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What would you do with these plans?? I need help! (1 Viewer)

nightclub27

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We are about to break ground on our new home. The basement will have 9' ceilings. i have not planned to dig deeper in the media room to create tiered seating. I want that to be a dedicated movie room. I need to quickly decide if need to re-engineer the plans and dig down. There will be some additional cost going that route. What would a great theater design look like without digging deeper?
 

DaveF

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I'd dig another course or two deeper for 10' basement height, if possible, for a future home theater. That gives you more headroomroom for tiered seating for a multi-row theater.
 

DaveF

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Of course you can have a lovely theater with 9' ceilings. Very few of us have a perfect space and unlimited budget. We make the best of our particular compromises and limits and enjoy it. :)
 

Bobofbone

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Just a thought. If you are thinking of a tiered room and haven't broken ground, how much trouble would it be to dig and pour the area that way? If your starting from scratch, have a section of the area 18"-24" lower. I don't make foundations, but it shouldn't cost to ask and find out if it can be done, and what the cost and any down sides would be.

Looking at your plans for the area, I couldn't read the dimensions. You might want to avoid a space that has even multiples or duplication of dimensions in the finished product. It can create harmonics with the audio that you might want to avoid.
 

nightclub27

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thank you all for the replies. I did size the cost of digging down that portion of the basement. It was not in the original plans so we would need to re-engineer the plans. That will further delay the project and add cost. We've ruled that out at this point. We will need to make the most of the 9" ceiling height.
 

Bobofbone

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9' is a pretty decent ceiling height. If you're using a projector that has lens shift, you can generally correct to bring the top of the projected image to near the center of the height of the lens, keeping the projector parallel with the screen. What this means is, you can generally clear the height of people sitting in the back row, even if they are elevated. I designed my home, and made the basement height 9'. it works fine. Even using a projector, I had room for two flush mounted ceiling fans.

There are some other things to plan for.

Power-as a start, plan in having a separate line to the theater. Avoid having other appliances like a refrigerator or washing machine on the same circuit as the theater. Less interference. It's much easier and less expensive to have this in the plans. My contractor ran 2 separate 20 amp lines to the theater. He said the extra wiring was cheap, and I might want 2 lines. He was right. I used one for A-V equipment, and the other for lighting and the isolated ventilation system.

Sound isolation-having a theater generally entails playing something that might be loud later at night, or other times when someone else doesn't want to listen to it. I assume from the drawing, that the area is below the main house, or a basement. If that's the case, consider routing any heating and ventillation ducts elsewhere. If they go through your theater, they may lower the ceiling, and have a tendency to transmit sound through the rest of the house. Again, it's easier to correct by avoiding the problem. Keep an eye on the construction. I've found HVAC contractors have a tendency to put things where they want, and then argue about moving them out of where they weren't supposed to be. There are also a variety of ways to ventilate the area and minimize sound transmission if the theater is closed off. Your drawing had one wall open, so this may be less of a consideration. But I'd still avoid running HVAC ducts through the area if you can.

Wiring-if the theater is going to be built out at the same time as the house, plan on where everything is going to go. It's easier to run wiring for everything before the walls are covered. I'd plan on running HDMI cables from where your equipment will be to where ever you might have what is necessary for the theater. Even if you are planning on a large screen TV, you might want to run HDMI cable to where you would hang a projector. Run speaker cable to where you will and where you might use it. I wasn't sure where my subwoofer would go, so I ran three sets of cable for it. . I changed my mind after things were up, and used 2 subwoofers instead of 1. The extra cable came in hand. Even if you aren't planning on Dolby Atmos, you might want to run the cable to support it. You might change your mind.

Lighting. You can do some creative things without a lot of expense with remote dimmers. Plan out what you might want when you do the construction.

Take lots of pictures and post them during the build!
 

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