Loft conversion into Cinema & Office now 7.2.4

Tony 3D

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Hi everyone.
I have converted my loft into a cinema room & office. I knew i wanted a dedicated room but had no idea what to do.
I searched the internet for as much info as possible, but the best help & info i got was from Rob at geko.
I will try to put up some pictures and a little information

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Stairs are in & some windows & the insulation going in (100mm of kingspan then 18mm ply & then another 50mm of kingspan) This is going to be the office side of the loft

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Plaster board going on just fine & most of the electrics & cables have been done now on the cinema side of the loft. All of the windows are in now too.

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Stud walls going up to create the partition for the cinema & office & the stairs. Cables for lights & speaker going in too. Have also put loft ladder in to make easy access into loft space above. Have put floor boarding down up there too so as to put all the crap form the original loft space (where does it all come from!)

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This is going to create the top of the stairs where the fridge will go

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Not quite sure where the back speakers will go so have put a number of cables (QED long run) for optimum choice

Have done some cad drawings for office layout

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I then found a company called Birch bedrooms that do made to measure (and i do mean made to measure) as they made everything to what i required. The cad drawing is below

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I needed a lot of file cabinets as my wife works from home too

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I also required a stand alone desk so i had one of those made to order too

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I went on holiday & seem to have lost most of the other pictures with the rest of the boring stuff so after all the building work & painting it was time for the more interesting stuff.
 
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Hi The Dreamer
I decided to have underfloor heating in the cinema & office as its a more balanced heat & creates a very comfortable environment. I used the a ribbon system that goes under special underlay that has a 0.70 tog rating. the total tog rating of the underlay & carpet can not be more than 2.5 tog I also put a special matt down first. I must say its very good.
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It took a while to find good carpet with a low tog rating

I built a stage for the seating as i had plans for 2 rows
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I have also installed LED dimmerble lighting from national lighting as i found these the best quality for the money 15watt led each & i have 2 rows of 5 plus some in the recess.
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The colour is portrait of a blue stocking (where do they get these names from??) As you can see i have built the wall out for 2 reasons. 1 is due to there being a soil pipe that runs up the inside of the house from the bathroom. This hides that, but i also wanted to put the speakers behind the screen two.
The lower recess is for the commissioned subwoofer.
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This is the office fitted & the hoover system that you could see in the early pics is behind the tall doors.
It all came made up apart from the tall cupboard which had to be put together because of the size
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it was also important to make sure that everything that goes on the floor is set out as you can not have anything on the floor where the heating is
 
Underfloor heating is great isn't it? We had electric underfloor heating in a conservatory in our previous house, which was very nice, but costly to run (25sqm of totally non-insulated space!) - it should be a lot more efficient in the space you've created. We've just laid 70sqm of wet underfloor heating in our extension; this is now, by far, the warmest place in the house - hopefully it should be fairly efficient too. Only time will tell.

15w LEDs must be really bright when turned up fully. Ours are only 6w, and they are brighter than the 50w halogens they replaced. I haven't decided yet on lighting for the cinema, in fact there's lots of stuff I haven't decided on yet, I need to get this extension finished, which isn't going to be for another month yet!

It's always good to get ideas from other peoples builds though. Again, everything is looking really smart in your build so far. Should be a great place when completed.
 
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Hi Dreamer, the led's are good & i like the different colours you can get them in.
Here you can see the sound system & screen going in.
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Rob from Geko supplied the MK sound system & screen & the custom subwoofer

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Cinema room finished with seating installed.
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The 6000watt subwoofer is amazing & really immerses you in the movie. It gives people the feeling of being actually there... I think i might get some black material to cover the sub, but not sure at the moment.
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This is what Rob from Geko Home Theatre - Gecko supplied

Fixed 1.2 gain acoustically transparent “4k” ready 100” wide screen

Oppo BD103 Blu Ray player

Onkyo TXNR818 Receiver

MK S 150 MK 2 front speakers x 3

MK S150T Tripolar side speakers x 2

MK Surround 550t THX rear speakers x 2

Custom design Ultimate Sub – 6000w dual 15” unit
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I also installed the new Sony 4K VPL VW500 projector which is amazing
I also went for red leather seating as i thought it was different from the regular BLACk

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Put some black out blinds in that i was able to match the colour from velux (couldn't believe my look on that one). I first thought, do i need windows & realised that i may need fresh air if the room was full of guys.....
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I also made my own DVD/blue ray rack & AV shelving with LED's back lit. Just need to do something about the wiring as some of it can be seen.

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I also put a fridge at the top of the stairs so i would not have to go far
 
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Thanks Dale. it took some planning & execution but the end result is just great. I think i was lucky with the room acoustic too

This is the top of the stairs where the fridge is

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Stocked fridge
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Stunning room.....Rob told me it sounded incredible.
Thanks for doing such a detailed write up, including CAD drawings and photos.....enjoy!
 
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Thanks for posting the photos. It’s a great looking cinema and the effort you put into the building works has made all the difference to the picture and sound quality.

When we installed the audio system the projector had yet to be installed and so listening tests were done without any picture. This is a good discipline as having no picture tends to make you concentrate more on the audio.

I always start with some good quality stereo recordings as I find well recorded jazz, acoustic and classical music make detecting faults in a system obvious. Most home cinemas play loud and have too much bass but simply aren’t accurate enough to reproduce music faithfully.

In a room of this size, if floor standing speakers were used and a sub added for example, then the systems natural response would be boomy with far too much mid bass. This would colour the sound of the system so that dialogue sounded congested while also reducing the apparent dynamics of the system. Playing the right sort of music makes this very clear.

This is a cracking stereo system and I knew that with this equipment and layout, if it passed the listening test in stereo, it would work superbly reproducing surround sound. The dual 15” custom woofer gives the system incredible headroom as a clip of War Horse demonstrated. Tony didn’t know what was coming and jumped straight up about a foot in the air when the first explosion went off.

It requires masses of power to reproduce really low frequencies accurately which is why the custom made sub we made for this room comes with a 6000w amplifier. With a pair of very high quality dual 15” drivers, the system effortlessly reproduces single digit bass in a way that very few home cinemas will, regardless of price.

I’m really pleased you are so happy with the system and if you get the chance I do hope you go and hear any other high end systems on demonstration. I can guarantee you that you won’t hear a system anywhere near the price will sound as good as your cinema.
 
Crikey - there was no hanging about getting this done :) I checked this thread when it was posted and thought this would be one to look back on in the new year to see how its progressing - and its finished already!!!

Nice choice with the red seating - definately helps with the rest of the decor being all black. I like a bid of red too so looks the part. Demo'd the VW500 the other day and its an awesome machine - great choice of projector.

Thats a weird spot for the Joker - it would totally freak me out, thinking someone was there if it caught my eye - kind of spooky place to have it :eek:

I can't see you being underwhelmed in the sub-bass department somehow - that sub set up and crazy amplification should do the trick :confused:

I'm sure the whole thing looks and sounds amazing - a great room you've got there and I still can't believe the speed of the install - 1st post was 4th Dec :D
 
Lovely room! Nice to hear some nice feedback on the audio system, I'm sure it sounds great in that room, and I'm glad the subwoofer is impressing too :smashin: Great work!
 
Looks really good - and I'm sure it's massively better 'in-the-flesh' than simply pictures on a forum!

Can you tell me what sort of supports you used for your glass shelves? I'm looking to do something similar in my extension.

Many thanks,

Phil
 
Great loft conversion - that sub is a beast! I'd love to watch Inception and the Matrix Lobby scene in that room, as I suspect the sound is on another level!
 
Id have put a pair of those subs in there :D I've actually designed a pair of these for myself as well, but they are more of an in room product. Can never have enough low end power :devil:
 
What a fantastic looking room :thumbsup:
 
One of the best looking systems on here and I imagine it sounds truly awesome, you can always be sure of a first class install with Gecko.I have heard/felt that twin 15 USC sub and it really delivers a good smack in the chest along with great music sound reproduction.:)

Nice to see you have gone with the 150's along with the Sony VW500ES you have a system there that will easily see you through quite a few years and many many happy hours of entertainment.

I only have a single 15 but in a much smaller room and it really delivers big grins every time I have it on (which is normally every day:D).
 
Tony3D tell me more about this ribbon underfloor heating please. I'm assuming it's electric.

I just can't seem to make my mind up about UFH. Shall I? Shan't I? I should! No! No I shouldn't!……….

My biggest fear is losing height due to mine being a new build which gives me 7ft head height.
 
Hi Alps
I went with underfloor heating as i did not want the mess of rads hung on the wall & i find the other rooms we have with the UFH really comfortable. I went with the ribbons as this is the only method suitable for carpet. The loft is isulated with 200mil of kingspan & the floor has rockwool insulation between the raffters & then 22mil of floor boarding then an insulation mat before the ribbons. The room is so comfortable & does not need the heating on for long. we have the same in the office & only have the heating on for about 3 hours first thing in the morning & it stays at 22dec for the rest of the day as the heat has nowhere to go.
I personally think its fantastic as its an even heat all around you.

You have to have a good thermal insulated house so you are not wasting the heat as it would not be efficient in a conservatory (greenhouse)

Check out this site under carpet heating | underfloor heating

& give them a call as they beat all others when i called them. Also check the how to on that site too.

If you go with the ribbon make sure you put loads of tape down as i realised i could have done with putting more down.

Hope this helps

Kind regards
 
Thanks Tony.

After all your help and advice, it seems I'll have to go with either normal electric or water UFH as I'll now most likely be going with laminate flooring… and also be using it in the kitchen.
 

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