Basement project

[Elie]

I'm finishing at least one room in my basement, which is going to be my editing studio as well as my room for lan parties (for at least 4 people total) I'm also building a small washroom so I don't go up and down stairs each time.

The flooring is laminate like so...


The room being in the basement will be cool, so no need to provide any heating, although there will be one vent, however I will have two cold air return vents to suck the hot air back into the furnace.

I will have four workstations, for editing and gaming and 4 dual Ethernet/voice jacks, I will need to buy a 30inch Dell HDTV LCD as well as a 7.1 Yamaha receiver for watching movies and HD editing.

any other suggestions before the guy finishes dry walling? He is starting the dry walls tomorrow.

When I find my camera, (lost it somewhere in the house) I will take pics and post.

Cheers,
Elie

[Tjalfe]

pull all conceivable cables you can.. then double them up.. much easier to pull cables now than later. Cat5e/Cat6 RG6 Speaker etc... or.. place a nice electrical conduit in the wall to pull cables later. I just did that when I was sealing off a section of the basement. this way I can pull the cables I forgot later

[Elie]

Good point especially regarding speaker cable, thanks!!!!

I have a box of Cat 5 with me here, so I'm gonna run as many as I think I'll need, but the speaker wire will be interesting to figure out.

How about those plastic conduits you can by which are flexible, I'll pull a string through it and leave it there just in case I need to pull more.

Cool, thanks!

Cheers,
Elie

[Tjalfe]

I just got the standard Gray PVC type conduit from Home Depot.. I got a 2" diameter one, so I know I can fit any and all types of cables through thiat one
They are ridgid, but still have some flex to them. The thinner, the more flexible. I did not pull a string through it, but probably should have. I figured I could get a string through, if it was thin enough and tied it to a plastic bag, then sucked it through with my vacuum cleaner

For more ideas browse through this forum

http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/forumdisplay.php?f=19

The dedicated Hometheater design and construction forum

[schmosef]

Does your basement ever flood?

Laminate, looks nice and is quite durable but soaks up water like a sponge and then warps terribly.

I would consider tile or a utility grade carpet that's easy to replace.

[Elie]

Thanks tjalfe for the info, I'm heading now to home depot to pick up some stuff, I'll talk to the guys there to see what they have in terms of conduit.

That forum link will come in handy thanks!

To schmosef: another good point, can't say I will never have a flood because we all know Murphy's law

So Laminate looks much better, but tile is more ideal in cases like this, hmmmm gotta look into it, thanks for the tips!!

Cheers,
Elie

[Tjalfe]

tile will be awfully cold on your feet, espeically in the winter. If you install drycore flooring first, before the laminate it should take care of most moisture problems. If your basement is dry, you can install 1" foam with plywood on top for a nice warm floor.
www.mikeholmesfanforum.com has more information.. and most information there is based on local availability as holmes on homes is based out of Toronto

[az]

Don't get tiles, it will just be too cold. Get laminate or good carpet (which I personally don't find as good looking, but it soaks the high frequencies up a bit like in most peoples' living rooms, and also quietens the PCs down a tad and warms your feet. Your chair will not roll as easily, though

[gt40]

I've got tiles in the basement. They are cool in the winter, so we just use an area rug startegically placed where most of the traffic is.
It is remarkably refreshing in the summer thou
Laminate or carpet is very moisture prone, and carpet is especially hard to keep clean if you have pets (or children for that matter).
A drop ceiling is nice too, if you ever need to rewire for anything later. Usually it's fairly easy to put an opening in the drywall and drop cables down from up top, put a electrical box in and a fancy cover on.
I had mine prewired, but it's amazing how over the years you change the layout of the room!
all of a sudden your original wiring doesn't meet your requirements any more.

Oh, and if you want some 'cheap' wiring for speaker and such - good old fashioned NMD-90 is about as good as it gets
You can't beat it's price with any 14 gauge wire and even an audiophile wouldn't notice the diff between it an that fancy red stuff.

[Dr Mordrid]

IF the basement isn't humid/leaky then laminate is OK. Otherwise I advise **commercial grade** outdoor grade carpet tiles. If they get wet you replace just the damaged ones.

TIP: buy extras for repairs.

Dr. Mordrid

[Tjalfe]

laying laminate straight on the cement is not a great idea. Use a sub floor first.. eg.

[Dr Mordrid]

Agreed. Can't beat DRIcore

http://www.dricore.com/en/eindex.htm

Dr. Mordrid

[Mehen]

suggestion:

RUN CAT5E EVERYWHERE! It doubles up as excellent speaker cable! (seriously)

Also on the LAN party note - you are moreso in the TO area eh? (no one is near Winnipeg, /me=sad)

[Elie]

I just finished running 12 Cat5 cables in four different locations so I think I am covered, I also ran one coax for cable TV.

Yeah I am in the TO area

Regards,
Elie

[Tjalfe]

Good call on the Cat 5.. if you have more RG6 cable, you may want to run another run, just in case you decide to play with satellites too in the future.. oh yeah.. some phone cables may come in handy too, even though Cat5 will do that too.

For your network, I just saw that today only dell has their 8 port Gigabit switch on sale for half price

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/tuesday_report?c=ca&cs=CABSDT1&l=en&s=bsd