House Extension for Media Room

venomclan

Hi Guys,
I am thinking of putting an extension on my house for a small media room. We bought our house last year, and while we like the layout, it has vaulted ceiling that makes the sound travel throughout the house. We do not have kids yet, but I know it will be a problem with sound later on. We also do not want our dog or future family additions messing with my system.

Our house has only a one car garage, so putting a room there will not work.
The best place we can see for a budget extension is our covered patio in the back of the house. I like this idea because the exterior walls are concrete block the first 8 ft. so sound travel will be easier to contain. We will only have to build one wall of CBS and a small wall at the side. There is a small utility shed the previous owner built near the bbq that I can eliminate. The steel panels are hurricane shutters over sliding glass doors, there are 3 in the room.

Room Dimensions:
The larger area is 10' x 15'
Smaller area is 7' x 13.5'

I would put my system in the larger area with couches going back. I wish the area was wider but that is what we have. I would love to have a basement, but in FL there are none.

Has anyone done a job like this? I see it as a long term investment as we plan to stay in the house a while and it can always be turned into a den or playroom. I will run a dedicated a/c line and air vents. I think my ac is big enough to handle the extra footage.

What do you guys think? Any down sides?

wingnut4772

The only downside I can see is that I am not doing it:D . If you have the funds and wherewithall..go for it. I would so love to do that myself.

faster100

I wouldnt lose that nice back space for the pool.. can you add on anywhere else?

audiobliss

The only thing that comes to mind for me is the constant traffic of wet people, wet towels, drinks, friends, food, etc. through that area to get to the pool.

jdhdiggs

This would also be about the worst home investment you could make. Especially considering the picture. If you want to do it, go for it.

wingnut4772

My Ht used to be a patio. Right outside the french doors is my pool but all the traffic is out of the HT area in between the two sections (HT and Billiards). My room is also 42' long so you would have to see if traffic would be a problem.

venomclan

jdhdiggs wrote:

This would also be about the worst home investment you could make. Especially considering the picture. If you want to do it, go for it.

Hi jdhdiggs,
Why would it be a bad investment?

This seems like the best space because adding a "full" addition would be a lot more than I want to spend. The existing roof eliminates a lot of the work and expenses.

We do have a lot of patio space on the side and behind the ppol, it just will not be covered. I usually do not like eating outside anyway, and it is too hot to do that in the summer. I can see us using the media room a lot more than just a screened porch.

Darla, I love your theater room and would like to make ours similar. The wood on your ceiling really warms up the space. 42' is a large room, our is only 28', and not as wide in the back area.

I think we can flow traffic away from the theater as there are 3 sliding doors leading to this area. Pools are very common down here, so pool entertaining is not that big of a deal, but being outside in the winter here is awesome for get togethers. I will post some more pics tomorrow. Thanks guys.
Jeremy

Early B.

I think you should consider your options.

First, what would it take cost-wise to tame the vaulted ceilings acoustically and leave your system where it is? It's gotta be much cheaper than adding on to your house. It's gonna cost a helluva lot of money to build an addition and manage the acoustics in there, especially with all of that concrete and the sliding glass doors. Also, what is the return on investment?

jdhdiggs

Home theaters / media rooms are typically the worst investments as far as upgrades. Kitchen's and bathrooms are the best as far as your money spent versus what you get back. By filling in that area, you would be eliminating a bunch of windows from your living room making it less appealing and to have an effective media room, you'd have a strrong light control, further darkening the house.

I think a future buyer would look at it as a goofy add-on rather than a benifit unless you got lucky with the buyer. If you can't afford to do it right, I would suggest waiting unitl you can. That's my two cents.

In the end, don't look at it as an investment, look at it as something you want and expect no return for it.

unc2701

jdhdiggs wrote:

Home theaters / media rooms are typically the worst investments as far as upgrades. Kitchen's and bathrooms are the best as far as your money spent versus what you get back.

Actually, it's paint, then flooring _then_ kitchen & baths. Paint doesn't cost ****, but done well it'll take weeks off the selling time. Flooring is a bit more, but putting down even cheap new carpet will turn around a house fast. Kitchens& baths get expensive really, really quick, but they do add a lot of value.

Anyhow, the rest of that is dead-on. Most people don't see value in a media room. Unless your house is above about the 95th percentile in cost in the area, or a good number of houses in your specific neighborhood have them, it will add no value to your house. Also, of the small fraction that do care about the media room, only a few of them will care about the things that'll cost you a lot of money: good wiring, well laid out wall plates, sound absorption & diffusion, etc.

In a more general sense, additions rarely make sense, unless real estate is out of control in the area, or the house has a specific defficiency, esp for the neighborhood. You're usually better off financially just buying a new house that has the space you want.

brettw22

Unless he can build it out as an extention and then when lookin to move add a closet in the mix and call it a bedroom.

wingnut4772

We are set to do the floors and kitchen maybe next year and I agree that kitchens are numero uno but I think a nice family/media room can also add value. Depends on the buyer.

faster100

wingnut4772 wrote:

We are set to do the floors and kitchen maybe next year and I agree that kitchens are numero uno but I think a nice family/media room can also add value. Depends on the buyer.

If the persons name is darla.. and spends 10k on audio gear before the floors and kitchen.. LOL kidding,

ya gotta love it, see we knew NO man would be pissed about all that audio gear..

Id say, if ya gonna stay there a LONG time and its what makes ya happy.. screw it, do the extension and you and your wife enjoy it.. lifes to short to worry about future sales..

jdhdiggs

Faster pretty much nailed it. If you want to do this, assume you will get no money back out of it when you sell. If that's ok with you, charge ahead.

UNC: I was meaning more of adding/updating rooms. Paint/floors (to me) are just part of that.

Brett: Bedrooms are about a 50% return and would need more/larger windows than a good media room would have.

madmax

That could be a real show-place area as is and in my opinion would be a loss if built in for a media room. Just my opinion going by the picture...
madmax

wingnut4772

faster100 wrote:

If the persons name is darla.. and spends 10k on audio gear before the floors and kitchen.. LOL kidding,

ya gotta love it, see we knew NO man would be pissed about all that audio gear..

Id say, if ya gonna stay there a LONG time and its what makes ya happy.. screw it, do the extension and you and your wife enjoy it.. lifes to short to worry about future sales..

Ha. For what I have spent I could have had a pretty nice kitchen already.:D

faster100

wingnut4772 wrote:

Ha. For what I have spent I could have had a pretty nice kitchen already.:D

I know, that's the point.. you audio nut!!!:D

venomclan

Hi Guys,
Thanks for the input. Here is what I was thinking that led to this:

We plan to stay in this house a long time. It is in a nice area with great schools. Selling is not an option for us as we have a very low fixed rate mortgage. The real estate market is crap here, and will continue for a long time. Everybody is losing money (on paper) regardless of the house itself.

We don not have kids yet, but hope to soon god willing. When that happens, my gear will become almost useless as noise will travel, due to vaulted ceilings and layout. There is no other place to put an extension without spending big bucks (50k or more). This seems like the only space. Its existing roof drastically reduces the costs, probably less than 10k.
Houses in my neighborhood start at 400k, go to 800k a few blocks away. Our house was completely redone last year. In FL., under air (air conditioning) square footage is essential. More is better generally.

Our need for this space:
1- Keep future children and bulldog away from gear
2- Isolate sound so gear can be reasonably used at night
3- My need of a man cave.

This room will not be a “movie Theater” per se, no built ins, movie screens, projectors, movie chairs etc. It will be a room that my gear is in, as is now in my living room. This will be amore of a sun room/play room or bedroom for that matter. A couch will be the only furniture. Nothing will be permanent. I agree that a dedicated movie theater in a house reduces the overall appeal to a non-enthusiast like us. That is not my intent for this space.

The down sides besides build costs:
1- As said, lack of light. I will put a lot of windows to keep the view of the pool and light bleed. I may have to put a skylight in later.
2- Traffic flow. It may be controlled by placing a door at the far left, and having the gear on the far right, 27 ft. away.

We do not entertain that much but that may change. Here is another wider angle pic of the area. We are still on the fence with this. We do use our gear a lot together. I use it additionally for music and video games. Thanks,
Jeremy

wingnut4772

Go for it Venom. You know you will love it. I was lucky enough that the room was already built.(mostly) Just make sure to put the doors (french doors?) well behind the HT so the traffic flow does not interfere with it. My in ceiling surrounds for my rear channels actually help out with the space management there. You may want to consider that if you are doing 7.1.

Now is not a good time to sell that's for sure.

Early B.

Get an estimate from a contractor who specializes in add-ons. If you're gonna do it, do it right.

I think it'll cost closer to $20K for everything, not less than $10K, unless you have good carpentry skills and can do a lot of the work yourself. For instance, I doubt your existing AC system will be able to adequately accomodate the additional square footage. If not, we're talking $2K - $3K alone. And you're bound to have lots of acoustic issues, and that's gonna cost ya.

To manage foot traffic, consider a totally separate "hallway" to the back yard so no one needs to enter your man cave in order to take a dip in the pool.

audiobliss

Early B. wrote:

To manage foot traffic, consider a totally separate "hallway" to the back yard so no one needs to enter your man cave in order to take a dip in the pool.

That, imo, is what you should do.

xsmi

There appears to be another door to the right is that a sliding door to the patio and if so is it in apublic area of the house. If it is traffic is not a problem.