The RowdyS13 build thread!

ellisr63

ellisr63

Full Audioholic
Coming along great! Pretty soon you will be watching movies with your family, and friends!
 
TheWarrior

TheWarrior

Audioholic Ninja
Looks great!

You may already plan to do this, but double layer drywall works extremely well for containing sound in its intended space. The ceiling and back wall by the stairs would be perfect for this!
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Thanks guys! I did think about double drywall, but I am going to pass on it. I could really only do it on the ceiling which would help, but just not worth the effort. The room wont even be completely closed off (I cant really add a door at the stairs) so there is not much sense in going crazy anywhere else. I am only doing the insulation because its super cheap, and helps stop the bass. Really though it probably wont have much of an effect anyway.


Sean
 
ParadigmDawg

ParadigmDawg

Audioholic Overlord
That reminds me of the construction work I do.

Well, I mean if I had any skills, a screwdriver and a saw or whatever the thing is that you cut stuff with.

Looks great and it's going to be awesome.
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
That reminds me of the construction work I do.

Well, I mean if I had any skills, a screwdriver and a saw or whatever the thing is that you cut stuff with.

Looks great and it's going to be awesome.
LOL, thanks! If I can do it, anyone can! I have never really done "construction" before I started on this project. Just like anything else, having the right tools helps immensely.


While we are here, I may as well give you guys the weekly update. No pics this week since it was all pretty minor work. Saturday my brother in law came by and gave me a hand insulating the duct work. The two ducts that feed the room are getting new boots (apparently that is the term for the end of the duct) so it was almost easy to slide some insulation over them. In practice it ended up being a bit more of a pain in the ass than that, but we got them covered. I had to order new boots since the ones I bought were for floor installation, and also not the correct angle. I have nice fancy ones coming this week and after I finish wrapping the last duct that will all be done.

Yesterday I finished removing the stupid braces they used to hold the joist during constriction. I am not sure I mentioned this before, but they were held in with these crazy long staples. Plus most of them were split, so they were just kind of there. So I removed what was left finally which will make it easier to insulate it.

I also ended up changing my speaker arrangement some. As you saw last week I built up all of the surround and surround back speakers which are staying like that. If anyone can remember back far enough, I had run 4 wires into the ceiling for Atmos or whatever other "3D Sound" format. I never really did my due diligence on the new formats which means I never realized that they all have pretty vastly different speaker locations. After doing some research, and putting some thought into it yesterday I decided to change it to a 7.2.2 configuration and take the additional two runs out. This allows me to position the two Atmos channels properly (if I ever even use them), and makes the wiring a little less complicated. It also allowed me to pull the new sub cable for the back of the room, which I also got done. Other than that I just installed some bridle rings to support everything.

This weekend I am planning on closing up the ceiling! I have a very little bit of work to finish up, and then it is 100% ready for insulation and drywall. I also ordered up the supplies for making the counter top for the bar. I need to get a couple people to help with that one though, so I am not sure I will be able to knock it out this weekend. Still a long way to go, but getting closer by the day :)



As always, thanks for following along!

Sean
 
3db

3db

Audioholic Slumlord
Wow fawking awesome!!!!!. I wish I had your talent and confidence to something like that. Great job!!
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Thank you! Talent is a bit of a stretch, I have no idea what I am doing!

It is looking like drywall is going up this weekend, and I should be pouring the bar top in a couple weeks (20th). I cant wait to see it all closed off again!


Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
My attempt to have a drywalled ceiling this weekend have officially failed. This will now be the third time that I had wanted to do something early on, was talked out of it only to have to go back and do it anyway.

For this specific problem, I was going to install some resilient channel from the very start. I was talked out of it by a few different people, and settled on some insulation and a single layer of 5/8" drywall. So this weekend I go and get all of the drywall, a drywall lift, and get all set up to put up a ceiling. I of course started with the insulation which really sucks a whole hell of a lot! I can say I am seriously second guessing finishing that part of the project. I moved on to the first sheet of drywall. I only had one can light in this piece (because my Speediboot's STILL haven't come in yet), and I got it perfect on the first shot. It was worth the money to get the big ass hole saw :) The lift worked perfect, and also was worth the not expensive at all rental. However, when I went to screw in this piece it was immediately evident that the joist are VERY not level. Just on that one piece along the outside wall there was probably close to 3/8" or more between them.

Hopes and dreams were dashed, and I knew I wouldn't have a ceiling this week. I returned the drywall lift, and sulked watching a movie and eating some pizza. A few movies later, and here I am trying to get a game plan set to make this right. So lets dive into questions!!!

1. Is it worth insulating my ceiling? I have asked before, but I cant remember what it REALLY does for me.
2. How helpful will a laser be when trying to shim out the resilient channel to a level field?
3. ANY tips or tricks to making any of this easier are GREATLY appreciated!

I am really hoping I can have everything ready to put drywall up next weekend. That will mean getting the resilient channel grid all up and level during the week, as well as insulation if I finish that. I do have tomorrow free (Labor Day), so I could knock out some work. I will probably close up the walls since that is mostly just patch work.


Thanks,
Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Small update time! I couldn't let the entire weekend go to waste, so I got off my ass and did a little bit yesterday. I started off by running to the Home Teapot and got some R30 pink fluffy stuff to fill up my back wall. Insulating walls is SO MUCH BETTER! It took me longer to get myself changed and all set up than it actually took to fill the wall with insulation. Too bad I have so many wires, and pipes in my ceiling so I pretty much have to do multiple layers.

Anyway, here is the back wall all stuffed


First piece of drywall up!


And done!


I then patched up my right side surround location, which if you remember is my return air duct.


I was a little off with my lower measurement for some reason. Not bad enough to remake the piece though, so it's staying. I applied some silicone around the wood frame, and between the piece and the sheet metal. Seems perfect, no air being pulled though the trim ring, and plenty of air being pulled through the vent at the bottom of the wall!

After that was done I cut the plywood top for the bar. I will update with that later since that is pretty much its own project.

I was able to borrow a rotary laser today, so now I can see how bad the ceiling really is. I would really like to get the channel all installed and leveled off this week so that I can drywall over the weekend. Then next week I can focus on getting the bar ready to pour the following weekend. I have a fair amount of work ahead of me, but I think I can pull it off!


Thanks for following along!
Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Another weekend and more progress! Today we are going to look back at that time I decided I needed a bar in my theater.

So we have all seen the basic frame built and in place, that means we can jump into everything else. I started by putting up drywall on the surfaces I don't need open anymore.




Once that was done I started to build up my temporary support.




Then came the concrete board base. I used a very rigid fiber reinforced product that was impossible to cut! I ended up cutting the end with my circular saw... inside... That didn't go well, the wife was kind of upset :) Anyway, here it is all installed.


The concrete board was held in place with some silicone, and then I installed the outside forms.


Next up was the fiber mesh, which was held in place with clips that are screwed down to the concrete board. Simple system that holds it in the perfect location while you pour. No worries about it being pushed to the bottom, or floating to the top!


Now we were ready to pour. I didn't get any pics of this process since I was busy, but its pretty straight forward. I used an additive and coloring from www.concretecountertopsolutions.com, so I mixed one bag of additive, 3 scoops of color (charcoal), and 2 quarts of water in a bucket. Then add in a 60lb bag of sand/topping mix and a bit more water, once that was mixed we split it into two buckets to make it easier to carry and pour.

After running to get more concrete (more on that in a sec) everything was poured and being floated by my uncle.


Starting to hard trowel it


So this is where it gets interesting. As I mentioned I was using an additive for the mix, and I had calculated it multiple times, and for larger sizes than what I poured, and always came up with needing 5 bags of concrete. The additive is one bag per one bag of concrete. After going through all 5, we were just a little short. We all thought, no big deal I will go and get more. We still had plenty of the color additive, and the concrete was easy to get, we can just mix up that last little bit without the additive and keep on truckin! Turns out that the additive was much more than just acrylic fibers, and there was a drastic difference in how it poured, and more importantly how it finished.

Here is an area that was mixed with everything as planned, the finish was (is) BEAUTIFUL!


Just a couple inches to the side, you can see the little bit without the additive


We were able to work it a little bit more than that, and it dried better as well. It still needs to be fixed though, and I am concerned more with how well it filled the profile. I ordered up the material I need to fix it today after talking with the company a bit. I am fairly confident that I can patch it up and make everything look nice with some time.

I am glad to get that project at least mostly done. I really cant wait to get the ceiling closed off, which is coming up next! Thanks for following along.


Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Well, I guess it may as well be update time :)

Not really a whole lot to report I guess. I worked on getting the resilient channel up last weekend, and got almost all of it done. I started by getting myself a nice self leveling Bosh laser, and hanging it up in the corner.



I found my low spot from there, and then adjusted the laser down 1/2" (the height of the channel) so now I had a nice line across the whole room to aim for. Since I was doing this by my self, I had to come up with a way to hold them up by the ceiling while I worked on leveling everything at the joist. I decided that my best option would be to attach them in the middle, and work out from there each direction. So I found my center joist, and marked it. Then I measured down from there to the beam so I could get the spacing close. Most of the points were 1/2" off from the low point, so I was able to use two pieces of 1/4" thick lath that I had bought on impulse. That made things a million times easier since I could put up one or two of those to fill most of the gap, and then shim just a little bit if I needed to. Once I had the appropriate amount of lath in place I would attach the channel with one loose screw and move out one joist. I would more or less repeat the first step, but after the first piece was in (against the wall) I would measure center to center on both joist to make sure I was square. Then I just had to shim a bit (usually) and run the screws in, and go to the next spot. It was time consuming since every point needed something, whether it was one or two pieces of lath, and/or some shims as well. I tried to take my time on this part since I know it will pay off 10 fold when I go to hang up the drywall.

I was able to get all of the full length pieces installed, and started on the short pieces in the back area. I had more trouble there because of how I was trying to do it. I only got a few pieces up and they were not right, so I stopped for the weekend. Here is how it looked the end of Saturday, before I finished up the full length pieces on Sunday.


I still need to finish up the back of the ceiling, and then put up the insulation. I want to get all of that done this weekend/next week so that I can hang drywall the following weekend. I also need to patch the bar, sand it, stain it (I want it darker) and seal it. The bar will be a separate post when I get more done with it, but it looks awesome!! I took the molds off last week, and was VERY happy with how they came out.

That's all I got for now. I am glad I decided to take the time and level off the ceiling after seeing just how bad it was. It wasn't very expensive to do, and I think the end result will justify the time spent. As always, thanks for following along!


Sean
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
Very impressive work being done. This is my first time seeing your build on here and since I'm at work I only skimmed over it (mostly just checking the visuals) and I can tell already that once you're finished that's going to look great and based on your equipment choices it's going to sound fantastic as well.
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Thanks Seth! I really cant wait for it to be finished. There is still a lot left to do, but I think once the ceiling is in Ill start to feel like there is light at the end of the tunnel.


Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
More work done! Ill keep it short and get to the pics

Couple detail shots of the grid going up




Notice no shims or spacers. AKA the low point


And here you can see 4 spacers for a full inch of adjustment!
.

Grid done, and insulation 95% done!


I also removed the supports from under the bar, and it didn't collapse (yet), so that's good :)

This week I am going to finish that last bit of insulation, install the other speedi-boot, and all of the mud rings. Then I should be ready for drywall (FINALLY) next weekend.


Sean
 
1

1dwn5up

Enthusiast
Wow! This is a huge undertaking, great job. What is the circular pattern cutout for on the ground in the first post, last picture?
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Thank you! I believe you are looking at the sump pump cover. I am planning on building a box to cover that up a little later.

So I finally have a ceiling again!!!! I'm glad I took the time when putting up the channel the last couple of weeks, it made putting up the drywall go nice and smooth. Friday I put up the last speediboot, and generally just got everything ready. Saturday morning I went and picked up the drywall lift, and my in-laws came by to help us out. My father in law and I got the ceiling all up in a few hours while the wife and her Mom decorated the house for Halloween.

Well it is just a ceiling, so here are the pics of it all done.

Looking at the screen wall


Looking at the back


This place is a damn mess though!



Well that is all for now. I need to finish up the walls, and then start the massive project of mudding and taping everything. I am not looking forward to it, but it will be nice when its finally done.

Thanks for following along!
Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
So I decided I wanted to get something done on the basement today. I figured why not get the screen up?!

So I did!


Then, why not set the projector up on a ladder?!

So I did!




That's all for now since I am going to have to take it back down to mud and tape. It was cool seeing it for the first time though, and put a big smile on my face :)


Sean
 
Rowdy S13

Rowdy S13

Audioholic Chief
Well it has been quite a while since I had an update for you guys. Lets just say its been a whole lot of back and forth as far as progress is concerned. I will try and keep this as short as possible which is not something I am known for :) Lets just get straight to the pictures!

Starting with not very exciting stuff, I finally got the wiring for the office run though the wall. I still haven't cut these in, but at least they are in the wall now. This is five CAT6 and one HDMI that just go to the main equipment closet. The HDMI is just there in case I want to display my main computer on the screen, or use one of my monitors to display the server/HTPC. Really, I have no specific use for it, but its there :) The CAT6 is so that I can transfer files between my main computer and my server/HTPC quicker and easier. I need to get new network cards for both before I can take advantage of that.


Next up was cutting in the low voltage rings along the front wall. After I ran a screw so far into my finger that I needed to use the drill to take it back out, it all went very smoothly. That is until I realized that my spacing was not going to work out! Since this project has been going on since the dawn of time, I totally forgot that the studs on the left side were directly under two of my planned locations. My OCD was having none of that, so I took down that drywall and am planning on redoing it with the same spacing on both sides. Here it was when things were good though.


Then came some simple drywall on the side wall. You can see here the "box" I built to mount the surround to. This actually worked out really well as you will see later.


I got the rest of my Insteon switches installed and at least partly programmed.


I kept working my way around the room, and got to work on installing the brackets for the surround backs. Turns out I only had one though so here it is in all its glory!


This is when things started to slip back downhill. I was on a roll knocking out these little punch list items so I decided to keep it moving and jump on the projector. I am using a Chief mount which uses NPT piping to attach it to the ceiling. After finding a pipe flange that is made in the USA I machined the surfaces for no particular reason :)




I did also drill out the holes after these pics for those of you who may be wondering.

I started out by getting the screen positioned properly first, then worked on getting the projector positioned based on the screen. That was a little tricky, but I thought I had it figured out. I marked up the holes and drilled then with a small bit to start. That was when I realized that I was not hitting anything other than drywall!!! I had installed wood between the joist in the area that the projector was going, and after checking my old pics and taking some measurements I determined I must be just outside the wood. So down came the piece of drywall so I could see what was going on. This piece was cut a bit off anyway so I wasn't too upset I needed to take it down.


Sure enough I had just missed the wood with two of the screws, and the other two were further out :( I also found out that I would need to remove the piece of drywall closer to the screen in order to fix this little debacle. As it turned out this was a bit of a blessing in disguise. I decided to switch to some DIY subs somewhere around this time, but I had no speaker wire connections in the back of the room. With that drywall down I would be able to pull the needed wires to do everything properly. Once I got to this point I shifted my focus back to the bar top debacle. I will stick with my theme of keeping that whole project for a separate post. What it means for this update is that I couldn't do anything down there for a few weeks.

Once that was all over (not really, but I needed to move on) I received my EMP Tek E55Wi speakers that I ordered during the black Friday/cyber Monday sale! I was pretty pumped to finally get some gear for this project, so of course I got them mounted up right away :)




Here you can see how perfect the "box" I built for the left surround worked out. If you don't remember there was a header over the window (obviously) so I built a box out of 2x3's to hold the speaker out a little bit. This allowed me to have some extra speaker wire behind the speaker just in case, and also allowed the speaker to sit flat with banana plugs installed.


On the right hand side I did pretty much the same thing except that it was all behind the drywall. I had to do this on this side because the speaker was being mounted on the return air duct for the basement. I am sure it was overkill (you can see the pics of this work elsewhere in here) but I didn't want any leaks and I wanted the speaker to sit flat. Mission accomplished!




We are finally caught up to this past weekend (December 19-20) where I finally closed off the ceiling again. Not very exciting, but I started by taking down (carefully this time) the forward piece of drywall.


I then started to get everything ready to pull the new wire. I was going to use the existing RG-6 to pull back two pairs of 12 gauge speaker wire and two RG-59 coax cables. I meant to get RG-6 of course, but accidentally bought RG-59. I was not feeling well as it was Saturday when I figured this out, but it was much more flexible (and thinner), and from what I could tell should work fine if I ever actually need it which is VERY unlikely. So after much debate, I stuck with the RG-59 for the two rear sub connections. It turned out to be a NIGHTMARE to pull the wire! I had done this once before already (changing the wiring), but I spent hours trying to get this going to no avail. Eventually I folded and took down even more drywall.


I immediately saw my problem (no pic) and felt like an idiot. I had put a bridle ring close to the end of the joist, so the wire had to come through the header and make two immediate bends to both come down the joist bay and make it though the bridle ring. Not sure how I forgot that, but it was really easy once I had it all exposed. After I got the wire pulled though to the other room (still need to fish it around to its final location) I put up the extra wood I needed around the projector, and then put up the drywall I took down. All of this was over the bar, so not very easy to get to with the lift. The two pieces I kept were not TOO bad to get back into place (with a few new screws for good measure), but the piece I had to remake was a bear to get put in. I had to straddle the end of the bar with the lift, and have the sheet hang way past center to reach into position. Couple that with the fact I was fighting butt joints on all 4 sides at once, it was a real blast. All's well that ends well though, and I never even got charged for the lift rental so I can't complain too much.

Yesterday I was a bit motivated after work and decided to get the projector mounted up. I am sure I way over thought this whole process, but I took about a million measurements to make sure I had it positioned perfectly. Would you believe that after ALL OF THAT, the mount ended up landing squarely on the wood that I had originally put up! The first time I went to install the projector mount I measured a bunch, but I still wasn't positive that I had it right. That was why I spent about an hour with lasers, a tape, checking and double checking and it was well off from the first time. Oh well I guess, at least I know I have room to move the mount if I change the projector, and I was able to add that extra wire. Here are some pics of the projector all mounted up (that nipple was just one I had laying around), and some images after a quick adjustment.


Just a little off, but again I didn't spend much time since it will move quite a bit when I finish everything.


I put on a BD rip of Gravity just to see what it looked like and it was amazing! For being a budget projector and screen I was happy with the image!




Blacks even looked pretty good to me. Keep in mind all of these are shitty cell phone pics


OK, that is probably enough for now :) I can't believe it, we are finally all caught up! We are really hoping to get this project wrapped up pretty quickly after the holidays. My buddy is coming by on the 8th to finish the last of the electrical, and then I can finish the last of the drywall. Then we are gonna get some quotes to get it all mudded and taped, then some paint. I am hoping to order the rest of the speakers, and possibly the subs in the next couple of weeks. There is still quite a lot to do, and quite a bit of money to be spent, but the end is in sight now! Hopefully there is far less backwards progress than there has been lately and we can start enjoying the finished product.

Thanks for following along, and sorry if this was a bit long winded.

Sean
 
Seth=L

Seth=L

Audioholic Overlord
Gravity is great demo material. I don't know that I would ever watch the movie beginning to finish again (although it is pretty short). I usually just cherry pick the scenes I want to watch then put the movie away.
 

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