{"id":46426,"date":"2013-01-23T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2013-01-23T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/?p=46426"},"modified":"2019-11-26T12:10:25","modified_gmt":"2019-11-26T20:10:25","slug":"hometheater-renovation-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.highdefdigest.com\/blog\/hometheater-renovation-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Building a Home Theater, Step 4: Construction Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

I bought the house, I tore down and stripped everything out of the old basement, and I’ve dealt with the plumbing issues. Now, finally, it’s time to start building something. Construction has begun in earnest on my new home theater. For perhaps the first time, I actually feel like this thing is coming together.
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Here are some of the highlights of this process. <\/p>\n

First, the new walls were framed.<\/p>\n

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My home theater installer pre-wired the framing for my speaker locations.<\/p>\n

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For the purposes of trying to soundproof the space (both from sounds of the rest of the house coming in, and sounds from the home theater going out), the drywall will be decoupled from the studs with a clip and hat channel system.<\/p>\n

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The projector will be mounted on the ceiling here. (Furring channels were also installed below the ceiling joists after this photo was taken.)<\/p>\n

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Do you remember those low-hanging pipes I had in large soffits on both sides of the room?<\/p>\n

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At great effort and expense, I had my plumber clear them all out of the room. They’ve all been moved to the laundry room on the other side of the wall. <\/p>\n

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Inside the home theater, the ceilings are clear. This should reclaim some of my much-needed headroom.<\/p>\n

The other significant headroom issue I had was this heavy support beam right in front of the room entrance. I had to duck under it just to get into the room.<\/p>\n

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To correct that, my contractor has done a couple of ingenious things. He moved the location of the entrance entirely and walled off the original door. Then he moved a section of the beam up into the joists on hangers.<\/p>\n

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I can walk into the room without ducking!<\/p>\n

Insulation was installed.<\/p>\n

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Then, finally, drywall was put up and plastered.<\/p>\n

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To add mass and damping properties for sound isolation, both the walls and ceiling are comprised of two layers of drywall with Green Glue in between.<\/p>\n

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That’s where I stand so far, but there’s still a lot more to do, including installing the lighting, acoustical sealant and painting the room. Right now, this pace is a horrible echo chamber, so I’ll need some acoustical treatments as well to reduce reflections. Then comes the equipment installation and decorating.<\/p>\n

It’s a huge project, but I’ve been pretty amazed at how quickly it’s moving. More to come!<\/p>\n