Basement Project Journal

[wtnhighlander]

1 minute ago, pkinneb said:

When you have a quiet scene it will be perfectly quiet until the alien jumps out and scares the $#!÷ out of you.

Fixed that for you.

[Mark J]

How about those HVAC boxes.  They reduce noise, but what effect do they have on moving the air?

[Mark J]

...and don't they just provide a place for the alien to hide?

[drzaius]

There's just the 2 of us, but I sure do wish I had better sound isolation. Movies, we mostly watch together, but if I want to listen to loud music, I need to do it when my wife is out because is uncomfortable for her upstairs when the whole house is rattling & thumping. 

The importance of lots of bass capability cannot be overstated. Not just for movies, but music too. I used to have 2 powered subs, 10" & 160 W RMS each, but it was somewhat lacking. I added a 1000 W RMS sub with an 18" driver in a 20 cu. ft. ported cabinet and it showed me must how lacking the old setup was. The bass is just so much more pleasing and when needed, house shaking. 

[legenddc]

11 hours ago, Chet said:

Just a question of curiosity,  I know its a nice way to go but you seem to be putting a lot of effort into the sound proofing of the theater.  Does it make the theater itself better?  I have assumed you were on a piece of property so I wouldn't think it would be a problem for your neighbors.

Just wait until he has to move all the sand in! I hope it's a walkout basement.

[drzaius]

Oh, I was going to add; make sure everything in the room is buttoned down tight. No lay-in panels, weather strip & catches on cabinet doors, fixture trims & grills all tight with no rattling parts etc.

[pkinneb]

1 hour ago, Mark J said:

How about those HVAC boxes.  They reduce noise, but what effect do they have on moving the air?

Mark the goal is to have the flow through the vent grill at less than 250 ft per min this will virtually eliminate the nose but still provide the flow required to keep the sealed room comfortable.

1 hour ago, legenddc said:

Just wait until he has to move all the sand in! I hope it's a walkout basement.

It is but unfortunately the door is about 200ft from the driveway and I can't use the tractor becuase of the septic drain field.

54 minutes ago, drzaius said:

Oh, I was going to add; make sure everything in the room is buttoned down tight. No lay-in panels, weather strip & catches on cabinet doors, fixture trims & grills all tight with no rattling parts etc.

Doing my best on this one for sure.

[legenddc]

Ouch. How much sand are you expecting to need? Can you rent one of those powered wheelbarrow type things or all hand carried?

[pkinneb]

4 hours ago, legenddc said:

Ouch. How much sand are you expecting to need? Can you rent one of those powered wheelbarrow type things or all hand carried?

Haven't done the math yet but my stage is only 10"x 2'x 14'4" so not huge. If I can get my son and son in law to help it shouldn't be to bad. If not i'll take the tractor up the treeline that will get me within 10' of the door without going over the septic.

[Tom King]

If you were closer, I'd let you borrow this hand truck.  You might think that a hand truck is a hand truck, and this thing is ridiculously large, with a more than 2' square shelf, being over 5 feet tall, and pneumatic tires about 18" diameter.  I have other hand trucks.  I don't think any of them have been used since I bought this one.

Mike used it a couple of days ago to get twenty 50 pound bags of play sand up a small flight of stairs, and into the Dromgoole house.  I think he carried about 5 at the time.  He broke out in a sweat handing them to me, but not wheeling the sand bags in the house.  The large tires go right up, and down a flight of stairs easier than an appliance hand truck (have one of those too).

https://www.tractorsupply.com/tsc/product/jobsmart-boss-hoss-hand-truck-1000-lb-capacity

Notice that they call it the Boss Hoss.  It is.

 

 

[Chestnut]

15 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

Haven't done the math yet but my stage is only 10"x 2'x 14'4" so not huge. If I can get my son and son in law to help it shouldn't be to bad. If not i'll take the tractor up the treeline that will get me within 10' of the door without going over the septic.

48 0.5 cu ft bags for that space or just short of a yard. Shouldn't be much more than 3,000 lbs which is probably less weight than the Sheetrock you had hauled in.

I'd do it exactly how tom said. I've moved bags like that before on a smaller hand truck and can usually get about 10 at once but that hand truck is impressive.

[JohnG]

Do you have a place to buy sand that is dry? I assume you wouldn’t want to put moist sand in there. Everywhere around me stores the sand outside and it stays pretty wet. 

[legenddc]

12 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

48 0.5 cu ft bags for that space or just short of a yard. Shouldn't be much more than 3,000 lbs which is probably less weight than the Sheetrock you had hauled in.

I'd do it exactly how tom said. I've moved bags like that before on a smaller hand truck and can usually get about 10 at once but that hand truck is impressive.

I just did that math too. Wish I had scrolled down first. Actually not as bad as I thought.

[Tom King]

We bought Play Sand bags from Lowes.  It was stored inside, and dry.  It was so dry, that if any bag had the slightest defect, the sand would pour out freely.

The Quickcrete bags of Plaster Sand are not only dry, but washed coarse sand with all the fines out of it.  It costs about the same as the other 50lb. bags, but is pretty hard to find.  When I need it, I have to order a whole pallet.  If you happen to find some sitting in a store, check the price.  It's a lot easier to clean up any that gets spilled.   Getting a pallet is actually worth the cost just for handling ease.  They set the pallet in the back of my truck (1 ton), and I take it out with the front end loader.

[pkinneb]

Thanks guys! Tom I am definitely picking that hand truck up for $130 its a no brainer I can wheel them right into the theater. Drew thanks for the math  

Re the sand Tom is right on play sand is dry throughout and readily available at Lowes, HD, and Menards. 

I drive a Canyon so no pallet loads in the box LOL but my son in law has a 1 ton I can use with a HD goose neck trailer

...but I am getting ahead of myself still need to finish the HVAC, wiring, and hang the OSB & drywall on the curves first  

It will be much easier to trace the curves using the lift so I don't want the stage in the way just yet.

[Tom King]

I had to order that hand truck.  Our TSC doesn't keep them in stock.  The salesman I talked to said that people thought that they were ridiculously Large.  My opinion is that after using it, all the others are ridiculously undersized.  

I first bought it to move the large stationary tools into an old house we'd work on for a couple of years.  I couldn't get the trailer within 100 feet of the house, and no room to drive the loader.  I need to sell my other hand trucks, because they've never been used for anything since.

edited to add:  With a truck large enough to carry a whole pallet, just buy a pallet, get them to load it on the pallet, and take back what you don't use.  The good thing about Lowes, or Home Depot is their ease of returns.  That way, there will be very little handling of the bags.  I've done that with Thinset when I didn't even need a half pallet.

I don't drive a dually because it's cool.  In 1974, an old Mr. Randolph Pierce told me, "Building a house ain't about knowing what goes where.  It's about how to get the plywood on the house".  It was very good advice.

[Chestnut]

I just bought sand from menards they store it outside uncovered. I'd do HD or Lowes.

[pkinneb]

1 hour ago, Chestnut said:

I just bought sand from menards they store it outside uncovered. I'd do HD or Lowes.

I'll get it at HD but need to wait for the next Menards 11% off sale so I can get my rebate since i'm cheap LOL

[Chet]

2 minutes ago, pkinneb said:

since i'm cheap LOL

Translation: Wise with your money.

[pkinneb]

Wow I can't believe its been a couple weeks since i posted in here.

The stage is done just need to do the steps

Also got the HVAC finished up all the boxes are in and lined with Linacoustic

Also worked out the screen details it will be a Constant Image Height CIH 125". Movies will be wider and standard TV will be the smaller box about 98". I will wait until the projector is mounted to make my final decision but this is feeling pretty good.

I have I mentioned how much wiring goes into a theater about 500' of speaker wire run with another 150' ish to go

Next up I made a template for the back curve on the screen wall soffit

That should work

Then I made a quick marking tool for the front curve. The soffit will have a 6" tray for LED strip lights 

Finished up the OSB just a little bit more wiring and on to the final drywall for the theater and the basement woohoo!!

Next up finish the riser steps, wire the soffit lights, insulate the soffit, and start hanging the soffit drywall

 

 

[Chestnut]

Wow this looks awesome. It also ok like a ton of work. So your wife is going to want to sell the house and move as soon as you're done?

[pkinneb]

36 minutes ago, Chestnut said:

Wow this looks awesome. It also ok like a ton of work. So your wife is going to want to sell the house and move as soon as you're done?

Not funny that is exactly what happened after the last basement was finished 

We would like to live on a lake but I have advised If I move I am downsizing probably from 3 floors to 1 and no pool so I think I'm safe. She really likes her pool

[treeslayer]

Looks amazing and an amazing amount of work, great attention to detail and top shelf craftsmanship all the way around, did you have a plan all drawn out or just an idea of what it should look like when it’s done? I have to believe there was a detailed plan somewhere other than in your head

[Mark J]

You know you're never going to be able to watch a movie in there.  The momment you walk in your eyes are going to be roving the room admiring and marveling at the top drawer job you did.  The movie might be playing, sure, but you won't be paying attention.  

[pkinneb]

15 hours ago, treeslayer said:

Looks amazing and an amazing amount of work, great attention to detail and top shelf craftsmanship all the way around, did you have a plan all drawn out or just an idea of what it should look like when it’s done? I have to believe there was a detailed plan somewhere other than in your head

Thanks treeslayer! I had a basic floor plan laid out from the beginning as well as some thoughts from the other basements I have done to start with. In the theater I have made several layout designs for things like speaker placement, seating sofits etc, but a lot of my planning is looking at pics on a HT forum and then figuring out how to implement them. I also found a consultant on the forum that works via face time for $50 and hour, he has been invaluable to bounce things off of. Saved me both Time and money on many occasions. All of the figuring out is what has taken so long but I pretty much have about 95% of it designed now so the finish line is getting closer. At least from a planning perspective. I still a fair amount of work to do but I really like the way it is coming together and come hell or high water I will start my Morris chair build in 2019 which means the basement will be done this year  

14 hours ago, Mark J said:

You know you're never going to be able to watch a movie in there.  The momment you walk in your eyes are going to be roving the room admiring and marveling at the top drawer job you did.  The movie might be playing, sure, but you won't be paying attention.  

Thanks Mark! Not going to lie its been waaay more work than I expected but I am really liking how its all coming together. It should be a great space for me and my family for many years to come. Oh and I'll be jolted back to the movie the minute the sound track starts playing with 7.2.4 surround sound and the tactical response I'm installing there will be no doubt we will be engaged LOL