Viewer)

[Mark Maltais]

will be constructing a dedicated home theater in the basement. Question is the basement will be "radiant heat" flooring system (heated pipes in the floor). I've spoken to some builders who say a layer of carpet will not really affect the heating of the room but I also want to add a carpet pad in the room to help with the acoustics which they say may insulate the floor too much!! Hence the possibility of me freezing my ass off while watching a movie :frowning: Anyone have a floor like this?? Any problems with the heating?? Also there are no windows in the room so I would like to cover the walls with the same material you see in the new paramount theaters (those square yard fabric covered boards) Anybody know what or where I can get this stuff? Any advice or tips would be appreciated?
P.S. Room is 26X16 with 9' walls. Would this be a "comfortable" size or should it be smaller, any rules to dimensions for a room to make better sound? My equipment will have no problem filling the room with sound, just wondering if there is a ratio for room size for ideal sound!

 

[Mark Maltais]

anyone???

 

[Dave Gates]

Mark,

With respect to using radiant heat flooring, you will not freeze your ass off, by covering the floor with padding and carpet. However, what you will do is degrade the effiency of your heating system.

You will still heat the room, and the floor to the temperature set at the thermostat, but because the padding and carpet will tend to act like insulation, your system will try to heat the concrete slab and the ground underneth as well. Just take this effect into consideration when sizing your heating system and your zone distribution. You can either take the hit in performance (higher gas bills) or oversize the heating unit (higher initial cost), so the heater and pump can overcome the insulation faster and more efficiently. Look at the two costs and decide which is the lesser of the two evils. If you live in the MidWest, NorthEast or Canada, I would probably go with the larger unit. (I just noticed that you live in Canada. Consider buying the larger unit.)

Good luck and try to provide your construction photos to the forum.

P.S. Sorry, I can't help you with the wall covering and room size questions, but try the search function because I know those topics have been discussed here before.

 

[Ron Shaw]

The ideal room ratios are 2x3x5, which would spread the standing waves evenly across the spectrum, so with your 9 foot ceiling (becoming the 2), the ideal width would be 13 1/2, and the ideal length would be 22 1/2. Taking your length of 26 and dividing by 5 gives an ideal width of 15 1/2 and an ideal height of 10' 5", so I think your dimensions are just about as good as you will find. The room isnt too large. The larger the room, the better the wavelength developement. An auditorium would be ideal . I wish I had this room!

 

[Mark Maltais]

Hmmmmm....thanks for the replies, quick question though, the basement (and the garage) will be floor radiated and the entire basement will be a "zone" and the garage the other. If the home theater has padding on the floor and the thermostat is in another location I imagine the basement heat will turn off before the theater is warmed properly and locating the thermostat in the theater will probably keep the entire basement too warm. Should I put extra insulation below the concrete in the theater to offset any ground heating? This is a fair size house I'm building (2000+ square feet) and I am not putting radiant heat upstairs because it's a pain to install unless you use mats (and most of the upstairs is hardwood flooring - nails and tubes dont mix )so I will have a standard forced air system for upstairs (need the ducts for air conditioning anyway). Would it make sense to run a few ducts down the wall in the theater to blow heat near the floor?? A buddy suggested it would work as long as the vents have shutters to turn them off or adjust the heat, seems like a plan to me. The only problem I can see with this is the added noise from the vents when the furnace is running. Oh and I do plan on documenting the construction of the house, I'll post pictures as it goes. Plan on breaking ground in approximately 2-3 months.
Thanks

 

[James Mudler]

Mark,

Have you thought about hiring a designer? I have read results of Dennis work over at the AVS forum, and he is VERY resonable. He will answer all your heating/cooling questions along with layout, acoustics and give you blueprints.

 

[Mark Maltais]

Yeah thought about getting a designer but I have a pretty good sounding system now so I'm just wondering about the heating and other minor stuff like acoustics. Besides I'm also buying a new motorcycle soon and if I blow cash on a bike AND a designer my wife will have me sleeping outside in the kennel next to the dog (she gets maple floors and ceramic tiles I get a kawasaki zx-12)so I'm really only looking for basics. If it comes down to a designer or the bike, sorry dudes, as much as I like home theater the ninja wins!