[Malone]

Unfortunately for me after 3 years of continual digs and moaning about my Home Cinema gear taking over the sitting room I have finally given in. But, proviso is Garage Conversion, which has gone down surprisingly well, as long as its on a shoe string budget.
As I have said I already have all the gear so really its going to be building materials and a builder.
Have been living in Derby area now for 5 years due to job offer ( moved lock stock from Tonbridge, Kent) so dont know many builders yet, however a good mate in our road is a lover of all diy and cannot see a fellow distressed husband go without his beloved for too long so great luck for me, he has offered to help with the majority of the work.

Im afraid I have no knowledge of how to layout this item so please bear with me

1
First image is my garage all cleared and ready for 1st job, a raised floor to level with step at rear.
Bought £48 of timber 4 x 2 and 3 x 2, 4 x 2 for side beams and 3 x 2 for cross beams or 'joists' if you like.

2
Ok, have bolted side beams with bolts that are well over requirement and taken sections out of side beams then
dropped ‘joists’ into these cut outs. Also have drilled holes running along garage to facilitate running of speaker cable through joists. At last I will get the chance to use
all 8.1 outputs on Yam amp.

3
Front shot of same.

4
As you can see bolts hold side beams in real tight, also the other piece of wood is the base for the front stud wall. I have decided to keep 26" at front of garage for odds and sods like tool box etc so garage door will remain in place to make it easier to revert should it be necessary .

5
Although its difficult too see we have taken slot out of side beam so 'joist' sits into side beam rather than just on it. This level brings floor up to same level as height of rear step into garage.

6
Aiming to have DSP AX1 along with Xbox360/PS2/Xbox and Momitsu DVD in cabinet in corner that im pointing at, all wires have been run to this point.
There will be a kitchen type unit with vents top and bottom to house boiler and to the right of the boiler there will be a curtain rail on ceiling to run a heavy set curtain ceiling to floor, firstly to cut light and secondly to absorb some sound Rear window and door will stay but I will improve soundproofing of them!!

7

Bought £48 of loft pack chipboards from Wickes and staggered as per instructions to help in making floor firm. It is still a little bouncy so will increase screws in floor. Also bought 2 sheets of silver back plasterboard and 2 sheets of 12.5 mm standard board
Came to £25. Total spend so far £123





Will leave it here for now more to come soon.

Matt

[o THE CHAD o]

looking good mate....hopefully be done before 360 touches down!

[Malone]

Ta doll, have done more but need to take some more pics Tuesday.

matt

[Malone]

8.Stud wall nearly done. After contacting guy who supplies Rockwool, I decided on normal insulation 200mm thick. Was a pig to compress but
Its solid in there hopefully giving a good mass to stop the sound. Socket on wall for sub. Black wires on wall are for outside lights/pond pump/gazeeebo power and lighting so will bury these into wall and add cover to stop future owners drilling through them. Same for power cable currently trunked.

9.Stud wall done and dusted, cabling buried. Bit of a time gap now as going to tap rad in a bedroom to give me a
rad in here to help with heating. Bit of a pain as floorboards in house to come up but worth it to make the
room warm. Using 8mm microbore to run behind boarding on right and using 600mm rad giving 4000btu
which is enough for room of this size.

10.After trying laptop in garage to see if wireless broadband works, it seems signal is restricted so have tapped socket and
run new extension to corner where all equip going mainly for Xbox360 live gaming. Apparently wired is
much better for gaming.

11.Going to use nice chrome back plated lights with angled downlighters, 2 on either side. Using existing power in middle
Which will go into junction box instead then all 4 will run from junction box.

[Monster]

Looking good Manic!

There is a countdown specially for your project on the right hand side of this page here...http://www.xbox.com/en-GB/

How considerate of Microsoft to do this for you

[inzaman]

There is a countdown specially for your project on the right hand side of this page here

Excellent.

It is coming on very well

[Malone]

Cheers Monster
Me n Bill are He's doing the ribbon cutting and ceremony for me.
Seems plenty of time but when you work it out its roughly 6-7 hours nearly every sunday the time left is less than u think

Mind you when its done I will be also have to catch up on films like Batman Begins, ROTS,WOTW etc. i have had a DVD fast since taking all the equip down.

Matt

[Malone]

12.Boarding now complete with joints all skimmed. Next stage is plastering whole room, gulp! My mate Ian who is doing majority of work hasn’t plastered a whole room before so this Sunday is going to be a bit experimental, oh and that isn’t Ian sitting on the carpet.

13.Two of the less helpful assistants ; )

14.8mm microbore all run through house from nearest rad and run down behind board ready for 1200 x 600 rad.

15.Decided to put power in close to projector hardwired but with switch. Currently trying to decide whether a solid door would be better bearing in mind the window will remain? What do you think??

[Monster]

Its coming on a treat!

Good luck with the plastering...its a messy job unless you are a pro (which I'm not. Plasterer that is...) Any tips from budding plasterers here?? Only one I have is don't worry about getting it glass smooth when you first put it on. Let it set a bit then 'polish' it smooth with the hawke and a little spray atomiser. Oh, and probably teaching you to such eggs here, but whatever you do, don't let the hawk leading edge make contact with the surface, it screws it up big time!!! Learned this to my cost after I had just about got the finish I wanted, then splat!

After its set, filler, sanding and a good lining paper hide a multitude of sins

Regarding the door, are you thinking solid for the sound proofing? If the window stays as it is there will not be a worthwhile benefit adding a solid door, just make sure you have good draught seals all around both the door and window.

When I moved into the house I'm in now, it had crappy old double glazing that had vented and I couldn't have the volume up as loud as I wanted as there was too much sound leakage out the old door and windows. Replacing with new PVCu double glazed units made a huge difference.

If your neighbours are near, and the sound is a problem, you could put a solid door on (an FD30S fire door would give good sound protection, mass rule applies here) and put an internal softwood frame around the window and fix a cheap sliding secondary glazing unit in the rebate. This could be an easy retro fit if you find its not good enough without.

Looking forward to the next set of photo's!

[baldrick]

Do you need to completely plaster? Most new build houses are dry-lined and then the joins are filled (like you've done)! I don't know if you need a different type of plaster board for dry-lining, but it's far quick and easier, especially if the room is going to be painted a dark colour and used in darkness most of the time...

If you opt to carpet the walls then in theory you could leave it as it is....

[Malone]

put an internal softwood frame around the window and fix a cheap sliding secondary glazing unit in the rebate. This could be an easy retro fit if you find its not good enough without.

Thanks for your points Monster. As the window would remain albeit soundproofed as you suggest, I shall probably keep the door and attempt to soundproof that as much as poss too. I shall be fitting a heavy curtain just inside with either velcro or magnets and strips in edging of curtain. Not sure which yet.

If you opt to carpet the walls then in theory you could leave it as it is....

Humm, never having seen a room with carpeted walls, would it look Ok? No doubt it would improve sound proofing but aesthetically would it look a bit odd. Anyone have any pics of carpeted walls?? I must admit I like the idea

Matt

[baldrick]

Originally Posted by Malone

Humm, never having seen a room with carpeted walls, would it look Ok? No doubt it would improve sound proofing but aesthetically would it look a bit odd. Anyone have any pics of carpeted walls?? I must admit I like the idea Matt

I've seen some of the guys on here have carpeted their walls and ceiling!! I think that was a garage conversion and they were lucky enough to get a carpet fitter who would do it.

They used quite cheap, charcoal grey carpet as I recall, I'll have a rummage through and see if I can find the thread....

Are you still having issues with the floor flexing? I was thinking you could 'simply' slide a timber the right height along under the middle of the floor and this should solve all your problems....

[Malone]

Originally Posted by baldrick

I've seen some of the guys on here have carpeted their walls and ceiling!! I think that was a garage conversion and they were lucky enough to get a carpet fitter who would do it.

They used quite cheap, charcoal grey carpet as I recall, I'll have a rummage through and see if I can find the thread....

Are you still having issues with the floor flexing? I was thinking you could 'simply' slide a timber the right height along under the middle of the floor and this should solve all your problems....

Luckily for me I know a good carpet fitter so it sounds like a plan

As for the timber we took up the floor and packed under the beams, its now solid thanks

Matt

[baldrick]

http://www.avforums.com/forums/attac...chmentid=17094

New Build Shed Ht

Here's a post featuring carpeted walls. This one is done with tiles, but there is another where they used carpet of the roll....

[ufitsy]

Malone - Some good work going on there.

The rolling garage door - was it there when you moved or did you have it fitted? I just need a rough idea of cost & someone good to fit. Cheers

[Malone]

The garage door was fitted when I bought the house im afraid.

Matt

[ufitsy]

Cheers

[Malone]

Originally Posted by baldrick

http://www.avforums.com/forums/attac...chmentid=17094

New Build Shed Ht

Here's a post featuring carpeted walls. This one is done with tiles, but there is another where they used carpet of the roll....

I like the look, however I think I will plaster it 1st then if push comes to shove and the sound needs it I will carpet afterwards. After carpeting the floor and putting curtain at rear of room I will do the clap test and see.

Matt

[Malone]

Dohhhhhhhhhhh. The Good Lady has broken her leg so no xtra spondulas coming in and im keeping her fed n watered etc etc so looks like its on hold for now. .

Getting so close too.

Matt

[Monster]

How inconsiderate!!!

Women are so selfish

[Malone]

Right, 6 months later, the Mrs leg has healed and she's back to work contributing to the income so its back to the grindstone.
My mate up the road was ready and up for it so wall plastering began. Considering the guy had only ever plastered a chimney breast he was obviously nervous about a whole room.... he shouldn't have been. 4 walls later, and its now onto the decorating stage.
Decided on a dark green for the walls. Ceiling is white at the minute but probably going to paint it a tone of grey. After clearing up and painting walls, then finishing fitting of rad I decided to get all the kit in there for a demo. A mate who was staying for Easter helped me with fitting Pj and lights. After setting up I am really pleased with sound absorbtion. No heavy duty curtains yet, no carpet and no double glazing at rear and the sound is pretty well insulated, the only sound travel is off course the bass from the sub. Even then its really only the OTT sounds, which I will tone down anyway, otherwise the sub overtakes the sound. Heres a few pics off where I am now, not finished yet but very close.

[Malone]

Going to paint all the woodwork matt white, still got to box in or put architrave around fuse boxes. Bit of fancy woodwork to cover PJ source feed wiring also. Going to take all gear out this weekend then try to finish painting etc. Carpet should be down in week or two and guy is coming next week to double glaze rear window and door glass.

Matt

[shahedz]

looking good mate! wasnt too keen on green when you said it , but it has turned out very nice! your lucky to have a neighbour who can plaster and by the looks of it very well!! next time your other half breaks a leg and stops contributing to the house hold and delays your cinema get her a job licking envelopes from home only kidding mate,

[pure_geordie]

Hello Malone just read yout thread and pretty impressed.

I am just about at the begining stages of my DIY GC and there is so much to do and take in but I will be doing exactly what you are doing except I am getting a builder in to brick up my garage door with a window in and create an opening for my door from my living room.

I haven't even got any kit yet...and not even sure what to buy but for your info probably with be the hitachi TX200 as i've heard so many good reports on it. One other thing my budget for absolutely everything is between 5-6k and thoughts on what kit to get and what I've got to look forward to!!!

Cheers...oh by the way my garage is 16ft by 8ft..

Thanks again...

[Malone]

Thanks Shahedz
LMAO, that got a open mouthed look from the Mrs

Took me ages to decide on colour but it is a dark green and actually works quite well especially when i take the speaker covers off to reveal the yellow surround of the cones. Going for a dark carpet, decent wool one, with a very thick underlay.

Oh and the speaker cables are not as obtrusive now, especially the centre which was on a temp stand and had no slack. Decided will use black insulation tape to wrap around cable to help hide it more

Thanks Geordie, mines is 2 ft shorter mainly because I've retained a 2 ft area at front to be a storage area. Surprisingly it seems bigger now than when it was the standard garage??.

Matt

[shahedz]

know what you mean by the room looks bigger once converted, my mates garage was converted to a room and when he was converting it we thought it wasnt going to be that big , but once converted it seemed huge! what you gonna do for seating malone? sofas, individual chairs?

[Malone]

Originally Posted by pure_geordie

Hello Malone just read yout thread and pretty impressed.

I am just about at the begining stages of my DIY GC and there is so much to do and take in but I will be doing exactly what you are doing except I am getting a builder in to brick up my garage door with a window in and create an opening for my door from my living room.

The only reason i didnt do the wall through the house is a) I wanted to be able to easily turn it back into a garage and b) regs are tighter once it becomes a part of the house.

I haven't even got any kit yet...and not even sure what to buy but for your info probably with be the hitachi TX200 as i've heard so many good reports on it.

Thats the fun bit, sourcing loads of info on the net and narrowing down your options to the top 3 then demo'ing all etc. I was ok as my kit was already purchased, all I have done is transfer it from in the house to the garage.

One other thing my budget for absolutely everything is between 5-6k and thoughts on what kit to get and what I've got to look forward to!!!

Cheers...oh by the way my garage is 16ft by 8ft..

Thanks again...:smashin

I dont know what the cost for the building part will be but im sure you can get yourself a damn fine setup for that kind of money

Regards

Matt

[Malone]

Originally Posted by shahedz

know what you mean by the room looks bigger once converted, my mates garage was converted to a room and when he was converting it we thought it wasnt going to be that big , but once converted it seemed huge! what you gonna do for seating malone? sofas, individual chairs?

Something like this

http://www.sterlinghouse.co.uk/ViewA.../636/pId/58522
for the seating probably 2 of those or similar and 2 or 3 leather poof thingies.

[shahedz]

heated! massaging! YES!!!! really cool!

[Monster]

That looks bloody marvelous!

You have been busy!

That's the first green colour scheme I think I've seen on here and its great.

Can I ask where you got those wall lights from....I feel a purchase coming on!

Looking forward to hearing it through your Live headset soon!!!