New Theater Room Planning

[sikoniko]

I have been inspired. I recently married my girlfriend of 5 years and bought a house. The home was a model, so the garage is insolated, as well as heat and cooled.

As soon as we get done working on the bathrooms, We will begin converting our garage into a theater room. It will have one second duty. I am big into playing music, and I have a pro tools (home studio) system on my PC. My wife thought it would be good for me to locate everything out in the media room, so if I want to have friends over and jam, we'd have plenty of space.

Realistically, I see us beginning construction sometime in february or march. The plan is to build some walls. One just inside the garage door, which we will insulate. Inside this wall, we will make a closet, my computer workstation, the stereo rack, and dvd storage. We will then either make a fabric wall, or parts of another wall so that these will be built in, but concealed when not in use.

The next wall will be built on the other side of the room. This wall will close off the elevated section of the garage, where we will put an external door, thus creating a "mud room" where our washer/dryer and water heater are located. To save room/ maximize space, we are looking at installing a double pocket door along this wall. That way, when doing laundry, it wont make people feel claustrophobic. We are going to have to figure out a solution for this, as I believe pocket doors probably are not the best acoustical option.

Anyways, I have built a visio diagram of what we will be creating. I lost the battle of the TV, so my 46' toshiba RPTV will be in the garage for cable TV, and I have a sanyo PLZ-3 for games and movies, which we will pull down a screen in front of the TV to watch.

Please offer suggestions, opinions or things I should consider to optimize the room.

Thanks!

[RebelMan]

Are you converting your entire garage into an HT? I am planing a garage conversion too but was thinking of using only the single bay of our three car garage. Will this be a DIY project or are you planning to sub some of the work out? Will you need a permit? Curious as I am in the planning stages also.

[Snap]

Reb Man,
I am not sure what the codes are in AZ, but in NC, you would not need a permit to convert your garage unless you are wanting to sell your home. If you do not have a permit, it can not be added as "heated Sq FT" on your appraisal in NC. But if you are planning on staying there a very long time you do not need one. It is not that hard in NC to get a permit to convert your garage over. The bigest problem people have is the HVAC. The inspector lots of times points out that your current HVAC is not big enough to handle the additional space. Sink will not have a problem cause he already has a HVAC in the garage.

[comeup]

I would raise the second row of seating one or two feet for better viewing.



Congradulations.........

[Burke Strickland]

Your diagram doesn't show much leg room for the second row of seats. Looks like getting into and out of those seats will be a hassle, to say nothing about the "comfort of having the front seats being kicked all the time by anyone sitting in the back row.

Given the dimensions of the space and the location of the side surrounds, neither row is really placed optimally for full effect. The back row is too close to the wall, and the side speakers are too far ahead of that row as well. Your rear speakers may be too far apart and too close to the side speakers to give much of a differentiated rear effect, as well.

You'd probably be better off with one row of seats out from the wall but not as far as the currently diagrammed first row, even if that means fewer seats. You could always pull the computer chair around and maybe bring in a couple of folding chairs for "overflow".

Ultimately the "right" setup depends on how many people will be using the room most often. If it is almosty always just going to be you or you and your wife, then fewer seats placed properly will be a more enjoyable arrangement most of the time. On the other hand if the only times you ever plan to use the room are when you have a crowd over, then pull the front row out far enough to let people get into the back row and recognize that there will not be a "best seat in the house". In that case, it would be accomodating your company more than optimizing the sound that would be more important

In either case, enjoy!

Burke

[RebelMan]

Snap, we are not planning to move anytime soon or in the foreseeable future. But you never know what circumstances can force a premature change of plans. I like to keep resale in mind whenever I am about to consider doing anything drastic to my home. I suspect the permit issues are similar in AZ. I just haven't gone that far with my plans yet to determine this. I agree with you that my biggest hurdle besides electrical will probably be the HVAC unit. Thanks.

[sikoniko]

I will get a permit. I will probably need to sub the electrical work out. I have a friend who is a certified electrician, but he recently tore his ACL, so I am not sure if I will be able to get his help.

I should have said this before, but the back row is planned on being raised.

for seating, I would like to accomodate 5 people at a time. My inlaws, her sister and myself would probably be what I would shoot for. Most of the time it would be just the wife and myself or a friend or two.

I have pocket doors on the drawing, but I think I am going to need to convert those into a regular door as the pocketed ones will rattle. bummer, as I wanted the space and flexibility the pocket doors offered.

currently, I only have 1 couch, so there is time to find the right seating solution for the room.

[ThomasW]

You might want to rethink the 'mud-room'. 38" wide really makes it a very narrow hallway. That's going to create a maze getting anything large in and out of the room.

Overall I think the primary design flaw is that it's trying serve too many different functions. As a result none will be close to optimal.

Were you to get rid of the wall that defines the mud room, get rid of the closet, move the workstation to the back corner, and forget about the false wall for the stereo rack and DVD shelves you'd have a more user friendly space (less claustrophobic). You could use free stand racks for DVD storage and a large 'curtain' to visually separate the HT from the laundry area.

Regardless of how you make the room you'll need diffusors/absorbers on the rear wall or the listeners in the back seats will get very poor SQ.

[sikoniko]

The washer and dryer is in one closet in the "mud room" and the water heater is in the other closet. those aren't moveable.

I am ok with a hallway. I do want optimal sound for center seat front row since i am the only one who really cares about sound.

[ThomasW]

The washer and dryer is in one closet in the "mud room" and the water heater is in the other closet. those aren't moveable.

Yes that was clear from your explanation.

You might want to take some measurements of different sofas, to see how they'll fit going through a 38" wide hallway and making a 90 degree turn.

If the goal is optimized SQ then getting rid of the short mudroom wall on the left and the equipment rack wall on the right will be beneficial.

Having the speakers basically in 'corners', boosts some frequencies and but not others. By placing the speakers away from any boundries you'll get more even in-room response.

[sikoniko]

I thought a perfect square would not be good? The sofa dimensions are dimensions of the current couch I have in the garage. at the time I have only one.

[ThomasW]

Square rooms can problematic when it comes to placing a subwoofer. That can be dealt with using bass traps.

If your really going to optimize the space acoustically, you might want to get a modeling program like CARA 2, or RPG Acoustics Room Optimizer, Also there's a freeware Excel spread sheet that can be useful. It's the file called Room Modes And Reverberation Time Calculator.

Note be sure to read about installing the Analysis ToolPak Translator 7.0 so the spreadsheet operates correctly

http://forum.studiotips.com/viewtopic.php?t=1414

[sikoniko]

thomas,

I appreciate your offers, and I hope to look into those programs when i get closer to construction. perhaps you would offer a design?

my requirements, knowingly against your recommendations are 2 new walls. one just inside the garage door, and one on the otherside, that would create a hallway. The reason for both walls are just as much to create a sound barrier for both the neighbors and the house. as it is right now, when the wife is home, i have to turn the stereo down as the sounds are audible in the house. i am planning on either double dry-wall or quietrock to help reduce the sound as well as help acoustics within the room.

dan