Another Home Cinema....

[dupontin]

I've just started converting my detached garage into a home cinema.
Lets face it modern cars dont fit in these small garages anyway !

(See photo 1)
I'm a project man so here's the plan....
To do this I must build a new brick shed, so am laying the foundations and drainage at the moment. (to store the junk from the garage!!!)
(See second photo for the foundations of the shed)
I kept a lot of junk, it was time for it to all go - got rid of it, cost £100 for a skip and away It went, cleared the garage.

(FIG JAM) I even impressed myself ! (please dont ask for a public definition)
lets just say it's "I'm Good, Just Ask Me")

Then I've booked a builder who will do the majority of the hard work, such as Install cabling, additional power, sound, wiring conduits
Put up studwork
Insulate the walls & ceilings
Plasterboard the walls,
Insulate the floor,
Lay more concrete on the floor.
Install heating
Because I'm in a conservation area, I cannot brick up the main doors, so it'll be an insulated stud wall behind, stopping the main doors from being used again ! that wall will become the screen
BTW the cost of the builder is probably about 1500 for a whole month,
so he'll be doing more than just the new Cinema !
The ex hates the idea want's me to not do it, but hey I want it, so tufff.....

The new shed will be 10ft x 10ft. the existing garage is 17 ft x 8 1/2ft wide. which means an ok sized cinema !. allowing for 2-3 feet in at either end.
More to follow....

[SilverPenguin7]

Good luck! I would love to have a proper project like this, I got excited just doing my new living room. Look forward to the updates

[martian1]

Hi Dupontin looks like we both have the same idea [and bosses to obey ] my garage is in a similar junk filled state. I will try and get some photos together as i hopefully get project moving, wish i had the help of a builder,plumber etc sounds expensive. Good luck m8

[thfccambs]

dupontin,
good luck and keep the pics coming.

[dupontin]

Ok guys
I've been pretty busy lately with work and.....
my new cinema, well where do I start, it hasn't cost me 10K
I've had a builder in who firstly built an extension on the back of the garage (to house the tools and junk !) it took him about 4 weeks in total from laying the foundation.

He installed 2 new doors also with frames, to make them nice and secure, he moved the old door to the new shed as I wanted a solid door on the cinema.
The whole extension is made from brick with timber roof, I bought a brickys mate tool, cost about £20 brilliant device, sped up the brick laying 10 fold.

My builder doesn't speak english but we have had no problem communicating,
I listen to his suggestions, and he gets on and does it, no problems.

Now this week we started on the inside of the garage, he did the studwork whilst Saturday I did all the wiring including fitting a new fuse box. it all works a treat, I have 6 double sockets, (2 where the kit goes) all running off 27A cable, so it can handle the load. My speaker cable is CAT5E platted and it's wired for either 5.1/6.1 or 7.1 if I want to.
lighting will be 4 wall uplighters and 4 hallogen lights in the ceiling.
I was going to put fibre optic but knowing me it'll take me a week !

My garage is so old, it had major leaks, the builder fixed them and replaced lots of studwork in the old garage too


I tried out an azure blue for the walls yesterday evening, it looks a bit light in the photos, what do you think ?
Well I know the next question and I hope it inspires you all, how much ?

Builder 1500 (this does include 4 weeks to build the shed extension)
Materials 800 (insulation, studwork, timber, screws, plasterboard and MDF)
Concrete 80 (bought by the bag from wickes)
Cat5e Speaker cable 50
Electrical fittings 70
Sub Total 2500

Projector 1299 (Panasonic PT-AE 700)
Speakers 650 (Monitor Audio)
HTPC 500
DVI Cable 90 (5m)
Sub total 2539

Costs still to come.
Carpeting 500 (maybe I'll use floorboards with a rug - not sure yet)
Wall Paint 50
Screen paint 50
Builder 600 (he's going to be doing some work on the roof of the main house)
replacing tiles, replacing guttering, painting etc.
Sub total 1200

Guys if you want to pay 10K go for it, I didn't have a spare 10K, if your garage is already empty, or you have alternative storage for your junk (try a skip) then you can avoid building an extension.
Photo's to follow

[dupontin]

second group of photos...

[dupontin]

third group...

[dupontin]

lucky last one... for this morning

[gaz]

looking good m8 are you keepin that high ceiling ?

[dupontin]

Originally Posted by gaz

looking good m8 are you keepin that high ceiling ?

Hey Gaz - Looking even better today, I'm plasterboarding up the walls then on an angle then to base of the rafters (horizontal) - does that make sense
no right angle corners between the ceiling and walls.
the big triangular area in the ceiling space will become a storage space for boxes !, man this builder is switched on.

I've double plasterboarded the screen end for strength, and also used expanding foam to seal the metal garage door to the floor. It also keeps it waterproof as I have a steep driveway feeding water to the main door !

Does anyone know what height to put the screen ?

The insulation is working a treat, this morning with the door open we froze our nuts off, but once the door was closed and a simple heater turned on it was like toast in 20 minutes.
Rule 1 - insulate
Rule 2 - insulate some more
Rule 3 - follow rule 1 and 2

[gaz]

i'm glad about that it would have affected your sound big style if you had kept the apex ceiling would have looked good though.
as for screen distance check this out it may be of some help
http://www.cinemasource.com/articles/seating_guide.pdf

Really nice to see someone else in a sea of plasterboard!, brings back memories of my build, I wish I had a Polish builder on hand to do the donkey work!!!

[dupontin]

Ok now some sizes

After plasterboarding the room is 16 1/2 ft long, 8' 8" wide and as you can see by the pics the screen will end up being approx 7ft wide

It's a great buzz doing this, should've done it years ago, why waste a perfectly good garage !

My only worry is getting hold of the 5m DVI/HDMI cable and will it be long enough !

I have my equipment cabinet sited in the middle on the right so it may be a tight cable !

until tomorrow....

[Kenny Glasgow]

Keep the pictures coming! Great to see something from the very start

[hatcher]

Originally Posted by dupontin

I've double plasterboarded the screen end for strength, and also used expanding foam to seal the metal garage door to the floor. It also keeps it waterproof as I have a steep driveway feeding water to the main door !

Does anyone know what height to put the screen ?

Hi dupontin,
Good idea to use a double skin of plasterboard here. In my opinion you can never have enough soundproofing. I had to leave the garage doors too but put up a brick wall inside them and then an insulated studwork wall to keep the 'noise' in - it just about does it.
I also have a similar sloping drive problem too but I hadn't thought of that foam trick, excellent idea.
Great thread. Keep the pics coming.
Hatcher