Dony's Lounge Project

[Dony]

Finished Pics in Post 29

Ok....so the slowest lounge build in the history of AVForums has moved on very slightly, and I hope to have it completed in the next few months.

First job was to remove the radiator from the tv wall and relocate to the other side of the room.

I'm now making a checklist/timeline of what all needs to be done from now to completion. Any help or tips from those who have done this before will be very much appreciated. If you see any obvious flaws in my plans don't be afraid to speak up .

The wall is concrete block.
Next job I need to do is get an electrician in to install 4 double sockets at the bottom of the main wall (where the radiator came off). I'm hoping he can run some sort of extension from the sockets on the left of the picture. I'm also hoping that I'll be able to turn off all the equipment from the existing socket position, rather than having to do the old "reach around"

Next up will be a wall bracket for a Pio 5090. I don't need it to be cantilever, or even able tilt, so will probably go for a flat bracket. The tv will be mounted at eye level when seated.

Speaker cable is next on the "to buy" list. I had thought about channelling the concrete floor to the back of the room for the rear speakers, but hope that I can get away with cutting a piece out of the underlay for the wooden floor that's going down. I was able to do this with Van Damme blue cable for my office. I could be convinced to channel it if preferred by those more experienced than me.

Wife wants me to buy the unit that will house the equipment at the beginning of the project, as the width of it will be crucial to the width of the floating wall. I'm thinking of 2 of THESE

Sky HD will also need to be fed into the room at this stage. I already have it in the room on the other side of the wall, but will have to run the cable around the side of the house and in beside the existing plug socket.

Only then will I be able to start getting the framework on the wall.

This room has never been completed since we built our house, so it needs totally decorated with a wood burning fire and wooden floor going in. At this stage I haven't put much thought into colour schemes etc.

So, please feel free to chip in with any handy tips, or if you were doing it again anything you'd do differently.

Cheers all.

 

[richsmif]

Why you chatting about it? - get on with it! lol

If you have a concrete wall and floor, i would remove the skirting and route a channel into the back of that. Easy. In my last house i used a wall chaser to route the channels for the cables into breeze. (verrry dusty) Remember to use plastic housing to mount the cable in case of failure.
This house i just mounted behind the stud - or in the stud.

If your after turning everything off, get one of those remote control extension leads. British Gas gave one to me for free last year and i think its brill. Here.. British Gas New Energy Standby Saver: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Only need 1 socket then which you can spur from the one on the left wall. If you adding more than 1 socket, "personally", i'd extend the ring main. You never know if some muppet after you have moved out will plug in 3 electric fires behind the TV and wonders why the house is on fire.

 

[Dony]

Thanks for the link. Do you know if that remote control socket works with Harmony remotes?
I like the idea that I could leave the Sky HD box on standby while everything else goes off.

 

[leo79]

https://www.britishgas.co.uk/cert/apply-now/

Just remember to put yes for :Is a member of your household 70 or over?

Leo

 

[Dony]

Can anyone recommend a strong flat bracket that they have used for a 50" tv.

I looking at something like THIS

 

[Dony]

I've been searching through members floating wall builds and all of them have either their front speakers attached to the floating wall or built into it.

I intend to have my front left and right speakers on stands (with the centre on the av unit). If anyone else has done the same can they post a link to their thread, or upload a picture here please.

 

[Dony]

After thinking about this whole project for far too long, the countdown to finally beginning is gathering pace. Having been convinced for the last 2 (or more ) years that I would be building a floating wall, I have now decided to ditch that idea completely.

The main reasons for my change of heart were as follows:
1) I'm going with fairly big bookshelf speakers for my fronts, and found it very hard to imagine how they'd look, with the left and right on stands either side of the wall, and the center on top of a unit under the tv. Being either side of the wall also made them look too far apart in my sketch-up designs.
Most of the inspiration threads here have smaller lifestyle speakers, or in-wall speakers., and I can appreciate how well they look.
2) I have been unable to source a suitable av unit for my design. I want it too be at least 2.4m wide, and they are either too expensive, or not to my taste. The alternative is for 2 x 1.2m stands, but this was pushing the unit cost up, and again they are all too "boxy" for my taste. My initial allowance for a unit was about £300.
3) I would need a cantilever wall bracket to have the tv positioned correctly, and having priced one up, it comes out out over £100 compared to a flat bracket. Due to the tv's position, I have no need for the tilt or swivel options that cantilever's bring, so much of that extra money was going on features I would never need.
4) Since, I need to get the concrete floor channelled to lay the speaker cable, I can easily cut an extra channel up the tv wall (about 1m high) for the tv cables, keeping the clean look that a floating wall would have given me.

Then SWMBO had a Eureka moment.

If we ditched the floating wall idea, we would save £100 on the bracket, and about £150 on the wall itself (a joiner and plasterer would be doing all the work on this). With this extra £250 added to our £300 unit budget, we could now get a custom made unit that would be to both of our tastes. I've drawn up a couple of designs and they are currently being priced. I can increase the budget if need be, but I'll wait to see what the quotes are first.

As you can see from the pic above, I've had a radiator moved from the tv wall, and on Saturday a friend is coming over to help me cut the channels. I'll be cutting a V shape to the back of the room to lay the rear speaker cables. This will also carry a sub woofer cable to a rear position in the room. Another small channel will be cut for a sub woofer cable to the front of the room, and then a third wider channel up the wall to carry the tv power cable and various output cables (these will be kept apart).

Next week an electrician is coming to add more wall sockets and do a few other odd jobs around the house.

When that's done, I'll get the bracket up, hang the tv and connect it to my amp (both of which are sitting waiting to get out of their boxes) and do the first fix test. They'll then be removed, put back in their boxes while we re-paint the room, get a floor put down and a new fireplace in.

I'm aiming to have the room complete in about 2 months from now.

Sorry for the rambling post, but it's as much to help me with my planning process as anything.

As usual, feel free to chip in with any advice or suggestions, and especially if I've overlooked anything.

 

[Dony]

Today has finally seen me reach the point of no return

Got a friend in today to chase the channels for the cables. I've run 2 channels to the back of the room to carry each of the rear speaker cables. Another channel was cut to run a sub cable to the front left of the room, and finally up the wall for both power and tv cables. The power cable will be in a separate conduit.
I plan to run a second sub cable to the rear of the room (sharing a conduit with one of the rear speaker cables) to give me the option of having the sub either at the front or the back of the room.

The kit list is pretty much decided, though not all ordered yet!!

TV - Pioneer LX5090 (still new and boxed for about 16 months now )
Amp - Pioneer VSX LX60 (bought of the forums)
Speakers - XTZ 99.26 (LCR) (still to order), XTZ 93.23 (rears, already own)
Sub - BK XXLS400 (still to order)
Blu Ray - Pioneer LX53 or similar (still to order)
HD Player - Tosh EP30 (will be used for HD movies, DVD and CD) (already own)
Sky HD
This room will not have any gaming consoles in it.

The plan is to run a HDMI cable from the tv to the amp, then further HDMI cables from the amp to the blu-ray player, another to the HD player, and a 3rd to the SKY HD box. I think I also need to run an optical cable from the amp to the Sky box.
Am I right in thinking this is all I'll need??

Speaker cables and the wall bracket have now been ordered, and will hopefully arrive in time for next weekend as I'm away all week.

 

[Dony]

A couple of pictures to show the progress so far. The radiator has been moved to a side wall, and now the work can finally begin.


Wall tracked for power cable and 2 HDMI cables:

The diagonal track to the side of the fireplace is to carry a sub cable, and you might also be able to see a track across to the plug's. I'm hoping the electrician can make use of this when he's adding extra sockets for the power cables.

The track to the back of the room was originally to hold both rear speaker cables and a second sub cable. Since the tracking was a relatively painless job, I've decided to get my friend back to cut a second track to the back left corner. The new track will now carry the rear left speaker cable and the sub cable, while the existing track will now just have the rear right speaker cable in it.

I'm away from tomorrow morning for the week, so my wife will be getting the electrician organised, and also finalising the plan and ordering a custom made av unit.

 

[Dony]

620 views and no-one has found any faults in what I've done so far, or intend doing

A few goodies have arrived in the post this week so I hope to get the final prep work finished this weekend. The main job is getting the tv on the wall and testing it along with the amp and some older speakers I have.
The tv and amp will then be boxed up again while we get the room decor sorted out.

 

[phil5366]

Looking good mate, you seem to be doing things the correct way.

 

[shadybrady]

What are you laying as your floor ?

The only reason i ask is that some electricians may not be happy running a mains cable in a concrete floor channel if its not going to be 'adequately protected'.

Most 'safe zones' for main cabling are vertically up or down from an existing socket / horizontally left and right from a socket or installed in a zone within 150 mm from the top of the wall or partition or within 150 mm of an angle formed by two adjoining walls or partitions.

The issue is all about minimising risk of damaging a cable etc but the issue with your installation could be if you are having carpet they could accidentally nail carpet gripper into the cable or if a future owner decides to dig up the floor they wouldnt necessarily know the cable was there as the cable doesnt comply with guidelines for appropriate cable routing.

Just a thought, and if there was ever any issues with the circuit/cable in the future you dont have to rip up carpet/wood flooring etc.

The walls are the best option really for cabling routes.

Shady

 

[Dony]

I'm putting down a wooden floor.

Good point regarding the "safe zone" for running the electric cables. The electrician is actually calling tonight to discuss the job. Unfortunately I'm not home so I've just called my wife to let her know what you've pointed out. Hopefully between them they will come up with a safe solution to channel the cables.

The only reason I cut the channel like that was because we had the tools there at the weekend, and I didn't think it would be a problem I might still be able to use it though because the Sky cable will be fed into the room from that side.

 

[Dony]

Not much progress this week except for getting most of the cables and the wall bracket. We got the tv mounted without any major hassle, though I did manage to drill a hole right through the wall and into the room on the other side .

We met with the joiner today and finalised the plans for the unit. It's 2.3m wide, 46cm high an 58cm deep (the bottom of the unit will be 46cm, hopefully giving enough room for cables, plugs etc, but still allowing the unit to be pushed tight against the wall). Unfortunately it will be the 2nd week of March before it's ready.

Next job is to get my tv man in to run the Sky cables in, as well as an aerial coaxial cable. Hopefully he'll be able to come this week sometime, and then the electrician will be back to add the extra plugs. Once this is complete I'll be able to hook everything up, check all is working and then bury the cables.

Still have to choose a fire and get it installed before the floor can go down.
Still a long way to go....

Here's a quick pic of the tv on the wall. The bottom of the frame is 86cm from the floor.

 

[mossym]

What are you laying as your floor ?

The only reason i ask is that some electricians may not be happy running a mains cable in a concrete floor channel if its not going to be 'adequately protected'.

Most 'safe zones' for main cabling are vertically up or down from an existing socket / horizontally left and right from a socket or installed in a zone within 150 mm from the top of the wall or partition or within 150 mm of an angle formed by two adjoining walls or partitions.

The issue is all about minimising risk of damaging a cable etc but the issue with your installation could be if you are having carpet they could accidentally nail carpet gripper into the cable or if a future owner decides to dig up the floor they wouldnt necessarily know the cable was there as the cable doesnt comply with guidelines for appropriate cable routing.

Just a thought, and if there was ever any issues with the circuit/cable in the future you dont have to rip up carpet/wood flooring etc.

The walls are the best option really for cabling routes.

Shady

surely there must be some guidelines for this, how for example do you get power to an island in a kitchen????

 

[Dony]

surely there must be some guidelines for this, how for example do you get power to an island in a kitchen????

I queried this with the electrician, and he is happy to use the channel in the floors (even mentioned the example of kitchen islands).

As long as the electrical feed is running vertically from the plug, and then into the floor there is a very small risk of another electrician coming along and cutting into it. Another part of his reasoning was that in in future, it would be more likely that someone would be drilling into the wall rather than a concrete floor.

 

[thfccambs]

Looking good mate.

COYS

 

[Chick]

Have you got any views of what it will all look like?

I've got some Mordaunt-Short 908 speakers and I am also questioning how a floating wall would work.

 

[Dony]

Through all my research, I found very few floating walls using bookshelf or floor standers. As stated above, they were all either in wall or lifestyle speakers (keff eggs etc). In the early stages I gave serious consideration to Antony Gallo's, but then when I bought, and liked the entry level XTZ's for another room, I changed my mind and wanted their bigger brother's for this room.

I did some mock-ups a while ago on Google sketchup if it's any help. My main issue was how to house a deep centre speaker within a floating wall. Here are my initial ideas from 2 years ago I did say progress on this project is slow, didn't I?

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-diy/890326-looking-advice-inspiration.html

 

[Dony]

Looking good mate.

COYS

Still early days but getting there.

Progress has slowed again unfortunately. A friend and his brother are helping with certain jobs but sadly their father passed away at the beginning of the week. , so they are obviously on hold for a bit.

I've been out today looking at fireplace stoves as that job needs done before the decorating and flooring. Going back tomorrow to hopefully finalise that.

I'm also collecting my new Pioneer BDPLX53 bluray from the couriers depot tomorrow. I decided on this because it had pretty decent reviews, and more importantly it passed the WAF. I've no interest in 3D, and even if I did, my tv and amp aren't compatible. I didn't start out with the intention of becoming a Pioneer fanboy, but that's now the tv, amp and bluray all matching. I'm not sure what benefits the Kuro link will have, but at least I can use it match up the remotes.

 

[rampage1985]

Why you chatting about it? - get on with it! lol

If you have a concrete wall and floor, i would remove the skirting and route a channel into the back of that. Easy. In my last house i used a wall chaser to route the channels for the cables into breeze. (verrry dusty) Remember to use plastic housing to mount the cable in case of failure.
This house i just mounted behind the stud - or in the stud.

If your after turning everything off, get one of those remote control extension leads. British Gas gave one to me for free last year and i think its brill. Here.. British Gas New Energy Standby Saver: Amazon.co.uk: DIY & Tools

Only need 1 socket then which you can spur from the one on the left wall. If you adding more than 1 socket, "personally", i'd extend the ring main. You never know if some muppet after you have moved out will plug in 3 electric fires behind the TV and wonders why the house is on fire.

if you sugest somthing i would check that it complies with the iee wiring requlation the bit in red does not you can run cable straight up or down or horzontal from the sockets and a spur is controlled by a 13 amp fuse if more than one socket is connected to the spur so you will only be able to run just under 3kw

 

[Dony]

Just a quick update to say that things are back on track. The channelling has been completed, the electrician has been and done his first fix, and tonight the plasterer was here to fill in the wall channels and socket points.

We aren't filling in the floor channels because with the 25mm conduit in place, the flooring company have said there's no need. The difference is a max of 5mm from the top of the conduit to the concrete floor surface.

Tomorrow we are getting the fireplace installed, and then next week the floor goes down.

Pics to follow soon.

 

[Dony]

A few pics of the cable channelling:

All hands to the pump

 

[Dony]

Next up the fireplace and flooring went in....

Rear speaker and sub cable

We decided to continue the flooring into the hall

and the downstairs bathroom and small family room (not pictured)

First coat of paint has gone on, to be finished on Monday. My AV unit will not be ready until the 25th March, and my speakers haven't arrived yet, though they are on their way.

The finishing line is in sight.

 

[Dony]

Look what was waiting for me when I got home from work today.

The rears in this pic are my existing 2 channel speakers

As mentioned above, a pair of 99.26's are now going into my 2 channel set-up.

Unfortunately I won't be able to set them up yet. My painter was supposed to come back and finish off today but failed to show. Looks like it'll be the weekend before I get them connected up.