Magslad's home cinema loft conversion

Great work!

Just one thing....where did you all sleep while the bedrooms were being gutted

Love the fire check doors - where did you get them from and how much were they, if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers

Thanks Toonaroond. We got them to gut the bedrooms while we were on holiday (wouldn't have fancied being in the house at that point, lath & plaster ceilings make a hell of a mess when they're taken down :eek:). By the time we came back they'd put up the new walls and ceilings, and my wife & kids then went to her parents for a week (I camped out in the living room) whilst the builders did frames/architrave/skirting/doors and 2nd fix electrics so that we could sleep in the bedrooms. Obviously still dusty but a lot easier to live in now!

Thanks for your comments on the doors, spent a long time finding these. In the end got them from a specialist door company called Distinctive Doors (don't think mods allow links to be posted, but if you google 'distinctive doors' you'll find them at the top of the page ;)). Worked out about £180 per door (excluding door furniture) but they are very good quality, very solid and will look great once they've had some matt varnish applied. Our builders were very impressed, they're going to start using them on future jobs when the customer wants something different to the standard 4/6 panel fire doors.
 
just wanted to say this looks excelent, makes me wish my loft was more than just a crawl space!! lol

unfortunately we cant extend our house due to its size and position aqnd building regs, so if we ever want a dedicated room like this we will just have to move!

good luck with the rest of your project!!

Tony
 
Time for a bit of a progress update. Main activity has been in the loft, which is now insulated, plasterboarded and all the veluxes installed - very exciting, starting to feel like a real room now.


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Went for veluxes in GRP finish (pine finish wouldn't have gone with the room), and top hung so that we can look out properly when they're open:

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Other main progress is that the front extension has now been tiled

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Progress might be a bit slower over the next week or so, as waiting for stairs/fitted wardrobes to be made, bathroom stuff for the ensuite to arrive, screed in the utility room to dry etc. But hopefully loft will get plaster finish coat applied so that woodwork and 2nd fix can progress. As always, more progress photos on my flickr set

Finally, I have been trying to work out the wiring for the DTT/Sky distribution around the home. Have posted my proposed plans/questions in the Sky forum here - anyone that knows what they're talking about, feel free to put me straight as i have a feeling I might be making some mistakes :confused:
 
Thats going to make a cracking cinema room, and its going to cost you a bit for a blackout blind for each Velux! Wish I had gone for that white finish instead of the regular pine, but too late now!
 
the loft looks soooooo much better now its boarded!!! cant believe the transformation!! good luck with everything else! :D
 
Thats going to make a cracking cinema room, and its going to cost you a bit for a blackout blind for each Velux! Wish I had gone for that white finish instead of the regular pine, but too late now!

Very pleased with the white finish - we're not having any wood in the room (the banisters/spindles etc will all be painted) so I thought the pine finish might stand out a bit. Cost about £75 more per window than the pine though, so all adds up. I've been pricing up the blackout blinds over the past few days: comes to over £300 for the 3 windows on the velux website :eek:. But the same blinds (official velux ones) from blinds2go is less than £200 - now I just need to consider whether to pocket the saving or spend it on getting electric blinds instead of manual ones...:rolleyes:


Looks like the loft will be a very nice sized space, are you going to have a projector?

It's going to be 6.5 x 4.1m (21 x 13.5 ft) so should be a good size for its multiple uses. I'm not putting a projector in (I still may regret that over time), mostly because I've already gone over budget and the room has to have a plasma so I can't go for both at this stage. I have, however, had the right wiring put in place 'just in case', so in the future I may yet get the urge to upgrade :devil:


the loft looks soooooo much better now its boarded!!! cant believe the transformation!! good luck with everything else!

Thanks very much for the kind words, I'll keep the thread updated as everything else progresses.
 
I've got a remote 'siesta' blind for my Velux, was just setting it up last night to be controlled by my Harmony. I bet it would look fantastic to see all your blinds coming down at the same time!
 
I've got a remote 'siesta' blind for my Velux, was just setting it up last night to be controlled by my Harmony. I bet it would look fantastic to see all your blinds coming down at the same time!

I'd been thinking about how good it would look to see them all coming down at the same time, but hadn't thought about controlling it from my Harmony One. That settles it then, I'll have to get the remote control ones - but if SWMBO goes on about 'another ridiculous gadget' I'll have to point her in your direction Chris!! :D
 
Got my Velux blinds from Blinds2Go, great service and cheap compared to velux direct. I spend ages trying to decide against the manual or electric options but at twice the price i opted for the Manul version.

I regret it sometimes for the cool factor but it only takes a few seconds to open/close.
BTW the siesta blinds are amazing at blacking out the window, excellent for use with a projector during daytime :D

Pody
 
Got my Velux blinds from Blinds2Go, great service and cheap compared to velux direct. I spend ages trying to decide against the manual or electric options but at twice the price i opted for the Manul version

Thanks pody - I was thinking of getting them from Blinds2go, as you say they come in so much cheaper than velux direct. Good to hear you had decent service from them, so I will definitely go down this route.

I'm still trying to justify the expense, but I think I can justify it if I spend more money on the lights as well!! If I go for something like the Varilight touch/remote dimmer, I can hopefully set up the Harmony One to have a single 'watch movie' button press which will then dim the lights, close the blinds and turn on all the equipment. Now that would be cool :cool:
 
Thanks pody - I was thinking of getting them from Blinds2go, as you say they come in so much cheaper than velux direct. Good to hear you had decent service from them, so I will definitely go down this route.

I'm still trying to justify the expense, but I think I can justify it if I spend more money on the lights as well!! If I go for something like the Varilight touch/remote dimmer, I can hopefully set up the Harmony One to have a single 'watch movie' button press which will then dim the lights, close the blinds and turn on all the equipment. Now that would be cool :cool:

Thats just what I'm trying to set up myself with an activity, but I have to get used to how the remote works first, just got an 895. It didnt have the blind listed on the Harmony directory but it was no trouble for it to learn the 3 buttons from the blinds remote control.
 
Great read! The loft space looks much bigger now it's boarded out. Interested to see the finished room, bet you can't wait!
 
And the final photo for now shows some of the new doors. Needed new internal doors throughout the house (12 in total :eek:), as have to have fire-check doors because of the loft conversion. Didn't like any of the standard stuff so ended up going for a specialist supplier for these - cost a small fortune but very pleased with them, as they are the style that would have been in the house when it was originally built in 1932:

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Out of interest, where did you get the doors done and are you happy with them (and with the price)? I'll be doing a very similar project next year and would like to replicate the original door style which is similar to yours!

Thanks
 
Out of interest, where did you get the doors done and are you happy with them (and with the price)? I'll be doing a very similar project next year and would like to replicate the original door style which is similar to yours!

Thanks

Hi Gozaradio - we got them from a specialist door company called Distinctive Doors (google their name and you'll find the website - don't think forum rules let me link directly to the site on my thread). Very happy with them, they feel very solid and good quality, and our builders were very impressed by them. Worked out about £180 per door, but worth it to find fire doors that were exactly the style we wanted, and this was the only place we found that did them for a reasonable price.
 
Brief progress update - has been a bit slower over the past week or so but should see some good progress over the next couple of weeks. Main activity has been that loft is now plastered (ready for woodwork and 2nd fix to proceed this week), front door has been fitted, and bedrooms have started to be decorated.








Have also started choosing some of the furniture for the home cinema - thinking of going for a sofabed from a company called Nabru. Their factory/showroom is quite near us so will go and check them out, but would be interested to know if anyone has used them and if so what they thought?




Also (very importantly :rolleyes:) have chosen the games table for the loft room :D. Hopefully my son won't read this thread as it's going to be his Christmas present!




That's all for now, will update again when more progress.
 
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coming on great can't wait to see the final finish on the loft room--well done and keep the pictures coming :smashin:
 
It looks so much brighter now its plastered , did you use celotex or triso for the floors ? And what did you use on the walls

Hi yukichon

We used Kingspan (same as Celotex) on the walls and floors, as space wasn't as much of an issue there - we were just filling in the gaps between studs/joists. We just used the Triso on the ceiling (as you mentioned in your thread, it's quite a bit more expensive) because that was where I wanted to minimise loss of head height. You put it up like a tent and then plasterboard straight over it:



In your case, using it on the walls seems like a good idea as that is where you want to minimise loss of space, but in the roof you can just use standard Kingspan/Celotex to save some money as you've got plenty of height to play with.
 
Thanks pody - I was thinking of getting them from Blinds2go, as you say they come in so much cheaper than velux direct. Good to hear you had decent service from them, so I will definitely go down this route.

I'm still trying to justify the expense, but I think I can justify it if I spend more money on the lights as well!! If I go for something like the Varilight touch/remote dimmer, I can hopefully set up the Harmony One to have a single 'watch movie' button press which will then dim the lights, close the blinds and turn on all the equipment. Now that would be cool :cool:


Also got the Varilight from TLC, was working perfect but having some issues with one of the circuits (dual circuits) TLC have been great in replacing it.

Dimming works fine with a standard remote but cant dim with my Harmony 525, only turn off and on. Remote looks to only send a short bust of signal whereas on the other remote you hold down the button to dim.

Btw the rooms looking nice, I wish my conversion has the windows like that, mine has 4 alcoves that go out to the windows.
 
I was more hoping it would entice some kind of Barbarella-type creature: but unfortunately it just attracted hairy builders :thumbsdow

:rotfl:

Barbarella was on one of the movie channels a month or so ago and it was the first time I had seen it in a very long time. Be good to have a BD release
 

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