Home Theater Project in Basement


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Old 12-20-19, 03:49 AM
T
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Home Theater Project in Basement

Hey all,

New to this forum, actually signed up as we have a project in mind for our basement. We have a space in our basement we want to build out to a home theater style room. Space will be 20' x 13' once I get the stud walls up, ceiling height is 7'8". I have construction experience, tools from work, etc so I don't see any issues doing the work myself. I've done many smaller projects around our home inside and out however this will be my first full room build/remodel if you want to call it that so I am posting just to get some tips, tricks or any additional info so I don't miss anything and can get it done correctly the first time.

My plan is to drylock the basement walls (2 of the 4 walls for this room are concrete foundation walls). We don't get much moisture at all down in our basement and from reading articles and discussions online it seems Drylock will be sufficient. I have one of the 4 walls already studded out from the original home build 2x6 wall), which leaves me to stud the remaining 3 walls - 2 of those are against the concrete foundation wall. I'll be using pressure treated lumber for the bottom plates on the remaining walls, the "long" walls which extend the 20' sides of the rooms will be 2x4 built while the last 13' wall will be 2x6 built. The reason for this is because the remaining 13' wall I will be framing is where we plan on mounting a projector and I'm considering possibly mounting speakers in the walls so the 2x6 will provide me the additional space for that. once framed I plan on running electrical and speaker wire. I plan on insulating using either R11 or R30 (read online that those will actually provide some sound proofing as well). Follow that with sheetrocking, tape and plaster then painting. I'll also do the flooring at this time - still deciding between carpeting the floor or doing a type of vinyl stick down floor. With the flooring is it necessary to do anything to prep the concrete (ie. Drylock)?

Hoping I might be able to get some responses just with some general tips, or let me know if I'm missing anything as far as my plan goes here.

I appreciate any help.

Thanks

Tom
 
  #2  
Old 12-20-19, 04:15 PM
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Welcome to the forums.

Insulation, insulation, insulation.
It all depends on what extreme you want to go to and how soundproof you want it.
You need that to be a dead room. You'd want carpet on the floor.
You need sound absorbing panels on the wall.

I was just working in one I built several years ago. You walk into the room and it's dead. No sound.
The three walls have acoustic panels on them. They are custom built 3'x5' panels. They have thin insulation on them and a fabric that wraps around the whole panel.
 
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Old 12-21-19, 04:01 AM
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We included a Theater in our basement refinish a few years ago but really didnt do anything extraordinary special to the room other than making provisions for the 120" projector, screen, and surround speakers.

Entire basement was finished with carpet, Armstrong ceiling planks, and Soft Touch insulation which is excellent for sound absorption so the entire basement is quiet.

Funny thing is we don't really use it much, with everybody on the main floor, it just doesn't seem that we make a lot of effort to move down there so I'm glad that there wasn't a lot of additional money put into it!
 
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Old 12-21-19, 10:20 AM
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Funny thing is we don't really use it much, with everybody on the main floor, it just doesn't seem that we make a lot of effort to move down there so I'm glad that there wasn't a lot of additional money put into it!
Funny you should say that as it's so true.
 
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Old 01-03-20, 06:24 AM
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You say you don't get much moisture.... to me that would be the main concern for any work finishing basement. What do you consider "not much" ?
Any possibility that your basement is subject to even minor water penetration during strong rains / storms ??
Do you have french drains, sump pump ?
Of course if you have lived there for 10 yrs and through some big storms and never seen water in your basement - you are good and can ignore my comments.,
I just have seen too many cases of moisture and mold behind the walls of finished basements where the owner was "certain" he/she had no water issues in the basement.
 
 

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