Garage Conversion

Shockabuku

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Hi all,

I'm moving house on Dec 5th & am planning on converting the attached garage into a dedicated home cinema room. Typical of most modern houses, it's a pretty small garage (are you really supposed to get a car in there & not have to do a Dukes of Hazzard exit via the window?!).

I'm looking to go the DIY route :eek: & am hoping to get my 6ft screen, AE100, HCPC, plus my lurvely Sonus Faber speakers in there, but I have a feeling the latter may get in the way of the screen.

Just wondering if anyone else has done this & could offer any tips before I destroy the place?

Cheers,

Mark.
 
I've got Kef floorstands at the moment and when considering a speaker upgrade I worked out I could go to just over a metre without considering them being either slightly in front or behind the screen. This is also with a 6' screen. I think I could probably add another 10-15cm to that before impacting screen viewing area and interference with the tweeter.

My garage is about 9' wide. Get your tape out, you'll probably be ok.

Steve
 
Having seen NFordenfield's ex single garage HT I can say you'd be amazed what you can fit in well if you plan carefully.

7 seats, Large Screen & Kef Ref 3.2 fronts.

I'm sure you'll be able to make it work well,

Mark.
 
Excellent, I'm starting to feel like it's a bit more possible now. Anyone got any photos of a single garage setup. I'm in the "gimme inspiration" phase! Actually considering selling the AE100 in favour of a CRT now too....this could get more expensive than I thought :D
 
Actually considering selling the AE100 in favour of a CRT now too
Good idea! Nathan(NFordenfield) has a huge Barco 1208 stuck to his ceiling and gives an amazing image quality.

Mark.
 
Oh dear, I had a feeling I'd get some encouragement to spend more dosh. Still, the GAF of moving everything to a dedicated room cannot be understated, so perhaps I have some leverage there :D
 
how big is your garage?

My dedicated room is only 10ft by 8ft. You can sit quite close to the screen without seeing any pixels or chicken wire effect and I have floorstanders underneath a fixed 5ft frame screen
Pj is a Sanyo PLV30. You will be amazed at what you can fit in such a small space. If your PJ is ceiling mounted, all the better.
I would think twice about replacing with a CRT pj, maybe you should use your existing one or maybe go DLP as these are getting just as good as CRT , but for half the price. Just my 2 pence worth
 
Originally posted by Geoffc10
how big is your garage?

My dedicated room is only 10ft by 8ft. You can sit quite close to the screen without seeing any pixels or chicken wire effect and I have floorstanders underneath a fixed 5ft frame screen
Pj is a Sanyo PLV30. You will be amazed at what you can fit in such a small space. If your PJ is ceiling mounted, all the better.
I would think twice about replacing with a CRT pj, maybe you should use your existing one or maybe go DLP as these are getting just as good as CRT , but for half the price. Just my 2 pence worth

It might be an opinion but the pricing is miles out. You can get CRT's for the same and les than fixed panel devices. I wont get into the debate about whether the quality is the same tho' :p

Steve
 
Garage is standard modern single size (I haven't been able to measure it yet coz we don't move until Dec 5th). Hopefully should be dropping round there later this week with the tape measure.

Geoff...I'm encouraged by your comments. 8x10 won't be far off wot I'll end up with, though perhaps a couple of feet longer. PJ will definitely be ceiling mounted...even if I keep the AE100. Will probably make up a fixed screen though, so my pull-up Homescreen will be on the market soon!

CRTs will definitely blow away the AE100, and it's tempting to get one now that I'm working on a dedicated room. Point taken on DLP though...if they can eliminate the rainbow nastiness (I'm very succeptible) and provide a widescreen panel at about £3k, then I'm in. Might leave that for a while & see how the AE100 looks in there.
 
I live in a modern 4 bed detached with an integral single garage which I am about to convert - this measures 18' X 8'4" so I should think that the size should not be an issue for you

I have recently bought a graphics 808 - the picture is amazing !and I will have plenty of space to have a screen as large as i like :D I'm thinking 80" widescreen and I intend to make my own fixed screen :cool:

I use to have sonus speakers (the wife loved them) now got quad electrostatics (the wife hates them) I intend getting another pair so that I can have electrostatics accross the front :eek:
 
I have a room the same size as quadmad (above) which was a garage, i am 70 % complete on the conversion and it has been a lifelong dream to have a dedicated room.

I have some VERY serious kit going into the room and it will be fully climate controlled via exchanger A/C.

Let me know if you have any questions as i have done all the work myself including the soundproofing.

Good Luck :)
 
Originally posted by X3ELS
Let me know if you have any questions as i have done all the work myself including the soundproofing.

Elliot, how did you/what did you use re soundproofing?

Steve
 
Let me know if you have any questions as i have done all the work myself including the soundproofing.

Have you gone for a full-on "floating" structure? Same as Couch Potato, would be interesting in which soundproofing material you're using. Cheers.
 
I did not have the space unfortunately to do the room within a room so i did the next best thing.

Basically off of the main walls i have used resiliant bars to attach the plasterboard to, this isolates the two walls. The plasterboard i have used is called soundbloc and is easily twice as dense as standard stuff.

So the structure goes:

Original wall - Resiliant bar - 1st sheet of soundbloc - Sound barrier mat - 2nd sheet of soundbloc.

On the ceiling i have just used 3 layers of soundbloc straight to the joists as there is nothing above the garage.

All joints are sealed with mastic and all joins in the plasterboard are overlapped, the only air in or out will be via the air con.

The front half / three quarters of the room will be fabriced (wall and ceiling) and this will be done by wrapping fabric around fibreboard panels and fixing them securely to the walls. This will also assist in sound absorption but has been done primarily to absorb light from the projector.

I am not sure how effective the soundproofing will be but i've done the best i can :)

I am sure the equipment will still tear it apart...... :D
 
Go on then, make me jealous...wot kit do u have? Oh, and are you taking any digital photos of the work?
 
I was dying for someone to ask :)

NEC 10PG 9inch CRT projector
HD Leeza Scaler
6.1ft width Stewart Studiotek 130 Microperf Screen
SDI modded Denon 3300 DVD-A Player
Pioneer CLD-2950 Laserdisc
Lexicon MC12 - Balanced
5 x Genelec HT210 Speakers
1 x Genelec HTS4 Sub

I don't know if you guys have seen Genelecs but they are in my opinion the best designed and manufactured speakers available for cinema. (they are used in the mastering facilities of many film studios).

What is taking me so long in construction is that the speakers should be soffit mounted so now that the room has been built i am now building another wall for the speakers to flush into if that makes sense?

As for pictures, yes i am fully documenting it as i go......
 
Wow...you are going to blow the roof off that garage! Lucky bugger! :D Got any pics of the build so far that u can share?
 
If someone can tell me a place i can easily stick a load of images then i will happily do so, it's a pain having to shrink everything on this site down to 300 x 300 or was it 600 x 600, either way its a fiddle.

So anyone know a good site??
 
great thread.

I've just moved into a place with an integral garage, which I hope to convert sometime when my finances recover from the move!

can anyone give me an idea of how much it would cost to get a builder in to get the place into decent nick (brick up the front - maybe little window for decoration, plaster the walls, ceiling, something on the floor, power etc). There is already basic power and a light.

I'm crap at DIY so I'd prefer to leave it to the professionals. It would become a semi-dedicated cinema room, and also double up as a playroom for my child so the lounge gets less cluttered.
 
Just finished mine. Whilst I was converting I started to think I have made a big mistake. Much to small after the 2" x 2" studding went on but after plastering & painting the room it feels great.

size = 8ft x 15ft

It's a 4 year old 4 bedroomed detached which as above wouldn't take my car so hence the conversion.

Just took an 4:3 epson pj home from work last night to get the feeling before buying. Just projected onto the back wall painted in Icestorm 6. This way I get to work out exactly what size screen I will buy next year!!:D

Hope to post some piccies soon as I did take a few along the way!!;)
 
I've got the measurements of my (well, almost mine!) garage... 8ft7 by 17ft. Sounds pretty standard. After chatting to X3ELS & hearing about his trauma with planning permission, I've been onto Swindon council & they're gonna send out the usual form to fill in. Apparently, there could be some issue around the fact that a garage conversion means one more car parked on the street. Yeah, like my girlfriend's Shogun is really gonna fit in the garage :D. I could always sell my car, get a motorbike & park it in the garden I suppose!
 
Hi all

Shockabuku has postedsome pics of my garage conversion progress to date, i am sure he will post the link here as i have lost it :confused:

Let me know if anyone has any questions, i am happy to assist if i can.
 
I will update the photos as i go along if thats ok with you Shok, i will just e-mail you when i have some more (i've got over 100 but most are fairly uninteresting!!)

Constructed the first of the baffle boards to surround the speakers yesterday and finished of the remaining frame work, it should be all down hill from now on. Unfortunately work has been getting in the way :(

Oh and i felt i should probably update my signature so you all know what i do for a living :)
 

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