[marcus2704]

Im about to start on a cellar conversion for my first home, I dont expect work to start till early next year but am after some advice in the early stages of planning. Ive never tacked something like this before, and hope you guys can bear with me if I ask some seemingly obvious questions..!

The cellar is reasonably sized with ample headroom so theres no need for it to be dug out etc. Its also pretty dry, although of course it will be damp-proofed nevertheless.

As much as Id love a true 'cinema room', I dont plan on staying here long term and believe that more people would be after a normal room that could be used as a cinema room, as opposed to a dedicated 'cinema room' if that makes sense.

What Im having trouble with deciding so far is how to go about cabling the room in view of the above. Conversions Ive seen here go to the lengths of putting cabling inside the walls, Im concerned that this would be of little use to most future buyers when I try to sell, but also that I wouldnt be able to easily add cables etc as my setup changes. Most of my setup would be centralized in a rack unit under the stairs, but its the leads to the speakers (and rear speakers), plasma unit which will be wall mounted, and also Cat5E cabling which will come down from the floor above, that are giving me planning headaches. Perhaps I can run some sort of trunking around the skirting boards and place cables in there.

Ive attached a few pics of the cellar as it is now.

My equipment is at present -

Panasonic 50" plasma TH-PW50
Arcam FMJ A32 amp
Arcam DV88 DVD player
Paradigm FS speakers

I currently plan on selling the Arcam amp for a receiver in the AVR range, and purchasing B&W MT30 surround speakers, but this is likely to change.

Where the gas and electric meters are, we are planning on making some sort of shelving unit. The coal-chute we planned on bricking up, although I am beginning to wonder if it can be utilized in some way. I have a shuttle PC which I need to situate somewhere that I can dampen the sound, and wonderered if this could be an option. Beyond that, we plan on dark-brown for the viewing wall, with a lighter brown on the remainder, and a dark-brown floor.

I hope to keep you updated with developments, but would be especially grateful on opinion as to the cabling concerns mentioned above.

[Ivor the Engine]

I have just converted my basement with very much the same ideas in mind as you are having.

As I was overseeing the project I only left cabling in the ceiling for a projector should I need one. With a new family on the way I thought it would be a bit selfish and costly to kit out the basement when I'm a two channel man and may not be there ad infinitum.

A couple of points I would recommend. Definitely put in an acoustic ceiling with resiliant bars and acoustic insulation. This may pose some problems with your head height, but definitely worth it. Sheffield Insualtion is the place to go for all the kit.

Secondly, I would have the gas meter relocated. A little pricey, but they are pretty unsightly and take up so much room.

My cellar was done by The South East Basement Company and I'm well pleased. A really good finish and know their stuff.

Hope this helps.

[marcus2704]

I would love to be able to move the gas and electric meters, possibly to the outside of the building, but Id guess something like that would be considerably expensive and I dont think I could stretch to that. Knowing what to do with that area is difficult, I expect to make a shelving unit in which to store DVDs etc.

The coal chute will be bricked up Ive decided, as Ive installed my network server into my loft. I will need to run Cat5E cabling to the cellar as I intend to put a HTPC there when I eventually buy a 1080P plasma, and run HD/BR from network storage. For the time being, the 360 does a good job of playing the 720p WMV-HD movie conversions I have.

I do want to hide as much cabling as possible, and intend to use faceplates where possible so it looks nice and neat, if anyone can recommend half decent ones it would be great. I saw a link here - http://www.avrabbit.com/browse-wall-...--tvs-137.html - for wall mounting my 50" plasma and will be contacting them for recommendations shortly.

I need to also decide on the position of the rear speakers. I understand that because the sofa will be more or less against the back wall of the cellar, they wont be optimally positioned if I place them also on the back wall, above seating head height. I could go for in-ceiling speakers, which would be directly above and to the side of the seating position.

[dbs2]

Is that cat for Real ??

Looks like a great little basement you have there.........

[inzaman]

The only cables i put into the walls (well the ceiling) were two DVI and one component, HDMI was not out at the time of my conversion. I do use HDMI-DVI adaptors though so real problems as of yet (touch wood). For my rear speakers i use ultra flat speaker cable and this is wound around the room in a stealthy manner.
I personally would not worry too much about what the next buyers might or might not do with the room. I went through a phase of this and in the end thought why am i converting this? The only reason for conversion is for our enjoyment, who cares what the next people think if/when we sell i have hopefully enjoyed the room to the maximum.

Moving utilities is a nightmare imo, there is so many regulations that you have to follow; i would loved to have had the electricity moved out of the main room but it could not be moved within the cellar although thats were it currently is, it would have to be put outside at a cost of circa £500. I was going to do this but where i wanted to put it was not acceptable to them so in the end i had to leave it in the cellar. I did have the gas moved to the other room in the cellar, thankfully, as that is the biggest box and was also next to the incoming electricity.

As for the rear speakers, in a 5.1 system, ideally they should be on the side wall just above the listening position so you will be alright for positioning, see here.

[waf-tastic]

Looks to be in a similar state as when I did my cellar. We had a few different rooms in ours - the coal chute was in a side room which is now used for the DVDs and wine. The coal chute was sealed then had a metal track inner wall around the whole cellar which hid it. The utilities were in a different room, which was good, but I'd be tempted just have them boxed in. Are you planning on having the TV opposite the window? If so, you could box the utilities (with access doors of course) and use the space under the window as storage, i.e. make the storage level with the boxed in meters.

Can't tell how wide that coal chute is, but could you use that to house the equipment if it was cut out so that you had an alcove? Once it's all made good, it would be a decent sized space and would keep the leds away from the screen (always annoys me that!). Also means that you could have a door or something over them (in case they are too noisy) as long as there's plenty of ventilation.

I ran all of the cables from an area under the stairs - component, svideo, vga and dvi to the projector and 6.1 audio cables to the back/front/sides of the room via wall plates. To be honest, as long as you've got decent cable in, you'r not going to want to rip it out. Make sure you have the right number (e.g. if you might want 7.1, run the extras). I run cable from the wall plates to the speakers and mine sound fine - I don't think it's made a noticeable difference to the sound quality, and gives you options for positioning the speakers. you can always put some plumbing pipe with some pull string s in in case you want to add cables in the future.

If the next owners don't like it, then they don't have to use it. At worst, they take off the wall plates...

One thing we did do was re-route the gas and water pipes that went across the ceiling. Didn't cost much and kept everything neat, also meaning we didn't lose any ceiling height.

I've got some pics (see sig) which show the various stages we went through - we've really made great use of it too - parties for the kids, get the lads around for various sporting events (the world cup rugby was great!) so whatever you do, I bet you'll be glad you did it!

If you use a metal framing system/plasterboard to cover the walls you can hide all the cables behind it - see http://www.safeguardeurope.com/produ...-drylining.php

[marcus2704]

Originally Posted by waf-tastic

Looks to be in a similar state as when I did my cellar. We had a few different rooms in ours - the coal chute was in a side room which is now used for the DVDs and wine. The coal chute was sealed then had a metal track inner wall around the whole cellar which hid it. The utilities were in a different room, which was good, but I'd be tempted just have them boxed in. Are you planning on having the TV opposite the window? If so, you could box the utilities (with access doors of course) and use the space under the window as storage, i.e. make the storage level with the boxed in meters.

Can't tell how wide that coal chute is, but could you use that to house the equipment if it was cut out so that you had an alcove? Once it's all made good, it would be a decent sized space and would keep the leds away from the screen (always annoys me that!). Also means that you could have a door or something over them (in case they are too noisy) as long as there's plenty of ventilation.

I ran all of the cables from an area under the stairs - component, svideo, vga and dvi to the projector and 6.1 audio cables to the back/front/sides of the room via wall plates. To be honest, as long as you've got decent cable in, you'r not going to want to rip it out. Make sure you have the right number (e.g. if you might want 7.1, run the extras). I run cable from the wall plates to the speakers and mine sound fine - I don't think it's made a noticeable difference to the sound quality, and gives you options for positioning the speakers. you can always put some plumbing pipe with some pull string s in in case you want to add cables in the future.

If the next owners don't like it, then they don't have to use it. At worst, they take off the wall plates...

One thing we did do was re-route the gas and water pipes that went across the ceiling. Didn't cost much and kept everything neat, also meaning we didn't lose any ceiling height.

I've got some pics (see sig) which show the various stages we went through - we've really made great use of it too - parties for the kids, get the lads around for various sporting events (the world cup rugby was great!) so whatever you do, I bet you'll be glad you did it!

When I had a home-cinema in mind, it was really a lot like the one Inzaman has, and now Ive seen yours it has pretty much confirmed the colour-scheme I was thinking of as it looks really nice. The link in your signature will also be really helpful, many thanks for that.

I did think about using the coal chute as storage for the AV equipment, and I will speak to the builder about how feasable that would be. The plan though was to house the AV stuff under the stairs, but one thing that concerns me is that because of the steepness of the stairs and the frequency of people taking drinks up and down there it could be asking for trouble in terms of spillages!

The screen isnt opposite the window, thats where the stairs are which means thats not possible.

[Pupster01]

hi all

i've got much the same deal tanking being delivered tomorrow.

One tip i have been told by a number of people in the trade is to use gutter sealant on the joints and plugs ( dont use mastic or bathroom sealant its not the same)


if your floors good for levels have you considered putting the membrain down then a screed of building sand to get a good level and fill the voids in the membrain then jabalite 25mm or 50mm and finishing it with chip board flooring with the joints glued

have you checked the joists at the wall joints for rot. if there support the joist is cut it out now, attach a new piece of joint with 2 fixings at least 600mm apart and use dog washers to stop it moving . its cheap and easy to do or get a bulder to do it should still be inexpensive. it will get worse fast once your air flow is cut by the new coverings .

Also its a good idea to spray something like cupronal wood preservative ( not fence preservative this stuff is for rot and wood worm ect ) on all the previously exposed wood it will stop any nastys from appearing and is under £70 so cheap for the peace of mind it gives apply it with a garden sprayer but make sure you rear a decent mask not just a dust mask.



if you have any cables or pipes they can be put through the insulation

if you need any more plugs speak to uk restorations they do Delta plugs there simillar to the olyroyde plugs but there £25 +vat for 250

[marcus2704]

Work has finally started, and as you can see the cellar has been coated with bitumen in preperation for the work proper to begin this week.

Ive a decision to make with regards to the speaker position, and hope someone can help. Ive purchased a Denon 3808 receiver, and Kef KHT5005.2 speakers which I will wall-mount with the plasma. The problem is the rears, the size of the room wont allow the rears to be situated much behind where the seating position will be. I was led to believe the best placement would be slightly above and behind ear level when seated, but wonder if I could get away with mounting them a bit higher up instead. I also toyed with mounting them onto the ceiling above. I worry that the surround effect will be lost because of this.

Ive a picture of the progress so far, not much to look at yet is it..!

In this picture, if you can imagine a 2 seater sofa will be placed near the back wall which is below the brick upper supports.

We decided against moving the meters due to the cost, and instead will bring forward that far wall with the meters on and make a DVD storage area where the coal chute area is.

The AV I want to go under the stairs, rather than below the plasma, because I want as much main floorspace as possible. Ill feed cables through a brush faceplate and also place a 6 x plug socket in the same area. I havent decided whether or not to power behind the plasma, or use a long kettle lead instead.

[marcus2704]

After what feels like an eternity, the builders have almost finished. The walls are skimmed, fixtures and fittings are currently being put on, and all that will be left is to decorate.

Decided to ditch the awful original staircase, and got a new one from screwfix. Problem was getting it down there as it didnt come in three parts as the screwfix people advised, whilst the measurements that were quoted were also incorrect, meaning the builders had to manually take the staircase apart and reduce the width. Im pleased with the result though, were the original staircase to of been left in it would of always looked like a cellar, now it looks like a proper room

We need to decide on colour, I bought a tin of Crown Chocolate Suede which I plan to use on the screen wall, but havent yet decided on the walls, staircase and so on. And also carpet, which surprised me in terms of the quotes Im getting of between 4-500, but its a while since I last bought any new carpet

[cjmilner]

What a great transformation, its going to be a nice cosy room down there! Keep us posted with pics

Chris

[Kenny Glasgow]

Great work Marcus

Looking forward to seeing the finished job

[Phill1978]

impressive and properly done by the looks of things

[sworrall]

looks very good, gonna be a cracker when its finished

[Jamo218]

Sorry but if the only waterproofing measure is a bitumen coating, that place is going to flood if it comes under groundwater pressure!

You might want to have a read of my thread on structural waterproofing (which i'll go and bump)

J