Booyaka's Garage to Family Entertainment Suite Thread

booyaka

booyaka

booyaka

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Right here we go.:D:D

After having another baby about 12 weeks ago and the need to move the bedrooms around again, it was agreed to finally get moving forward with the garage conversion.

Like most people I guess the garage has just become a storage for various junk and we discussed converting it last year and had plans drawn up and a building certificate issued. No need for planning permission as it was not needed.

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Existing floor plan on the left, proposed on the right.

The garage is a single story and "sticks" out the front of the house, so ideal for a TV/Cinema room as not attached to any other part of the house.

The plan is that this will become a TV/Cinema room as well as a office for me as I tend to work from home 2 days a week or so and the bedroom I currently use will become baby girls nursery!

Anyway - I would love to have had the time to do some of the work myself but decided that it would be easier to bring in a builder who would do most of the work for me. Yes the increased costs but realistically with a full time job and 2 kids under the age of 4 - it was never going to work!

We also agreed that we needed to keep some room at the rear of the garage as a store room for bikes/tumble drier etc so as you can see from the plans this has been modelled into the new structure.

So cleared the garage out this weekend

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This is where a new upvc door will go to keep the storage at the rear of the garage

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Garage door getting removed and bricked up and replaced with 8ft window etc

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The idea is the wall to the right hand side as you look down on the plans will be the TV wall.

One of the main specifications from the wife was that under NO circumstances would she allow speakers of any size to be mounted on the wall/floor etc. It was agreed that in wall speakers must be used so minimise the impact of the equipment. Also all Amp/PS3 etc must be hidden away.

Potential spec for all the important stuff goes something like this:

TV - Samsung PS59D6900 (to be purchased)
AMP - Onkyo 609NR (to be purchased)
SPEAKERS - Monitor Audio W280-LCR In-Wall Speaker x 3 for the fronts/centre & Monitor Audio W265 In-Wall Speaker for the rears (to be confirm and purchased)
SUB - No idea yet - needs research but budget approx £300.
SKy HD to be installed as well.

Already got PS3 and will consider a blu ray player purchase if nessecary.

Need to also work out all networking requirements for all equipment as I have a server that stores most of my film/tv requirements.

Then there is speaker cable that I need to look into in more detail!!:rolleyes:

Lots to be done!

Anyway - hopefully builders on site tomorrow morning and I will update as we progress.

Any comments/suggestions etc are welcome !!
 
Warbie said:
It's going to be great :)

Not interested in a projector?
Click to expand...

yeah - it was seriously on the agenda however I would have been budgeting £1k for PJ minimum and then needed another £300 or so for electric screen etc and I was starting to get serious beyond the original budget.

It something that I could work into the room at a later stage (albeit a bit of a hassle to add it later)

I couldn't justify £1.5k on a projector and £1k or so on a TV at this time, so decided to plump for a good TV at this time.

Also as with the speakers, the wife was NOT impressed when she saw pictures of projectors hanging from the roof of rooms etc. She allowing me to go this far - i didn't want to push it!
 
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Have a think about 265-FX or even 380-FX dipole inceiling rears instead of direct firing inwalls.

Give some thought as well to sound leakage. Double skin of plasterboard using one of the acoustic plasterboard products will help, as will mounting it on resilient bars.
 
Looks good! BTW, do you already have Sky? If not I can give you a voucher for half price for 12 months, would at least save you a bit of money!

Let me know ...
 
lucid said:
Have a think about 265-FX or even 380-FX dipole inceiling rears instead of direct firing inwalls.
Click to expand...

cheers - that's the difficulty - not real ability to test/demo in wall/in ceiling speakers!

Will take a look at those as well. Why, in your opnion, would in ceiling rears be better??
 
How were you going to stream the media to the tv and surround?

No htpc mentioned and I know that some of the samsung tvs have problems playing mkvs with dts soundtracks and running sd audio/video through a system like that is a prisonable offence!
 
booyaka said:
Why, in your opnion, would in ceiling rears be better??
Click to expand...
It's not so much inceiling versus inwall, but diffuse versus direct radiating. The -FX versions are dipole/bipole speakers. They'll produce a diffuse soundfield at the rear. This creates a more convincing surround effect.

If there was an inwall version of the -FX's I'd have suggested that in preference, but the benefits of diffuse outweigh the smaller compromise of inceiling compared to inwall.
 
Make sure those single skin walls are treated against the passage of moisture. A waterproofing compound applied on the internal face,& well insulated when you install the battening & plasterboard.

Have a friend who did the same as you, his council got him to replace the floor in his garage as it was uninsulated & no damp proof membrane, & didn't meet building regs for using the room as a habitable space.

Ended up having to laid 4" or so of insulated sheets before pouring new concrete floor.:mad:
 
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Nightglow said:
Make sure those single skin walls are treated against the passage of moisture. A waterproofing compound applied on the internal face,& well insulated when you install the battening & plasterboard.

Have a friend who did the same as you, his council got him to replace the floor in his garage as it was uninsulated & no damp proof membrane, & didn't meet building regs for using the room as a habitable space.

Ended up having to laid 4" or so of insulated sheets before pouring new concrete floor.:mad:
Click to expand...

should be all good on that front - all the relevant information is on the drawings and a decent builder should be able to sort that all out. but thanks.
 
lucid said:
It's not so much inceiling versus inwall, but diffuse versus direct radiating. The -FX versions are dipole/bipole speakers. They'll produce a diffuse soundfield at the rear. This creates a more convincing surround effect.

If there was an inwall version of the -FX's I'd have suggested that in preference, but the benefits of diffuse outweigh the smaller compromise of inceiling compared to inwall.
Click to expand...

cheers for information. will have a good look at those and will check depth etc of fixings for putting them in the ceiling.
 
sHo0sH said:
How were you going to stream the media to the tv and surround?

No htpc mentioned and I know that some of the samsung tvs have problems playing mkvs with dts soundtracks and running sd audio/video through a system like that is a prisonable offence!
Click to expand...

sorry, PS3 will stream most of my stuff from my existing server.
 
I've used 'Dado Trunking' around my corner desk in my pc dive,started with 4 double sockets, now up to 6 doubles, have space for a few more if I need to upgrade.

As for my tv area, I put in 5 doubles, av amps, sky,dvd, tv, htpc, etc, surprised how many I needed.
 
25m's of van damme 2.5mm blue speaker cable ordered so that I have it in advance of needing to think about position of the speakers - mainly the rears as this will have to be in before the plasterboarding etc goes up.
 
Builder was here from 9.30 till 7pm and electrician has been in today as well but no pictures as builder has taken garage key home with him tonight by accident!!:grin:
 
Update time

Garage door removed, electrics for lighting and sockets etc all fitted, plumbing for radiator all in.

Frame work for the store etc is in place as well.

Cat5e cabling and rear speaker wiring put in tonight by me. Should be all in the correct positions!:god: (have checked and double checked!)

Flooring joists are all down and fitted as you can see below. Roof has been a bit of a pain as there is a slight slope front to back and therefore joiner had to fit a whole new framework for the internal roof to make sure it's all level.

Kit list is just about sorted now

Onkyo 609NR
Samsung 59" 6900
Front speakers x 3 - Monitor Audio W280-LCR In Wall Speaker
Rear speakers x 2 - Monitor Audio C380-FX In Ceiling Speaker
Sub - XLS200-DF MK2 Subwoofer (pretty set on this now)
PS3 (got already)
Wii (got already)
Sky HD box (multiroom to be fitted)

Wiring for speakers is 2.5mm Van damme blue

Server will stream most of my media via PS3

A few pictures but it was pretty dark when I got home tonight so they are not that good!

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Out of interest did you need planning permission to change your garage to a 'habitable room'? Our next door neighbours did need that permission as it was written into the deeds (i think) that the garage could only be used for the storing of a car or other equipment and could not be used as a living space, wouldnt want you to get so far down the route and then have the local planning officer come around and tell you to stop!
 
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