Wall covering

[Mr Bump]

Hi guys, I'm just about to start a new HC project, having moved house (the room in the sig is no more!). I have a nice big detached double garage and the conversion work starts next Monday. I wanted to ask a question about the walls. I am having the ceiling plastered, but my idea, such as it is, is to have both the floor and the walls carpeted, the idea being that this would give me a reasonable sound field within the room without resorting to ugly sound dampening blocks. Is this a good idea, or am I being daft? I've looked at lots of other room conversions and everyone else seem to have plastered and painted their walls, apart from one guy that covered chipboard in velvet, which seemed like a pain to do. Any advice gratefully received...

[klr10]

I'd go for floor to ceiling curtains (in a dark colour) if you can afford it. I've seen it in a HC in Guernsey and it looked and sounded fabulous

[Mr Bump]

Yeah, but that means A) the walls will have to be plastered and painted and B) fixing the 4 rear speakers then becomes a problem.

[hatcher]

There's no reason why you can't carpet (or or carpet tile) the walls as well if you want that look. Some of the forum people have done that. I would still recommend the need to stud the walls out and insulate the garage first and then stick the carpet (tiles) onto that.

I used normal finishes and then had a large rug as a rear wall hanging. Works great to remove the brightness from the room.

Cheers,

Hatch

[Mr Bump]

Oh yeah - the room is being properly studded out with soundproof insulation slabs and double thick plasterboard - I was just thinking to put carpet/carpet tiles direct onto the platerboard rather than plastering it.

[klr10]

Originally Posted by Mr Bump

Yeah, but that means A) the walls will have to be plastered and painted and B) fixing the 4 rear speakers then becomes a problem.

The room I saw had curtain floor to ceiling fully all round the whole cinema - you couldn't see the walls at all (so no need for paint or plaster). The speakers were built into fake full height columns in the corners that the curtains butted up to. The centre speaker was built into a small 'stage' below the screen.

I used fabric panelling, around wooden frames containing Professional acoustic dampening materials... worked a treat, I spent days taking readings into Protools and adjusting the heights and thicknesses of the panels before covering but you don't have to go to those lengths!

Have a look Here it's really not that hard

[inzaman]

You will be okay with carpet on the walls, as stated above a few forum members have done this.

Doinks idea also seems really good and looks pretty slick as well, i might do that to my back wall if needed.

[gaz]

i went for the carpet option on the walls obviously dark, charcoal grey
no problems at all in fact people say i have managed to give the room a real cinema feel because of it
i didn't use plaster board on my studding i was told that 22mm chipboard would be better so thats what i used i don't think it worked out any dearer than double plaster board but it did mean i only had to board it out once less work and if your paying someone to do it itmay work out cheaper

one of the older pics of the cinema but it does show the carpet,
to stop it looking like the inside of a coffin i split it three quaters the way down on an angle and used a slightly darker carpet closer to the screen which obviosly helps with that contrast

[Mr Bump]

Cool, thanks for the advice gaz - I too was planning on a charcoal grey. I'll speak to my builder about the chipboard situation - may be a good idea - thanks!

[pemberto]

Have a look at this thread from the Acoustics treatment section, Acoustic Wall Panels - what fabric to cover?
It contains links to some really great example of wall coverings and they don't have to cost the earth to get good results.
Pemberto