Home Theater Construction

Back-to basics :

<< This photo illustrates the opposite view towards the front end of our home (facing northeast). The wall at the end is the wall that currently supports our new screen. That wall faces the street in front of the house. These walls two had to undergo the same corrections as the back walls, however, for some reason, these walls were not nearly in as bad of shape (thank goodness).

<< This shot was taken just to the left of the back wall shots on page two. What it is showing is the office / video-editing suite we had built downstairs the year before. The reason for the two doors is simple. The French door with the window panes is to be the main entrance door to the office. The 6 panel solid door (both are red-oak composite) is to be the door from the office into a walk-in closet that will contain a storage area, the 100-amp breaker box (the gray box shown in the picture) and it will provide access to the rear door of the 6-1/2 foot tall x 19" standard steel equipment relay rack I plan to install in the closet with the theater equipment facing outward through the wall. It's important to note here that both the office and the walk-in closet are built on a "sleeper-studded" subfloor to raise it off the concrete. I know the office looks like it's built on the floor while looking at the French door. But, once inside the door there is a minor 2" step up in the floor. You can see this if you look beneath the closet door as it is above the (tiled) concrete. This will aid in keeping the theater and computer equipment dry in the case of any minor flooding of the basement (an inch or two) from a leaking pipe, an over flowing washing machine, broken water heater, or (Lord forbid), a sewer backup.

>> Although we have a rather small house, we do have a rather large 3-1/4 car garage (24 D x 28 W). This shot of our garage shows several things, besides the obvious MESS! It shows that we had to remove a lot of items from the basement before embarking on this adventure. It also shows some of the wood we had to stockpile during the roughing-in operation. Here you see maybe 10 8-foot 2x4s laid on the floor. Just on trip of many to both Home Depot and Lowe's. Those folks saw us so much last winter they nearly offered us valet parking! (No, not really.)

>> Husbands, take note: This pile in in MY spot, where my truck is usually parked! Notice, if you love your wife and don't want her to cancel the project while you are right in the middle of it, you'll be sure to allow room for her car in the garage throughout the ENTIRE project. My wife's car has it's space "nice and clean" just to the left of all of this junk! Wives...you gotta love 'em!

Also, cement basement floors can transmit dampness into items right through the concrete. The subfloor helps to solve that problem. It is quite humid in Michigan and despite the fact this house has central air conditioning, it's important to note that we supplement that by running a stand-alone electric dehumidifier in the basemet during the spring, summer and fall months when the outside temperature stays above 60 degrees for more than 12 hours at a time during the day. This helps to maintain the basement's relative humidity at or below the 40% level, which is important for delicate computer and theater equipment. Below is a detailed diagram of how I've constructed the office and walk-in closet subfloors. Note: All wood used in contact with the cement floor was pressure-treated (Wolmanized-type) pine. This includes all sleeper studs and wall sole plates.