Dealing with Soffits

[RobP]

Hello all,

I am in the planning stages of remodeling my home theatre room and I have a major hurdle to deal with. I have my main HVAC trunk line that goes right through the center of the room on the ceiling, it is 4 ft wide and does terrible, terrible things to my bass response. :cry:
I plan on pulling all of the sheetrock and framing down from around it and rebuilding it, the framing is not that great plus there is no insulation around the ductwork, if you hit it with the palm of your hand it sounds like a kettle drum.
I told my wife that we could just tear it all out and make it flat, but for some weird reason she wants AC and heat. :roll: :B
Has anyone here had to deal with this? If so how did you deal with it?

Thanks in advance!
Robert P.

[Clive]

The WIFE or the SOFFIT? :twisted:

[Clive]

Soundgravy, I'm gonna have to deal with those issues too when I'm ready to do my Basement HT room. My wife's only issue is that she wants hardwood floors throughout :E

Anyways, we got in a couple of GCs and both came in with the same suggestion to move the duct works to the sides (which in our case can be done easily). You may need professional advice on that too. There are a few guys and gals here who dabble in that sort of thing may help out here too.

[aud19]

Soundgravy, I'm gonna have to deal with those issues too when I'm ready to do my Basement HT room. My wife's only issue is that she wants hardwood floors throughout :E

Clive, you may want to look in to cork flooring. Same effect as hardwood but less reflective One of our members recently added it to a 2-ch room and has been quite pleased with the results I believe.

[RobP]

The WIFE or the SOFFIT? :twisted:

:laughat:

[Clive]

Thanks I'll Google it or PM me link/s pls.

Any advice for Soundgravy?

[RobP]

Soundgravy, I'm gonna have to deal with those issues too when I'm ready to do my Basement HT room. My wife's only issue is that she wants hardwood floors throughout :E

Anyways, we got in a couple of GCs and both came in with the same suggestion to move the duct works to the sides (which in our case can be done easily). You may need professional advice on that too. There are a few guys and gals here who dabble in that sort of thing may help out here too.

Hardwood floors in a basement,oooh, now there is a project!! I helped a friend install wood floors in his basement, it was pain in the rear end, getting the floor level was the hardest part. :M If you go that route you may look into radiant floor heating, wood floors in a basement can get very cold on the feet.

I thought about moving the ductwork, about a month ago I installed a new furnace and AC unit, while I had it out I looked up in the soffit from inside the utilty room and seen that I have a main support I-beam right to the side of the duct work, right in my way if I wanted to move it. :banghead:

I will probably end up re-framing around it using 12" centers instead of the 16" centers that it is now and apply a couple layers of insulated Dynamat on the ducts and stuff insulation around them before installing the sheetrock which I will probably double up on. Hopefully that will work.

[Lex]

based on the size of that thing it looks like it could service a small 3rd world country. My goodness what can you do with something that size?

What about ceiling vents, a possibility? As in move this monstrous trunk to round piping in attic, well insulated of course. New vents, close off registers in floor, remove ducting. It's just that easy. lol. I know, I just did a number to your bank account there for just moving air.

[Clive]

Would there be any "Building code" violations there?

[RobP]

based on the size of that thing it looks like it could service a small 3rd world country. My goodness what can you do with something that size?

What about ceiling vents, a possibility? As in move this monstrous trunk to round piping in attic, well insulated of course. New vents, close off registers in floor, remove ducting. It's just that easy. lol. I know, I just did a number to your bank account there for just moving air.

If you think that is big you should see the trunk that goes to the other side of the house :E Its 51 ft long and 4ft wide. It houses both the supply and return.All of the homes here have the ductwork in the basement,its code, no attic mounted ductwork or units allowed. :cry:

I talked to a gentleman yesterday at a company called Realtraps, and he said that if I insulated it correctly and made the framing stiffer it could be used as a quasi bass trap. Hmmmmmm what do you guys think?
They just came out with a Bass trap called soffit trap which looks just like a soffit. Here is a pic of them installed.

[David Meek]

That's pretty sexy! Can you house recessed lighting fixtures in there or is it a continuous assembly?

[RobP]

I have seen them with the lights installed in them, they are basicly like a tube trap just square.