adam-burnley
Distinguished Member
First of all, a bit of background to set the scene...
Bought the house in 1999 as a new-build. Fancied building a dedicated room using the garage when I got my first 5.1 system around 2006, but never found the time. Kids (twins) came along in 2010, and we decided the garage should be put to better use, and subsequently had it converted to a 'playroom'
Pretty much stopped playing PS3 games and watching movies as the volume always had to be one above mute
Fast forward to late 2016, and a redecoration of the living room leads to a new Samsung 4K HDR TV, and reinvigorates my enthusiasm for movies again. However, I still had that 5.1 system I bought in 2006, and I immediately noticed it was struggling post decorating, probably through the addition of thick carpet and curtains. I decided new speakers and sub would be required, and turned to avforums for advice!
I demoed a few different speakers, and was also invited to a couple of forums members houses to listen to their systems (thanks @Steven1210 and @DodgeTheViper ). I took the wife along to the demo at Dodge's,and she was so impressed by the room and the system that she decided that we needed the same!
The living room hasn't lost out totally though, It's ended up with MK MP-7 LCR, Emotiva ERD-1 surrounds and a BK XXLS400-FF sub
I also took the opportunity to replace the Sony HT in a box system in the Orangery with a Kef T301 LCR and T101 surrounds. Well, it would have been rude not to
Anyway, on to the subject in hand. It was decided that the spare bedroom could be made in to the new kids playroom, freeing up the existing room for the cinema. However, as it used to be a single integral garage, it is reasonably long but quite narrow. The finished dimensions of the room were 5.22m x 2.5m, whilst the front third steps in a bit to allow for two layers or brick (to support the wall above), so was just 2.34m. Just big enough to fit a 92" screen, and two rows of seats.
Right, first job was to wire up the new playroom for the wall mounted TV, fit 4 x Philips Hue GU10 colour downlights in the ceiling, move the designer radiator from the old playroom, paint and fit a new carpet. Normally that would take me a year or more to complete, but I was strangely able to get it done in just a few weeks!
So kids moved, time to setup the AV gear I'd been collecting over the preceding months (mostly from the classifieds) and give it a blast. Everything worked great, and it sounded fantastic, even in an untreated room, however, you could hear the dialogue really clearly upstairs in the kids bedrooms, there was no chance they'd be able to sleep with anything played at reasonable volume levels.
I started a thread on whether it would be worth sound-proofing given the limited width of the room, as I was concerned about losing space and ending up with too small a space. Ultimately time will tell whether sound-proofing will be worth the effort and cost, but something had to be done as being restricted to mute +1 was pointless!
Here is the "before" picture -
As this was formerly a garage, the front of the room faces on to a small driveway, and then on to the pavement and road. The wife didn't want to lose the window, and I didn't want the hassle of going through planning, so the window stays.
The other decision to make was where to put the screen. The obvious choice would have been on the solid back wall, as a fixed AT screen of 2.5m wide would have been fitted, however, that would have created a problem for the seating position as the door is at the opposite end, which is only 2.3m wide. I considered reversing the door so that it opened in to the hallway, but as the plan is to sit the second row of seats on a riser, that would have meant stepping up in the room, and I didn't like that idea. So, the tough decision was taken to have the screen at the window end, which meant a much more expensive motorised drop down AT screen would be required, and definitely limited it to 92" diagonal.
Windows are the worst thing you can have in a cinema room, but I'm hoping that a perfect fit black out blind will do the job of blocking out light. If not, I'll add some thick black curtains as well. Windows can also be an issue for sound leakage, however, during my initial tests I could hardly hear anything on the drive, and virtually nothing on the pavement, so the double glazing must be okay. Fortunately this is a detached house, so the neighbours definitely won't be disturbed.
So first thing to do was pull of the plasterboard and see what was behind...
Well, the builders that did the conversion had used 4x2 stud and left quite a sizable gap between the block work. Just a shame they hadn't packed it out with Rockwool instead of leaving it empty!
Time to pull the rest off...
Pulling down plasterboard kicks up a LOT of dust, so this came in really handy -
I also pulled down the ceiling to reveal the joists. The front section beyond the metal strip is a small roof, so above the fluffy insulation is felt and tiles.
Pulling down the plasterboard revealed a lot of electrical cable, so I got the sparky round to make sure everything was safe.
I also had another job for him....
Bought the house in 1999 as a new-build. Fancied building a dedicated room using the garage when I got my first 5.1 system around 2006, but never found the time. Kids (twins) came along in 2010, and we decided the garage should be put to better use, and subsequently had it converted to a 'playroom'
Pretty much stopped playing PS3 games and watching movies as the volume always had to be one above mute
Fast forward to late 2016, and a redecoration of the living room leads to a new Samsung 4K HDR TV, and reinvigorates my enthusiasm for movies again. However, I still had that 5.1 system I bought in 2006, and I immediately noticed it was struggling post decorating, probably through the addition of thick carpet and curtains. I decided new speakers and sub would be required, and turned to avforums for advice!
I demoed a few different speakers, and was also invited to a couple of forums members houses to listen to their systems (thanks @Steven1210 and @DodgeTheViper ). I took the wife along to the demo at Dodge's,and she was so impressed by the room and the system that she decided that we needed the same!
The living room hasn't lost out totally though, It's ended up with MK MP-7 LCR, Emotiva ERD-1 surrounds and a BK XXLS400-FF sub
I also took the opportunity to replace the Sony HT in a box system in the Orangery with a Kef T301 LCR and T101 surrounds. Well, it would have been rude not to
Anyway, on to the subject in hand. It was decided that the spare bedroom could be made in to the new kids playroom, freeing up the existing room for the cinema. However, as it used to be a single integral garage, it is reasonably long but quite narrow. The finished dimensions of the room were 5.22m x 2.5m, whilst the front third steps in a bit to allow for two layers or brick (to support the wall above), so was just 2.34m. Just big enough to fit a 92" screen, and two rows of seats.
Right, first job was to wire up the new playroom for the wall mounted TV, fit 4 x Philips Hue GU10 colour downlights in the ceiling, move the designer radiator from the old playroom, paint and fit a new carpet. Normally that would take me a year or more to complete, but I was strangely able to get it done in just a few weeks!
So kids moved, time to setup the AV gear I'd been collecting over the preceding months (mostly from the classifieds) and give it a blast. Everything worked great, and it sounded fantastic, even in an untreated room, however, you could hear the dialogue really clearly upstairs in the kids bedrooms, there was no chance they'd be able to sleep with anything played at reasonable volume levels.
I started a thread on whether it would be worth sound-proofing given the limited width of the room, as I was concerned about losing space and ending up with too small a space. Ultimately time will tell whether sound-proofing will be worth the effort and cost, but something had to be done as being restricted to mute +1 was pointless!
Here is the "before" picture -
As this was formerly a garage, the front of the room faces on to a small driveway, and then on to the pavement and road. The wife didn't want to lose the window, and I didn't want the hassle of going through planning, so the window stays.
The other decision to make was where to put the screen. The obvious choice would have been on the solid back wall, as a fixed AT screen of 2.5m wide would have been fitted, however, that would have created a problem for the seating position as the door is at the opposite end, which is only 2.3m wide. I considered reversing the door so that it opened in to the hallway, but as the plan is to sit the second row of seats on a riser, that would have meant stepping up in the room, and I didn't like that idea. So, the tough decision was taken to have the screen at the window end, which meant a much more expensive motorised drop down AT screen would be required, and definitely limited it to 92" diagonal.
Windows are the worst thing you can have in a cinema room, but I'm hoping that a perfect fit black out blind will do the job of blocking out light. If not, I'll add some thick black curtains as well. Windows can also be an issue for sound leakage, however, during my initial tests I could hardly hear anything on the drive, and virtually nothing on the pavement, so the double glazing must be okay. Fortunately this is a detached house, so the neighbours definitely won't be disturbed.
So first thing to do was pull of the plasterboard and see what was behind...
Well, the builders that did the conversion had used 4x2 stud and left quite a sizable gap between the block work. Just a shame they hadn't packed it out with Rockwool instead of leaving it empty!
Time to pull the rest off...
Pulling down plasterboard kicks up a LOT of dust, so this came in really handy -
I also pulled down the ceiling to reveal the joists. The front section beyond the metal strip is a small roof, so above the fluffy insulation is felt and tiles.
Pulling down the plasterboard revealed a lot of electrical cable, so I got the sparky round to make sure everything was safe.
I also had another job for him....
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