[norty mart]

OK, where do you start these things!

Been browsing these forums for a couple of years and figured since I'll no doubt have some questions to bug you lot with I'd better post something first.
About to start on a cellar build, below are a few pics so you know what I'm waffling on about...I'll add more as and when there's something new to see.

First off the beginning: an homage to Ikea if you like...thrown together to give me somewhere to play & watch movies...

After the great flood...nowt to do with Noah, just the aftermath of our neighbour's problem.
She didn't know anything about it until we found water coming through the adjoining wall a couple of months ago and knocked to ask her to check it out...at the time we just had wet carpet, she had 3ft deep indoor pool!
We had a pump doing what it could to limit the damage but by the time she sorted her side out, the plasterboard and insulation behind had soaked up enough water to mean we had to tear out what were perfectly good walls.

Finally (for now) a quick Sketchup model of what I've got in mind (although subject to change as ideas pop in/out of my head, normally fuelled by what you lot get up to!). Plan to tank the cellar (dimpled plastic membrane stuff) and fit a sump & pump just in case it happens again. Once done I'll move the radiator to the right hand wall and flush mount the TV above where the radiator is now. Since the waste pipe from the pump will run up the wall in the left alcove, I'd like to build in some shelves for my console collection and similar in the fireplace to house the AV equipment...speaking of which we'll run all necessary cables for current and future connections. Not too sure what to do under the stairs yet, most likely storage as it's an old cottage and cupboard space is at a premium. Dimension wise it's a little under 4m x 3m and (this incident aside) totally dry...one of the things that sold the place to us.

Dimension wise it's a little under 4m x 3m and (this incident aside) totally dry...one of the things that sold the place to us.

Apol's for the links, don't seem able to post images.

[GavT]

I'm no expert but is that radiator big enough for the room? Using this site (Radcalcs radiator btu sizing site) to calculate the BTU required might be a good idea (BTU is basically the heat output the radiator is capable of)..

Just did new radiators in my cinema room using pukka BTU calculations and now it's beautifully cosy.

Other than that, design looks great - clean lines, nice.

Gav

[albriscoe]

This could be a gooden

to host images its easy mate, open a photobucket account (free) and upload them to there, then simply copy paste the image link into your text.

Meerkat...............simples

infact don`t do any more posting until you`ve done this or we`ll make you do it all again

Al

[norty mart]

Trust me, radiator's more than adequate (4 columns chucking about 1100 watts)...in the depths of winter it's barely on easily and toastily warm down there...my misses can't stand the cold.

Reason is the ceiling is only 6 1/2ft so nowhere near as big as a conventional living room...was thinking of installing underfloor but even though neither of us are giants, a few extra inches would be taking it a bit too low

Thanks for comments on design...it's about the only thing I've had straight in my mind since we knew to had to be redone so hopefully will turn out as shown - currently playing with ideas for skirting...possibly floating slightly with lighting concealed behind for an untra-thin floor level glow.

[norty mart]

cheers albriscoe...will sort out an account tonight

[norty mart]

It's been a busy couple of weeks so time for a quick update.

Six car loads of the old walls bagged and taken to the tip later, the cellar's clear enough to make a start.

Membrane, sump & pump delivered a week ago and after a couple of trips to B&Q/Wickes, our house is more like their warehouse than a home - don't think we'll ever be rid of the dust!

The membrane is great to work with, thankfully we have sandstone walls too so the drilling isn't too bad - my patience is at full stretch though, knowing it's only a few hours away I just want to get on with the stud work and see things take shape!

First things first, lets make a hole for the pump...only problem is the concrete is an inch thicker than my cutter will go.

Cutting concrete in an enclosed room isn't for the faint hearted, that glow is a 500watt site lamp...4ft away!

6" of sandstone isn't what you want to find after hammering your way through the last inch of concrete!

Pump fitted...just need to wire it up and test when I connect the pipework to a drain.

And we're off...hanging the membane with minimal plugs initially so I can mark the rest out from the studwork...just makes locating the plugs easier when framing out the room for plasterboard.

Positioning studwork so I can mark where to drill...easier than trying to find the plugs with the end of a screw afterwards. Floor membrane still to go down at this point because I want to clean the dust up before laying the floor...prevents any water carrying the dust into the sump.

[norty mart]

Finishing the membrane and getting the flooring down has gone surprisingly well past couple of days. Gone a bit overboard on the floor joint and where it joins to the wall seals but don't fancy having to strip everything out again if it ever does go horribly wrong.

Chipboard nicely in place, even managed to get all the cutouts around the chimney and wall under the stairs right first time...normally I get to lift, trim and refit boards a few times before they fit snugly.

Nicely topped off with the flooring. It's only layed out, needs lifting tonight then laying properly once the studwork is in place, it was getting late so figured since the floor was clear I'd cut the boards to length and get it out of the way rather than start on the studwork.

[Tyler Durden]

Interesting project!

Out of curiosity, what is the budget for just making the cellar warm and dry?

[norty mart]

For our 4mx3m room, the costs so far come to around £1200 for the membrane & pump (you get all the sump/tape/plugs etc. as part of the package). If you can drill holes and cut straight lines with a stanley knife, you can do this yourself.

On top of that, we've spent around £100 on timber so far (floor & stud) - plasterboard should come in around £70 with finishing on top.

Since it was a room already, we already had central heating down there so moving the radiator's just going to cost the price of a roll of 10mm copper pipe.

[albriscoe]

Hi Mate

first of all the photo`s are great

secondly, its really starting to come on and the tanking/pump job you seem to have made look really nice and easy, hopefully all the other members thinking of doing this will take note so good of you to post the pics.

Have you left a channel all the way the room for drainage purposes or is it dry anyway, sorry if I missed it earlier.

Anyway battle on you`re doing a great job

Al

[norty mart]

thanks Al,

That stuff is really easy to use and far less messy than coating it...reckon it's a good 2 days work from start to finish...I was fitting it in around work so took a little longer.
We didn't go for a drainage channel around the edge as the room is pretty dry normally and really didn't fancy cutting my way around the room after digging through the concrete for the sump!
...but in case something ever does go wrong, I dug a drain in the lowest point to feed the sump then (to be sure) spread a thick coat of levelling compound to unlevel the floor and scraped a herringbone pattern in with some plastic pipe to help guide any water to the drain. Should have got a photo of that thinking about it...just too keen to crack on finishing the membrane!

The bulk of the work now is studwork, wiring, bit of plumbing & drylining it...playing with some ideas for a sliding door at the moment, depends on whether the fittings are up to the job though (cellar steps are open to the room above).
Ordered myself some new toys yesterday, will keep them until nearer the end though

[albriscoe]

seems like you`ve thought it out then drainage wise

looking forward to seeing it all come together in the next day or 2

Al

[norty mart]

Few pics from the over the w/e...was my birthday so family & friend visits hampered progress a little but it's starting to look more like a room now

With so much to do, wasn't too sure where to start...so went for the fun stuff and got the TV mount up.

Plan is to hide the sub (ugly silver thing) behind a frame covered in fabric and build storage in the spaces around the TV then cram insulation into any remaining gaps to counter any audio nonsense (the wall behind is internal so don't really need it for its thermal properties).

Haven't decided what kind of doors etc. to have to close everything in with so all ideas welcome

...figured I'd best check the TV fits while things were exposed enough to make any adjustments - lugging that thing down and back up 2 flights of stairs on my own wasn't much fun so thankfully it went in nice and easy with an even gap all around the edge.

Wrapped up the w/e with some niches for the speakers & the framework & boxes for the open shelves that'll fill the alcove...had forgotten how must sawdust MDF generates!

Plan for the rest of this week is to spend my evenings finishing off the framework around the room, box out the storage areas, run the cables & get everything ready for boarding out over the w/e.

[Docta teef]

Seeing a thread like this brings it all back to me all the hours i spent running cables ect when i had my cellars converted. And your collection of games machines makes mine look tiny

[The_Wizard]

Nice, seems to be moving along quick and fairly pain free for you. Good work

[Jamo218]

Hiya,

Just a quick query, but what was the reason for your neighbours cellar flooding?

Full disclosure - I design structural waterproofing systems professionally

[norty mart]

Who knows Jamo, who knows...she got hers dried but didn't try to find the cause and left us to sort our side out which is why I've done this...if it happens again all we'll know about it is hearing the pump kick in.

[Jamo218]

Ok cool, I would try and find out if I were in your position. I've seen quite a few flooded basement cinemas and I recently designed a remedial system for one of the Manchester United players cinemas
I worked on a conversion project in North London with a cedia award winning installer who told me of another project whereby the client walked down into the basement to find meridian floor standers knee deep
Jay

[norty mart]

Unfortunately she had trouble accepting the fault was on her side...in spite of the glaringly obvious water seeping through the party wall a foot above the water level on our side. Even after draining it the first time she wouldn't lift the knackered laminate in her cellar to see where it was coming in from...then again, not finding the source kind of absolves her of responsibility as we can't point the finger with any certainty insurance wise.
Her dad got rather upset when I asked him to leave after he suggested we share the cost of pumping it out...stupidity must run in the family.

We had the water board (clean & spent water dept's) and environmental health investigating though...but this amounted to more them making sure it wasn't their division's problem than finding the source - was as clear as tap water but showed no sign of chlorine...have had sewage and ground water problems in other houses, neither anywhere near as clean as this so suspect some kind of domestic leak. When digging the hole for the pump, the ground was as you'd expect 14ft or so down...not wet by any stretch of the imagination and no sign of pooling water in the week between digging the hole out and finaly burying the sump.

[Jamo218]

Was there any correlation between bad weather and the incidence of flooding?

Ground water can be clean and clear, I had one client looking at bottling penetration into their property and I believe she tried drinking it with no ill effect

In most cases ground water is the culprit. Do you know what the general ground conditions are? In fact looking at the photo's it looks like consolidated sand. Such conditions can be generally free draining but everything reaches saturation at some point.

Insurance companies typically won't pay out for groundwater penetration, but will for a break down of services so if these have been checked you may have not had any success on the insurance front in any case.

[norty mart]

Weatherwise this happened a couple of weeks after the snow...here that amounted to an inch at most and didn't hang around, other than that it's been pretty dry (I ride a motorbike, when it's wet I know about it...this winter has been warmer and drier than any of the 8yrs we've been here)
- we have also had prolonged periods of wet weather in the past but no sign of adverse effects plus it's rained a lot more in the past couple of weeks than anytime in the run up to the flooding...

[Jamo218]

Sounds potentially like a plumbing issue.

[norty mart]

Spent most of Friday stuffed up the chimney getting the lining as high as I could, drilling in confined spaces isn't much fun! Although it's nice and dry up there, I folded that flap down and tucked it about a foot down behind the liner on the external wall before taping the whole lot up just to be sure and to keep any debris from falling down on top of the unit below.

Unfortunately somebody decided this weekend was to be our summer so had a load of stuff to do in the garden (mainly cat proofing the veg patch ).

As time was short, spent most of it running cables. Might replace the speaker cables once we've finished the rest of the house (just solder new to old and pull them through)...for now though, the ones that came with them are fine - to be honest, with the state of my hearing, not sure it's worth the money!

...hmmm, why do we have a HDMI lead running to the back of the room ...

Last week mostly was taken up making boxes for the alcoves, thankfully lining them up wasn't as painful as I feared...kind of like the offset AV shelf....unfortunately had to add an extra shelf for my 360 as the fireplace isn't wide enough for PS3, amp & 360 - will be cupboards below to hide stuff in when it's finsihed. The boxes are all loose so once the plasterboard has been fitted around them, they can be adjusted so they sit flush and the joints can be taped ready for plastering.

Hope somebody made a note of which wire goes where! GF is bringing her laminator home tonight so shall make some neat little geeky tags to make future use easier.

Hoping to get the radiator done and insulation in this week then make a start on boarding out the walls over next w/e and making it look like a room! Must be making some progress cos the GF wants to look at couches this week.

[norty mart]

GF's taken the camera to work so no pics...been adding extra studding and stuffing insulation into the gaps so you're not missing much.

Need some ideas for cupboard doors and hanging them.

Basically I want to build in enclosed storage into some of the empty spaces around the TV and under the AV rack thing in the chimney - haven’t built the carcasses yet (similar to the open ones in the alcoves) but it’s playing on my mind as I’ll need to know what I’m going to be doing before getting a plasterer in to skim the walls.

Had planned on using 25mm MDF for the hinge sides of the carcass and mounting 25mm MDF doors on kitchen cabinet hinges for an easy way out but want everything to sit flush with the skimmed walls and I’m now having doubts about whether that’ll work (if you can picture what I’m getting at!) – will cabinet hinges allow a door to sit flush in the wall and open clear of it?
…or is there a better (more aesthetically pleasing) solution?!!

Been browsing various hardware sites for inspiration but nothing’s jumping out tonight and could do with help!


Muchos grassyass for any ideas


edit: Should add we don't have any wall cupboards in our kitchen, just big under counter drawers so can't nip out there and check.

[norty mart]

Today's been checking all the cables still do what they're supposed to before I wall them in.

Also put the PJ ceiling mount up...and surprisingly there was a joist right where I wanted to hang it - result!

...and hung the screen so I can mark out where to box around it...

...all helped out by a few old friends.

The giant pirate...

...followed by a bit street fighter action...

...finally heading off to the hills for a spot of hunting.

Straight out of the box it's pretty decent, will mess with settings etc. when the rooms finished.
All in all not a bad day really...had it's distractions but one needs to remind one's self what it's all for.

[The_Wizard]

Try these

HDMI/720p
Cinema
contrast -7
Brightness -6
Color 10
Tinit 0
Sharpness 0

Advanced Degamma PC
BC 0
TV 0
CT warm
AI off

RGB gains/bias
RG 0
GG -5
BG -7
RB -1
GB -1
BB 0"

[norty mart]

thank T_W, have scribbled them in the back of the manual...saves me digging about in the HD65 thread to find some when the time comes.

[Jamo218]

Is that 'the hunter' ?

[norty mart]

Originally Posted by Jamo218

Is that 'the hunter' ?

Prize for obscure game ref. of the day!

...quite fancy The Hunter as a game but it's consoles for me (PCs are for work, pleasure doesn't come sat at a desk) - just CoD4 on the 360 I'm afraid...hide 'n seek/tik for grown-ups

[Kenny Glasgow]

Looking good, great progress