[Pont]

Hi all

I've been lurking around the forum for a while now checking out others great setups, so I thought I would finally start my little project. I bought my first house about a year ago now and with the gf going to back to uni I got permission to convert the rear room to a cinema/gaming/office. It used to be a garage but the previous owner converted it for an extra bedroom and utility room.

Now its not the biggest room (2.8m x 2.2m) but I hoping to make the most of it by hiding in there when her shows are on and locking her in when she has work to do........ then playing on my main kit in the lounge!

Here’s what I plan to do, but not sure where to put things yet.

1. Remove the back door (ive never used it) and put a large window in (ordered).
2. Rip the floors up and put laminate flooring in.
3. Put my spare Sony 32" on one of the walls.
4. Remove and put plugs in where needed.
5. Put AV kit in (surround, xbox etc)
6. Add some kind of heating.
7. Put a desk in.
8. Decorate etc.

Now for couple of pictures, cleared the room out and filled in a few holes. I couldn’t seem to take a pic that didn’t make the room look really tiny…

And here’s what I’ve done in sketchup for my first attempt for a couple of ideas.

Now I could do with a bit of advice….

First…. What do you think is best? Do I have my room arranged in the best way?

Second….In my design where I have moved the tv to the middle of a larger wall. I found out at the weekend that the wall sticking out is breeze blocks for support (I guess) from the original garage. Could I wall mount on this? and build a new frame to the same width as the tv so it looked better?

Third… Cabling. Where do you guys get your cables, plates etc from?

and last... does anyone know much about under floor heating?

Cheers

Chris

[lockdown81]

hi mate

you could mount the screen on that breeze block piller no probs , but have you thought about putting it on the wall where in the last pic you have the sofa and then put the sofa up against the piller what you was gona mount the screen on , if you get me lol

as for the under floor heating , not sure if you are aware but it dosent heat the room , it just basicly stops the chill on the floor so its warm under foot ,
youed be better off with some kind of wall mount heater or tryin to pick the flow and return pipes up from another rad in the house [perhaps in the room next door if theres one ]

i might not beable to reply tonight mate laptop is being fixed lol but il look on ere in the morning

hope this some help
thanks lockdown

[deansocial]

depends what you mean by underfloor heating. Electric basically warms the floor and the room slightly where as a wet system actually heats the room

[Pont]

The other wall isnt very strong as its plaster board. I thought supporting the tv there would mean building a frame so it would take up more space. If I use the breeze block piller then I can build the frame around it.

Actually I just had a sit down in the room... It feels better to have a chair and then the desk next to each other. Also the door opens inwards in the room meaning the small sofa wouldnt be centered in the room... I guess I could knock out the existing plaster in the middle, put more support in then plaster it back up??

Electric underfloor heating doesn't heat the room? Oh well.... lol.

I was looking at panel heaters today and they seemed a cheaper option. Dimplex seem to have a couple that look modern and would fit in the room.

Cheers for the help.

Originally Posted by lockdown81

hi mate

you could mount the screen on that breeze block piller no probs , but have you thought about putting it on the wall where in the last pic you have the sofa and then put the sofa up against the piller what you was gona mount the screen on , if you get me lol

as for the under floor heating , not sure if you are aware but it dosent heat the room , it just basicly stops the chill on the floor so its warm under foot ,
youed be better off with some kind of wall mount heater or tryin to pick the flow and return pipes up from another rad in the house [perhaps in the room next door if theres one ]

i might not beable to reply tonight mate laptop is being fixed lol but il look on ere in the morning

hope this some help
thanks lockdown

[MarkP80]

I'd agree with lockdown's suggestion, put the tv on the wall where you currently have the sofa, and sofa where the tv is shown. You'll have a much better chance of getting the tv centrally aligned with the sofa too.

One way to mount the tv on a stud wall is to find where the vertical studs are and span between them with a piece of ply. The ply screws securely to the studs and you can fix the tv bracket to the ply. You can obviously paint the ply to match the wall, but it's hidden behind the tv anyway.

Another way is to cut the plasterboard out, fit noggins between the studs to fasten the bracket to, then replace the plasterboard and skim, but it's a fair bit more hassle.

If you're going to lay laminate, then consider taking the skirting board off. If you do this, you have a good chance of being able to feed cables to your tv down the inside of the stud wall, then under the floor and out where your kit is placed - probably in the spot where you show the desk. Same for your front speakers. Replace the skirting when you've done the floor, which means you don't need to fit any moulding.

Cheers,
MarkP

[Pont]

How would I find the vertical studs? Tap the wall with a hammer then draw it out on the wall?

Originally Posted by MarkP80

One way to mount the tv on a stud wall is to find where the vertical studs are and span between them with a piece of ply. The ply screws securely to the studs and you can fix the tv bracket to the ply. You can obviously paint the ply to match the wall, but it's hidden behind the tv anyway.

Another way is to cut the plasterboard out, fit noggins between the studs to fasten the bracket to, then replace the plasterboard and skim, but it's a fair bit more hassle.

[lockdown81]

Originally Posted by deansocial

depends what you mean by underfloor heating. Electric basically warms the floor and the room slightly where as a wet system actually heats the room

i presumed the electric underfloor heating then the wet due to no rad pipes in there plus less work for the guy

[lockdown81]

Originally Posted by Pont

How would I find the vertical studs? Tap the wall with a hammer then draw it out on the wall?

or just drill a few small holes in the plasterbored till you pick a stud up , you will proberly find them with the hammer , or drill the holes out behind the screen for the cables to pass down and put a rod or ruler in the hole and push it to the side untill it hits a stud , it wont be far from the hole lol ,, pop the skirtin off run all your cables [may need to chanel out across the floor ] put your floor down then pop new skirtin or even the old stuff back on then fill and paint ,, it will be so much easyer and look loads better and more central to have it on that wall

[Pont]

Thanks lockdown, I will get my drill out on saturday and investigate.

With the cables.. I should have said that I also have access to the (sort of) loft area above. I'm going to crawl up there on saturday. If its possible shall I go up and over instead with the cables? This will mean longer ones though.

[lockdown81]

Originally Posted by Pont

Thanks lockdown, I will get my drill out on saturday and investigate.

With the cables.. I should have said that I also have access to the (sort of) loft area above. I'm going to crawl up there on saturday. If its possible shall I go up and over instead with the cables? This will mean longer ones though.

yes mate you could run them up in the loft , a lot less work then a channel in the floor lol , good luck mate

[lockdown81]

hi mate if you need any advise today il probably be about on here , il keep an eye out

good luk mate

[MarkP80]

Hi Pont,

With the cables.. I should have said that I also have access to the (sort of) loft area above. I'm going to crawl up there on saturday. If its possible shall I go up and over instead with the cables?

What is the construction of your floor? Is it concrete or boarded?
You are likely to be needing some additional electrical outlets for all your AV gear and PC. I see there's a couple of sockets there already, so it's likely to be on a ring. To get additional sockets you are going to need access to the existing electrics (and you'll also need power to the TV), so this may influence the route you take with your AV cables. If you have the floor up to add sockets, you may as well run your AV cables at the same time!

Make sure you put in all the ones you are likely to need to your TV. If it has two HDMI sockets, I'd put two HDMI cables in as well.

Cheers,
MarkP

[Pont]

Hi Guys,

Thanks for the responses. ..I've been up there now and crawled around. Heres two pictures...

I managed to find the stud in the middle of the wall... below is a pic after I filled a few holes back up and penciled out where I found it.

I also took the carpet out and found the floor to be boarded...

Going from the center line up the wall I drilled a small hole in the ceiling to see where it was up in the loft. Here's where I found it.. (second pic at the start of the paper like tear)

Now going off the last picture I found that there wasnt much room from the wall to the wood. Also if I followed the blue plastic it was more wood for the frame. I think it would be quite difficult to drill holes and with the amount of wires I need (hmdi, component, audio, vga) I'm not sure if this is the best way.

What do you guys think?

[lockdown81]

hi mate has that wall got stud behind ??? are you sure its not dot and dabbed ?? only sayin cos from the loft it looks like an outside wall ?? or is it an outside wall but its got batterns fixed to it then drylined ??

if you not got alot of room behind the plaster board you might be best to make some chanels in the board or go downwadrs if that floor is hollow under it

[albriscoe]

Originally Posted by lockdown81

as for the under floor heating , not sure if you are aware but it dosent heat the room , it just basicly stops the chill on the floor so its warm under foot ,
youed be better off with some kind of wall mount heater or tryin to pick the flow and return pipes up from another rad in the house [perhaps in the room next door if theres one ]

I hope your wrong their matey as I`ve got it all over my house without any other source of heating and it luvvly n warm.

Or maybe its because I`ve gone and dug a basement, i`m nearer the earths core and its that whats doing the heating

[Pont]

Originally Posted by lockdown81

hi mate has that wall got stud behind ??? are you sure its not dot and dabbed ?? only sayin cos from the loft it looks like an outside wall ?? or is it an outside wall but its got batterns fixed to it then drylined ??

if you not got alot of room behind the plaster board you might be best to make some chanels in the board or go downwadrs if that floor is hollow under it

I'm not sure mate. This is pic from outside...

As it used it be a gargage so I assume there is a frame behind the plaster directly on the wall. When I drilled it to find the frame I could definitely tell there was some kind of gap.

I also drilled into the floor to see what it was like. The board is about 1" thick and I can see a load of polystyrene.

[MarkP80]

I'm no expert on construction, but that blue plastic looks like a Visqueen damp membrane, doesn't it? That being the case, whatever you do, you want to avoid puncturing that, so careful with the drill. Maybe someone can confirm the construcion type.

The floor sounds like a typical floating floor, so I expect there will be concrete under the polystyrene. So, not easy to thread cables through there without taking the entire floor up where you want the cables routed, and making a channel in the polystyrene.

There were some big cables in the attic too. It's not clear which way your ringmain cabling is done, you'll have to do a bit more investigation there.

MarkP

[lockdown81]

hi

by the looks of it that blue membrain on the walls must be behind the plasterboard they proberly have put a frame up fixed to the original wall then drylined it , defo try not to put anything through it , you could still chanel out the wall tho just use a stanley knife and cut the board .

the floor does sound like a floating floor , concrete slab ,polystirene then the boards ontop , unless it does have joists and they used the polystirene inbetween for insulaition [ can you see if its fixed down anywhere with screws or nails ? ] if its a floating floor it wont be fixed .

in pic 2 of the loft we can see a grey blocked wall above the blue membrain is this the wall that is joined to the house or is it the end of the garage not conected to the house ?

and is this the only wall that has the membrain ? are the other 3 walls solid or drylined ?

[Pont]

Originally Posted by lockdown81

hi

by the looks of it that blue membrain on the walls must be behind the plasterboard they proberly have put a frame up fixed to the original wall then drylined it , defo try not to put anything through it , you could still chanel out the wall tho just use a stanley knife and cut the board .

the floor does sound like a floating floor , concrete slab ,polystirene then the boards ontop , unless it does have joists and they used the polystirene inbetween for insulaition [ can you see if its fixed down anywhere with screws or nails ? ] if its a floating floor it wont be fixed .

in pic 2 of the loft we can see a grey blocked wall above the blue membrain is this the wall that is joined to the house or is it the end of the garage not conected to the house ?

and is this the only wall that has the membrain ? are the other 3 walls solid or drylined ?

I'm starting to side on creating a channel. If I make a mess of that, at least I know it can be fixed without paying out a fortune.

The floor definitely has no screws or nails. Do you think the stud frame would be attached to it at the bottom?

The wall in the picture is joined to the house mate. If you imagine looking through the slanted roof you would see that.

I didnt really look for the membrain on the other sides. The other three walls are also dylined though.

Cheers

[lockdown81]

Originally Posted by Pont

I'm starting to side on creating a channel. If I make a mess of that, at least I know it can be fixed without paying out a fortune.

The floor definitely has no screws or nails. Do you think the stud frame would be attached to it at the bottom?

The wall in the picture is joined to the house mate. If you imagine looking through the slanted roof you would see that.

I didnt really look for the membrain on the other sides. The other three walls are also dylined though.

Cheers

hi

createing a chanel proberly your better option
as for the floor its defo a floating one then does the plasterboard sit ontop of the floor boards ? they may of just run studs down the walls and not across the bottoms and tops like a frame would , push the plasterboard near to the floor to see if it moves in and out ?

[Pont]

Originally Posted by lockdown81

hi

createing a chanel proberly your better option
as for the floor its defo a floating one then does the plasterboard sit ontop of the floor boards ? they may of just run studs down the walls and not across the bottoms and tops like a frame would , push the plasterboard near to the floor to see if it moves in and out ?

It looks like it sits on the floor boards. I will have a further look when I'm home from work.

Thanks.

[lockdown81]

Originally Posted by Pont

It looks like it sits on the floor boards. I will have a further look when I'm home from work.

Thanks.

ok mate il have a look on here later if i can , still havent got me laptop back from being repaired yet so limited on when i can reply lol

[Pont]

Originally Posted by lockdown81

ok mate il have a look on here later if i can , still havent got me laptop back from being repaired yet so limited on when i can reply lol

It doesnt really move mate. Its the colour of skimmed plaster though.

[Pont]

Hi,

Just a quick update. Wall mounted the LCD today and did a quick test the with xbox. Starting to come together now

[Pont]

More updates... time to really make some modifications..... cables going under the floor boards and in the walls

[Pont]

Couple of updates...

Cables down, put the floor back together, then the old carpet back in for the time being. Xbox can be seen on the other side of the room now connected to the tv.

And the door replaced by a window today. Loads more light in the room now.

[MarkP80]

Looking good!

MarkP