Finishing My Basement - Any Last Thoughts?

[BMXTRIX]

Drywall is supposed to start next week and those who know me here are aware that I'm pretty thorough, but still I don't want to eff this up since the drywall will close off some house access I used to have.

1. Two rooms + bathroom and some unfinished space.

2. Rec room area is dual wired for a projector and a flat panel LCD.

3. Wiring to both locations includes RGBHV, HDMI, 3 cat-5, power, and conduit.

4. Bedroom/office area has the same wiring and conduit.

5. Ethernet/Phone runs to both rooms.

6. 7.2 audio run to rec room - speakers will all be in-wall (except sub) as this will be a very 'kid friendly' space.

7. Lighting broken into 4 zones. A desk area in the rec room and 9 recessed lights in 3 rows with each row on it's own zone as it gets further from the screen location.

8. Screen will be a relocation of my 106" tab-tensioned motorized screen from my family room.

9. Control is all Crestron, which is what the rest of my house uses and I've got a ton of extra stuff already.

10. Bathroom has stereo run to it with a in-wall keypad for audio selection/volume control, etc.

11. All audio/video sources will be integrated into the existing house A/V system.

I'm trying not to leave something important off this list, but I think I've got everything covered.

I would really appreciate any thoughts from anyone else on this.

Thanks!

 

[highfigh]

If you can, isolate the music/theater room from the rest of the house' framing. DO NOT tie the theater's walls to the first floor joists or support columns if you want to avoid sending a lot of sound directly up to the rest of the house.

If the projector is ceiling mounted and you won't be able to run new cabling to it later, install some kind of ducting from an accessible location to the J-box where the cables come out.

 

[BMXTRIX]

If you can, isolate the music/theater room from the rest of the house' framing. DO NOT tie the theater's walls to the first floor joists or support columns if you want to avoid sending a lot of sound directly up to the rest of the house.

This would be nice, and something I thought of, but isn't realistic. We will be moving within 5 years so this is not my 'dream theater'. We actually have better sound in our family room with floor standing speakers and nicer audio gear.

If the projector is ceiling mounted and you won't be able to run new cabling to it later, install some kind of ducting from an accessible location to the J-box where the cables come out.

All displays have conduit runs to them for sure already.

Thanks!

 

[Davemcc]

Fill the walls with mineral wool insulation. It's very effective in isolating sound from room to room. Do the ceiling joists as well to limit sound transfer to the upstairs. When you do sell, you can have your realtor point out how well the sound is isolated and won't disturb somebody in another room or directly above. You might get your money back from this investment when you sell it.

 

[Rickster71]

I had someone ask me last year in a PM, about how to help eliminate dimmer noise.
I forget who asked, and somehow accidentally deleted the PM before I answered it.

Just in case it's not too late; though it sounds like you're past this point.

I've had success with running the dimmer circuits in MC cable and putting the dimmers in metal boxes with a metal mud-ring.
Also keeping all low voltage HT wiring as far away from the dimmer and it's circuit as possible.

 

[deedubb]

Having recently done my basement, the only thing I wished I did differently was lighting. I wish I had run a single light above my stereo rack, and a single light above my CD rack, both with separate switches. When I need to adjust the stereo or grab a movie/CD, it would have been nicer to have the switch right there, rather than have to go to the light switch and turn an an entire zone which is how it is set up.

Your list seems pretty comprehensive and I can't really think of anything else.

 

[Midwesthonky]

Is it safe to assume you have plenty of electrical outlets in useful locations? Since you are running a HT setup, I assume you had the electrical planned for that. But for the other rooms? Won't hurt to look at that aspect again.

I assume the bathroom is properly vented. The only other thing I can think of is if the bathroom has a common wall with one of the bedrooms or the HT to sound insulate the wall to limit noise transfer from the bathroom.

Sounds like one nice setup.

 

[onkyoampman2009]

Wow...

This would be nice, and something I thought of, but isn't realistic. We will be moving within 5 years so this is not my 'dream theater'. We actually have better sound in our family room with floor standing speakers and nicer audio gear.


All displays have conduit runs to them for sure already.

Thanks!

Yes DREAM THEATER is an AWESOME band!

 

[onkyoampman2009]

Also...

Also, when you're finished fishing your basement,
I need you to come over and finish mine. Thanks.

 

[BMXTRIX]

Finished building the soffit for the screen and got HDMI hardwired to the family room on the main floor before drywall closed that pathway off forever.

I appreciate the sound isolation stuff, but it's definitely not going to happen with this house and all I really want from the space is someplace to enjoy movies which is not my family room with kids directly overhead, which I'll get.

When I end up in my next place I will likely double drywall, green glue, and probably offset the joists to really isolate the room. But, I'm going a lot more basic on this one.