Pugs New Cinema Build (Double Garage Conversion)

pugheaven

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Well, the time has come to start doing the build, so here we go. Owned the house for 8 years with the thoughts of always converting the double garage. However, the garage is under our living room of the same size (21ft x 18ft)... and the house is technically on 3 levels... so it's took some thought as we will be creating stairs coming down from the hallway archway down to the cinema room. Bear in mind, it's a cinema room BUT I don't want it clinical like a living room hence I won't be hiding speakers and things like this, it's literally converting a room into a nice place to be... i.e. you can just go and watch some general TV and it's not literally used for cinema purposes.

We've got a £10k budget for all the work and also all the parts of which I've pretty much got all the bits as follows:

  • Denon AVXR6400H 11.2 Amp that will be configured 7.1.4
  • Sony UBP-X800 4k UHD Player
  • Sony VPL-VW320ES (existing and will be moved to the cinema room)
  • Q Acoustics 3050 Front Pair, 3020 x 4 Side/Rear Surrounds, 3090C Centre Speaker, 3070S Sub and 4 x Cambridge Audio Minx12's for the Atmos speakers, replaced these with Q Acoustics QI65S which I'll dye the white covers to black, so I'll be selling the Cabridge Audios now.
  • QED Speaker Cable
  • Duronic 120" Fixed Screen
Various other blocks, wall blocks, fittings etc for fitting speakers into walls using banana plugs of which I'll detail as we go along, but these are the basics.

So, lets get the pre photos up and also, start showing some progress. Just to give indications of times, I started this around 7th September 2020 and the deadline for completion and then profesional calibration is 30th November 2020!

So, first thing was empty the whole garage, one 8 tonne building skip full later that was done... then was getting all the crap like empty boxes etc out of there... more work than I thought and taking things I wanted to keep upto storage.... so without further ado, lets get this thread started@

There is the layout of the house, it'll technically be 3 levels when this room is done...

BEFORE ANY CHANGES (but empty garage lol):

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In the picture above, the 120" screen will be positioned in the middle of those windows.



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The two garage doors pictured will be removed and replaced with french door patio doors.
 

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Then, first things first get all the old crapp plasterboard from the ceiling down and replace with building reg fireboard and insulation.

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Then the biggest job of all this was to pull part of the wall down that would be the entry to the room from higher up in the hallway:

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Then put the new ceiling in with the wires in for the ceiling speakers...

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And now the floating floors is going in...

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So, next stage is to finish off the wiring for the lighting and all the wall sockets as I want the wall socket wiring neat under the floor boards. Then get the final floor in this week and start on the stairs going upto the hallway... lots to do, but starting to motor now... finally lol
 
Well work finished for today so this is now with the floor frame not far off now, should be finished tomorrow...

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I might be wrong but isn't it advisable to put a damp proof membrane below the floor timbers?
 
There's damp proof membrane 50mm below the cement base and also, around the main walls, so I didn't think I'd need it? Might double check just to make sure now you've mentioned it :lesson:
 
Sorry I'm not sure if needed and don't want to worry you unnecessarily but prob best to find out now than further down the line! Hopefully someone who does know what they're talking about will be along shortly :)
 
Looking good and I’ve a suggestion at the top of the staircase through that entrance you should make that like a bookcase where you move a book and it opens secretly a bit like a batcave entrance :D
 
Hahaha, I'll mention it to the missus
 
Well here's some boring plug sockets lol... light wires going in today...

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Well, majority of the floor now in, should be finished tomorrow night, then we need to get the seats out from the container and measure up for the rear stage... here's the progress over the weekend:

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Who is carrying out the electrical work in your conversion? Sorry to comment on your great build at such an advance stage, but I can see some of your socket cables have been installed outside the prescribed zones, which is unusual for a competent electrician.

Only came across your thread, because I misread the thread title.

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Who is carrying out the electrical work in your conversion? Sorry to comment on your great build at such an advance stage, but I can see some of your socket cables have been installed outside the prescribed zones, which is unusual for a competent electrician.

Only came across your thread, because I misread the thread title.

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Howdy no problem, when you put things out there always something which we may have done wrong, which ones in particular are you refering to?
 
I must be daft hahaha as out of all the new ones we've installed I can't see anything wrong with them.
  • The ones by the boiler will all be moved as they are the existing ones that have been in the building since it was built, but we're moving those this week when we've decided what to do with them.
  • The ones by the mains board haven't been changed yet either they'll be completly removed.

All the other sockets seem to be fine? The new stuff is all the boxes and the grey wires, anything that has a white cover on has yet to be removed/moved.

if you could hightlight the one you think it wrong as I can't see any? if there are some I can ask him tonight as he's coming through for the final light fittings.
 
Cables need to run in those zones; the idea is to give indication where cables might be, when carrying out refurbishments. Doesn’t always work; I had a customer who managed to drill into a cable directly above a socket. He had his drill plugged into the socket.

There’s at least two that appear not be installed in a zone; pic 2 & 4 #13.
 
Cables need to run in those zones; the idea is to give indication where cables might be, when carrying out refurbishments. Doesn’t always work; I had a customer who managed to drill into a cable directly above a socket. He had his drill plugged into the socket.

There’s at least two that appear not be installed in a zone; pic 2 & 4 #13.
Mmmm, from how I read the supplied piccie and where my leccy cables are I think they're fine. The cable in picture 2 #13 is actually going outside to two external protected plug sockets, so the mains come up into the first outside box, then across to the second outside box which sits right next to it.... I'll ask him when he comes later thought to confirm, as it'll be him who signs all this off and we've got to have the inspector around from building regs anyway and provide all the evidence.

The Picture 4 #13 is a weird one and this is because that plug socket line goes up and then out. Half way up that wall on the outside is decking, this is 5ft higher than the inside of the garage wall, so that plug socket outside in the decking will be 1ft above the decking but is actually 5ft above the floor of the garage internally i.e.. the decking outside is actually say half way up the garage wall as we live on a bank and the levels are tiered. Once again though, I will ask him later when he comes over to clarify.

However, I've meaasure all of these out and put them all in a wiring diagram inclusive of the speaker cables, so in the future if someone moves in they have a full schematic. However like I say, I'll ask him around this later.

Cheers
 
Pic 2 one, could be rectified by putting a socket or faceplate where the cables go to your outside socket and re-routing the cables to your outside sockets slightly. Mirror image on other side of a wall, is normally an single leaf internal wall, adjacent to a doorway.

Pic 4 one, could be rectified by installing the 6242y cable, within an earthed metal conduit, or replace with a swa cable.

I might be sounding a bit picky, but there was a very sad incident some years ago, where a lady lost her life, due to a cable being installed outside prescribed zones; there were other factors involved.

Its not you good self, but subsequent owners of your property, that would not necessarily know that though‘s cables will be there, and could drill into them etc.
 
Hi There, really enjoying your build.. I'm just about to start a similar build.. Just a quick question. What is the need for the floating floor? Insulation? Soundproofing? I ask as I am not planning a floating wall. My main soundproofing will be though resilient bars ect.. Just wondering if I am missing something important? Thanks in advance.
Hi Mate, it was a number of things with the floor really tbh.

  1. Would've required a complete cement screen as the floor isn't 100% flat. It was good quality with a dam proofing underneath but it was ultimatly a garage and was never layed perfect and would've required the whole lot layering anyway with new cement.
  2. Heat - With it being cement, we've found that allowing airflow or at least encasing it acts initself as an insulater... what I didn't want is cement, then underlay thn carpet.... by doing this I believe (and this is personal opinion based on what io've seen in the past), buy building that floor with 6"x2" it allows a pocket of heat..... but this is just a theory I've got based on what we discovered when we smashed the wall through for the stairs, it was 28C under there which was astounding. Also, by putting in the polystyrene in as well, this will insulate and also be give some sound proofing to take any walking and sound echo's out of the room. Whether this will work, who knows, I'm no expert but this isn't a pro installation, this is me just giving it a go lol. I've put a themal temp gauge under one of the "pockets we've done that I use for my PC and it's showing warmer temps than ambient so hoping once the room is heated, it'll act that way going, forward, or I could be talking a load of crap hahaha.
  3. I wanted all the wires etc all nciely tacked to boards rather than being sank under cement, or a mental amount in walls and doing a floating floor kinda gives alot more wiring advantages.
TBH mate, there's mroe reasons as well, but it all just came to a head in that it would be a neater, more professions, warmer solution and also meant a nice step from the outside of two course of bricks that the new french doors will go on as opposed to being at outside floor level, you'll see what I mean when they go in, in a few weeks time. I wanted this room to look like it was meant to be when the house was built as opposed to an "add on" type thing... and something that also if we moved (which I won't be), that someone could very easily turn back into an additional living room.

Personally I'm convinced we made the right choice with the flooring instead of just using a cement base and I'll be honest the cost hasn't been mental either... I think for all the flooring frame and actually flooring is around £1k upto now...

The floor will be finished this week and building of the stage will be going in followed by the new stair case, so the next 10 days will be very very busy! Will keep posting and cheers for following, this whole build is planned to be finished by 1st December, infact has to be 30th, as got a pro calibration for the projector and sound coming in on the 30th November for the day... hahaha
 
We have a similar sized double garage with a cement floor that drops in height from the house to the doors. The difference in height between house side and door side is around 20cm. When I looked at converting the only way to meet the regs was to basically rip up the floor and ensure the void was too a certain height. I know you said it was just you having a go, but is the conversion being done to regs? And if so how did you get round the floor issue?
 

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