How to Design a Home Theater

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This is an overview of my DIY home theater build. I provided lots of details about wall, ceiling and riser construction processes to save money and enhance your movie watching experience. With my guidance, you too can build the home theater room of your dreams. This was one of my more challenging projects but well worth it. My family uses the home theater almost every day!

Why not transform your unfinished basement into your dream basement. I'll cover home theater design, soundproofing, led lighting ideas, acoustic panels, and drywalling. I used green glue acoustic compound and green glue acoustic caulk in my build. I also have home automation using Smarthings, google home and actions tiles.

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Carefully plan out your design. Use the space you have efficiently, but make sure there is plenty of room to walk around. Figure out how many people you want to be able to seat and then figure out what seating you want. Be sure to leave enough room for big theater seats to fully recline. Theater seating dimensions can be found online.

Take into account how many speakers you want and determine the optimal location. Figure out what kind of lighting you want and the placement of the lighting. Lastly, figure out what size TV or projector screen you want and make sure the seating is not too far away, or too close.

There are many types of wall construction you can use for soundproofing. No matter which one you choose, your goal is to isolate the inside of the room from the outside. My favorite options are the following:

-Double wall. This is simply two 2x4 construction walls next to each other but not touching. This is very effective but the wall is very thick so it takes up more room and makes your door jams wide.

-Staggered studs. This is a 2x6 top plate and bottom plate with staggered 2x4 studs. This is the construction I used.

In addition, you should do whatever you can to isolate the walls from the floor and ceiling. I made rubber isolating fasteners for the top plate and then just used double sill foam in between the bottom plate and the concrete floor.

Outlets can be a big sound leak point. In my build I also made sure the outlet boxes from the inside and outside wall never were in the same wall cavity and I also added acoustic putty to the back of the outlet.

If you have two rows of seating, a riser is a must. Carefully design the riser height so people reclined in the back row can still see the bottom of the screen, but also make sure there is plenty of head room for tall people. Also remember to consider how large your theater seats are when reclined.

The bar is basic 2x4 construction and ties into the riser. The Riser is treated 2X8s. I wired for everything I would think I would want. It has outlets for power seats and LED step lights.

I filled the entire riser with insulation and then covered it with two layers of 3/4" OSB. This is to make it very rigid so it doesn't turn into a huge drum when the bass hits.

If you want to sound proof your door openings you need to make sure you have a good seal when the door is closed. At the very least you need to use solid core doors. Some people will even add more mass by filling the doors with sand or adding mass to the outside of the door. You could also buy doors that are meant for sound proofing. If you have a heavy door, be sure to design you door framing accordingly.

I just used solid core doors with double perimeter seals and auto door bottoms (photo). I also extended the bottom of the door to minimize the gap and to attach the auto door bottom to.

Consider everything you think you might ever want, and wire for it. You will need to know speaker locations, HDMI locations and lighting locations.

I wired for Dolby Atmos, recessed lights, rear projector, LED riser lights, LED tray ceiling lights, power theater seats, front TV and LED wall lights.

Lastly, consider what you want to do with HVAC. If soundproofing is your only concern, then you may want to skip HVAC. Sound travels easily through ducts to the rest of the house. I wanted my room to still be comfortable with lots of people in it, so I added a return duct with soft ducting to reduce the ease that sound can travel and two supplies.

Insulate everything. I did a lot of research on this. It turns out, when you are filling a wall cavity that will be covered on both sides with drywall, fiberglass insulation provides a good solution for the money. There are many other options you can consider as well, such as Rockwool.

For the ceiling, my main considerations where isolation, ceiling height and appearance.

For isolation, I used resilient channel. I doubled it up under where the tray ceiling would be. This reduces its isolation properties but supports the extra mass much better. Safety first!

I designed the tray ceiling to be just deep enough to accommodate 4" recessed lights without having to cut a hole in the 1/2" OSB I sealed the room with (see sketch). Always make sure you have enough ceiling height to do a tray ceiling. Otherwise skip it.

When soundproofing the wall and ceilings you need to consider mass, sealing and isolation.

For mass, I first lined the room with 1/2" OSB. You can also just use two layers of drywall, but with the 1/2" OSB you can also screw into the wall to hang something without worrying about hitting a stud. Be sure seams on the first layer and second layer are offset.

To seal the room, I used Green Glue acoustic caulk on every seam I could find. Pretend your theater is a boat and it has to hold water.

Then Green Glue acoustic compound is used in between the OSB and the drywall. This compound is designed to reduce the transmission of vibration and sound through the walls.

If your going to have your own theater, you also need a place to put your equipment, store your movies, make popcorn and keep your favorite beverages cold.

This is an optional space and should be designed to meet your needs.

Now that the room is done, add the finishing touches. Carpet is a good floor covering to improve sound quality. I used carpet in most of my room with some vinyl plank in the back where we mostly eat and drink.

If you go with a bar top, select a countertop that fits the design of you room. Hang your TV or projector. Install your AV equipment. You might also want to consider acoustic panels to reduce echo and improve sound quality. I built my panels and they also have LED lighting behind them.

Now, grab a drink, pop up some popcorn and enjoy the show!