Home theater build

squeeb

My basement flooded from the rains a couple a weeks ago and we got some money from insurance to rebuild. Not unlimited funds but some. The drywall and baseboards will be off for the first time since we have owned the home.

Anyone who has built a theater room from scratch, any advice? After you finished and started using it did you think, "I wish I would have ____"?

WLDock

II never built a HT but the closest I had was the long and narrow 13' x 24' family room I had in my last rental. My current rental is two rooms smaller, and I miss the space. However as I ponder my future and look for possible homes to buy many don't have suitable pre finished rooms for a dedicated theater. The few that I have come across have a finished family room or theater room, there were several things I would want to change.

So, my point is this....I think the best dedicated room that will suite ones individual tastes is one that you can build from scratch. The biggest issue I see is the quality of the build. The previous room I had my theater in was on a concrete slab and I had limited bass as the time. My current ranch w/a basement home shakes like an earthquake to the big bass of movies. If I could build a dedicated room I would use extra support on the beams and joist. I would isolate as much as possible and I would deaden all four walls and ceiling. Its fun at first when the whole house is shaking but over time is not so very cool. So if I can offer anything I would say put money towards making the room quite.

squeeb

Bump-a-roonie and thanks WLD.

EndersShadow

Run PVC/Conduit/PEX lines to anywhere you would be installing a speaker, even if you dont have plans to for now. Easier to wire the place for 11.4 when the walls are down. Or like I said, just have the ability to run wires through the wall later on if you decide. Also make sure to mark where your end terminations are for that kinda stuff.

Run dedicated power lines, or at least again set a way to do it in the future, though doing it now would be the best. If you can run a subpanel to the basement area to connect JUST your HT stuff that would be good too. Easier to run wires for a shorter distance.

Dennis Gardner

I agree that at a minimum consider speaker/projector if wanted/power/gear rack placements before you replace wall boards. Other than that, any other changes are pretty easy to make later. Insulating the ceiling would also be good to do at this time if you feel the need for isolating sounds from the rooms above.

Have fun!

Zeros

Always run a spare HDMI cable or at lease a pair of Cat6 cables (for an HDMI Balun)to the location of your video sources in case the first cable fails. I had a bunch I had thought of after my home theater build, so I'll post more as they come to me.

I thought of another. If you are interested in controlling your lighting via remote, run Cat6 cables to the electrical boxes where your light switches are. I went with the Lutron Maestro IR dimmers, which have an IR sensor. Then I just ran a spare emitter from the IR distribution box to the cat6 cables in the electrical box where the switches were mounted. That way I could point my remote towards the front of the room (where the IR received was mounted) to send the signal to dim the lights throughout the basement.

As recommended above, I woudl also invest in insulation for sound absorption and possibly some bass traps and sound panels if you feel it would be helpful.