Tuesday, October 16, 2007
HVAC Vents Installed
Maybe we're being picky, but we don't like these at all. 
(This issue was brought up during the design phase)
What do you think?
Art Niche Lights Installed
Art Niche lights installed today. Picture below shows lights on curved wall. (Framed art to be suspended by wire fittings in front of curved wall)
Picture below shows lights above art niche
Cambria Counter Tops installed
The Cambria counter tops were installed today. Here are a couple of pictures:
It is difficult to take good pictures at night due to having minimal lighting actually working, and having so many uncovered hard surfaces (especially windows) to reflect the flash.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
Sound Proofing - Resilient Sound Channel
This entire blog could be dedicated to sound proofing. There is a lot to say about it. This is a very important element of a quality finished basement.
It was quite shocking to find out how little designers and building/remodeling companies know about sound proofing. We asked this question of all the contractors that came to bid on the project. In general the answers were extremely poor. Makes me want to email them a link to http://www.avsform.com/ to show them how little they know about soundproofing.
I think everyone wants a quiet house, but the average person doesn't realize that they can't trust their builder to deliver this as just part of the package. If you want it, you have to know to ask for it, and you have to watch how they do it because small mistakes can eliminate the benefits of your efforts in other areas.
But I'm not going to dwell on this. The finished basement company was willing to work with us and were open to hearing our ideas. But, we selected them for other reasons and not at all because of their knowledge or expertise with sound proofing.
We focused on the basics and did not attempt to implement drastic solutions like building a room within a room (which can actually be accomplished by losing only a few inches and isn't as difficult or absurd as it sounds).....
To start, we have 15" ceiling joists. We packed them with insulation. After they were done, I bought some insulation and supplemented where I felt they had not done a good job.
Second, we insisted on using resilient sound channel on the ceiling. Ideally it would have been on the walls too. Resilient sound channel helps keep sound from transferring into the ceiling joist and in turn the room above by minimizing the surface area of the sheetrock against the joists, and by placing rubber washers that act as vibration dampeners between the rock and the joists.
Next, we learned that it is not standard practice to insulate interior walls, so that had to be identified and written into the plan. Not hard to do, but we didn't realize that it was something additional we had to ask for.
Last but not least, the design called for very large sofits which increased the space between floors and added more room for insulation. This was unintended from a design aspect, but played well into our desire to sound proof the basement as much as possible.
I was, however, infuriated and wanted to call the whole project off, when the HVAC guy came to do his part. He apparently made NO EFFORTS to sound proof. There is so much that can be done from an HVAC perspective. If I had been around to micro-manage the project, I would have insisted that the last 5 feet of the HVAC run be flexible hose vent instead of tin which will carry the sound throughout the house. I am very dissappointed in this aspect of the project. I am now looking into a sound absorbing adhesive spray that you can spray into the HVAC vents to dampen the sound and not allow the HVAC system to become an intercom system for distributing audio all throughout the house.
This is unnecessary additional costs that I'm assuming because they weren't with the program. If I were to do this again, I would expend more efforts getting them to realize that sound proofing is an entire program that has to apply to every aspect of the project. They just saw it as 2 or 3 additional tasks and did not share our end goal.
It was quite shocking to find out how little designers and building/remodeling companies know about sound proofing. We asked this question of all the contractors that came to bid on the project. In general the answers were extremely poor. Makes me want to email them a link to http://www.avsform.com/ to show them how little they know about soundproofing.
I think everyone wants a quiet house, but the average person doesn't realize that they can't trust their builder to deliver this as just part of the package. If you want it, you have to know to ask for it, and you have to watch how they do it because small mistakes can eliminate the benefits of your efforts in other areas.
But I'm not going to dwell on this. The finished basement company was willing to work with us and were open to hearing our ideas. But, we selected them for other reasons and not at all because of their knowledge or expertise with sound proofing.
We focused on the basics and did not attempt to implement drastic solutions like building a room within a room (which can actually be accomplished by losing only a few inches and isn't as difficult or absurd as it sounds).....
To start, we have 15" ceiling joists. We packed them with insulation. After they were done, I bought some insulation and supplemented where I felt they had not done a good job.
Second, we insisted on using resilient sound channel on the ceiling. Ideally it would have been on the walls too. Resilient sound channel helps keep sound from transferring into the ceiling joist and in turn the room above by minimizing the surface area of the sheetrock against the joists, and by placing rubber washers that act as vibration dampeners between the rock and the joists.
Next, we learned that it is not standard practice to insulate interior walls, so that had to be identified and written into the plan. Not hard to do, but we didn't realize that it was something additional we had to ask for.
Last but not least, the design called for very large sofits which increased the space between floors and added more room for insulation. This was unintended from a design aspect, but played well into our desire to sound proof the basement as much as possible.
I was, however, infuriated and wanted to call the whole project off, when the HVAC guy came to do his part. He apparently made NO EFFORTS to sound proof. There is so much that can be done from an HVAC perspective. If I had been around to micro-manage the project, I would have insisted that the last 5 feet of the HVAC run be flexible hose vent instead of tin which will carry the sound throughout the house. I am very dissappointed in this aspect of the project. I am now looking into a sound absorbing adhesive spray that you can spray into the HVAC vents to dampen the sound and not allow the HVAC system to become an intercom system for distributing audio all throughout the house.
This is unnecessary additional costs that I'm assuming because they weren't with the program. If I were to do this again, I would expend more efforts getting them to realize that sound proofing is an entire program that has to apply to every aspect of the project. They just saw it as 2 or 3 additional tasks and did not share our end goal.
Enough ranting....
Whole House Audio 12-Zone Speaker Selector
Before finishing the basement we had 7 audio zones in the whole-house-audio system:
- Kitchen
- Great Room
- Dining Room
- Office
- Master Bed
- Master Bath
- Deck
The first zone was set up to speakers A on the A/V receiver. The other 6 zones were wired to a high power Niles Audio 6-zone speaker selector.
Finishing the basement will add the following zones:
- Theater
- Bar
- Exercise Room
- Garage
- Patio 1
- Patio 2
The dilemma is whether to replace the 6-zone speaker selector with a 12-zone selector, or to just add another 6-zone selector.
Unfortunately, Niles Audio is not making the HDL-6 speaker selector anymore.It would be ideal to go with the 12-zone selector because we actually have 13-zones and a 12-zone selector would allow us to continue to use the A/V receiver A/B speaker selector as the additional zone. 
Looking at the Russound Pro-12HP.
No decisions yet.
HD-DVD Player Purchased
Previously had the HD-A1 1st generation HD-DVD player. Decided to upgrade the the HD-A30 3rd generation player. Additional features of the A30 are:
- 1080p/24 support. This is a relatively new feature just recently being supported display manufacturers. The reason why this is a big improvement is that Blu-Ray & HD-DVD discs are encoded in this format. So, no video processing has to occur at all. The video can be sent directly to the display without introducing any processing artifacts.
- Upconversion to 1080p vs 1080i with HD-A1. The A30 is supposedly better at upconversion than the HD-A1, though I thought the HD-A1 was pretty awesome at upconverting, so this is of little additional value to me.
- CE-Link -> allows the player to communicate with and control other HDMI-CEC compliant devices.
- Slimmer design. The HD-A1 is rather large.
- Supposedly faster and more responsive (HD-DVD players are computers and need to "boot" up. They are not instant on devices)
The most important feature to me is #1 above.
Best deal was: http://www.valueelectronics.com/AVSTC.HTM
$50 less than most retailers with free shipping and 7 free HD-DVDs (including 300, and Bourne Identity)
Specs from vendor:
http://www.tacp.com/tacpassets-images/models/hd-a30/docs/hd-a30_spec.pdf
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Infra-Red distribution
The designer wanted the audio/video equipment to be located in a closet in another room. To accomplish this, you either have to have an RF remote, or you need to place an IR sensor in the theater room and run wires to the A/V closet.
Even though I expect to have an RF remote (probably the Pronto TSU9400), I want to be sure that I have the option to use RF if I need it. I decided to run additional wires to the great room on the main floor and outside, so that an RF remote could be used throughout the house 
(thinking more of the next homeowner than myself).
(thinking more of the next homeowner than myself).Purchased a system from Xantech with 10 IR emitters.
Purchased blinking IR emitters for troubleshooting purposes.
Was surprised at the cost of the sensor (bottom picture), compared to the very reasonable costs of the other pieces.
Purchased 18 gauge wire to use as backbone for the distribution system.
Automatic Speaker Selectors
Russound AB-3.2 Automatic Speaker Selector
To be used with home theater surround speakers to allow them to also be used as whole house audio speakers.
Purchased through Amazon.com
Speaker selectors will be mounted in A/V closet.
Speaker selectors will be wired to the volume controls.
Volume Controls will be wired to speakers.
Whole House Audio & Surround Sound Speakers
The home theater surrounds (aka 5.1) and rear surrounds (aka 7.1) will serve dual duty as both home theater speakers as well as whole house audio speakers.
These speakers will be wired with automatic speaker selectors, and speaker volume controls. The whole house audio input will be the secondary input. The home theater will be the primary audio input. When the home theater is on, the whole house audio signal will be ignored.
Since the home theater speakers are definitive (BP2004), it made sense to use definitive speakers are the surround channels as well. These are bipolar speakers, meaning they have 2 speaker drivers that work simulataneously to produce sound in 2 directions at the same time.
Here are the specs.
UIW BP/A
Rectangular Bipolar Built-In Loudspeaker with 5-1/4" DriversSpecificationsMounting Dimensions:
Outer Flange Size: 7-1/8" W x 12- 1/2" H
Cut-Out Size: 6-1/8" W x 11-7/16" H
Depth from Flange(including drywall thickness): 3-5/8"
Frequency Response: 28Hz - 30kHz
Driver Complement:Two 5-1/4" Bass/Midrange Drivers with Non-Resonant Cast Baskets Two 1" Pure Aluminum Dome TweetersCanted Bipolar Baffle System
Recommended Amplification:10 — 250 Watts/channel
Nominal Impendance: 4 — 8 ohms
Retail: $499 pr
Purchased 2 pairs for $300/pr from ebay seller (new).
These speakers will be wired with automatic speaker selectors, and speaker volume controls. The whole house audio input will be the secondary input. The home theater will be the primary audio input. When the home theater is on, the whole house audio signal will be ignored.
Since the home theater speakers are definitive (BP2004), it made sense to use definitive speakers are the surround channels as well. These are bipolar speakers, meaning they have 2 speaker drivers that work simulataneously to produce sound in 2 directions at the same time.
Here are the specs.
UIW BP/A
Rectangular Bipolar Built-In Loudspeaker with 5-1/4" DriversSpecificationsMounting Dimensions:
Outer Flange Size: 7-1/8" W x 12- 1/2" H
Cut-Out Size: 6-1/8" W x 11-7/16" H
Depth from Flange(including drywall thickness): 3-5/8"
Frequency Response: 28Hz - 30kHz
Driver Complement:Two 5-1/4" Bass/Midrange Drivers with Non-Resonant Cast Baskets Two 1" Pure Aluminum Dome TweetersCanted Bipolar Baffle System
Recommended Amplification:10 — 250 Watts/channel
Nominal Impendance: 4 — 8 ohms
Retail: $499 pr
Purchased 2 pairs for $300/pr from ebay seller (new).
Sectional Couch Purchased
There is not a picture available since we "designed" our sectional. Here are the specs:
Purchase Date: 9/22/2007
Purchased From: Bassett Furniture, 14111 Aldrich Ave. S., Burnsville MN
Pieces:
(1) RAF Sleeper Sofa
(2) Wedge corner
(3) LAF w/o corner
(4) Ottoman (opens for storage)
Purchased 1 yard extra fabric for throw pillows.
Full protection plan
Down upgrade for bottom cushions only
Main Fabric: MicroFiber
Main Fabric Color: Tan
Main Fabric Design: Plain color
Accent Fabric: MicroFiber
Accent Fabric Color: Multi-Color, Dark brown
Accent Fabric Design: Contemp pattern
Purchase Date: 9/22/2007
Purchased From: Bassett Furniture, 14111 Aldrich Ave. S., Burnsville MN
Pieces:
(1) RAF Sleeper Sofa
(2) Wedge corner
(3) LAF w/o corner
(4) Ottoman (opens for storage)
Purchased 1 yard extra fabric for throw pillows.
Full protection plan
Down upgrade for bottom cushions only
Main Fabric: MicroFiber
Main Fabric Color: Tan
Main Fabric Design: Plain color
Accent Fabric: MicroFiber
Accent Fabric Color: Multi-Color, Dark brown
Accent Fabric Design: Contemp pattern
Woodworking done!!!
Woodworking is complete.
Wood pillars built/installed.
Cabinets installed
Window sills boxed and trimmed
Baseboard installed
Door trim installed
stairs and bannister installed
Here is a picture of the wood columns:
Polyeurethane Done!!!
All woodwork has been sprayed with 2 coats of poly. What an awful smell. Luckily it has been moderate temperature lately so we could leave the windows open.
Was surprised to see that all woodwork is installed and sprayed in place. Then the paint comes and covers the overspray. Then the walls are painted. Would never have thought it would be done in this order as it makes painting more difficult.
Was surprised to see that all woodwork is installed and sprayed in place. Then the paint comes and covers the overspray. Then the walls are painted. Would never have thought it would be done in this order as it makes painting more difficult.
Final Paint Colors
After way too much drama to even attempt to capture here, we have final paint colors:
Hirshfield's
Wash & Wear
Premium Interior Flat Acrylic Latex Enamel
88-1692
Medium Base
Ceiling: #1003 Sweet Sue
Walls: #1005 Flickering Flame
Hirshfield's
Wash & Wear
Premium Interior Flat Acrylic Latex Enamel
88-1692
Medium Base
Ceiling: #1003 Sweet Sue
Walls: #1005 Flickering Flame
Art Niche Lighting
Purchased lights today to illuminate the art niches.
These lights are from IKEA and are called "LEDING"
Pictured against finished wall color (not ceiling color).
Mini-Pendant Lighting
Over the bar area will be 6 mini-pendants arranged in an L formation, 3 in each row.After looking at every conceiveable lighting company in north america, we finally came to an agreement on a final selection!!!
Found these lights at one of the few Lowe's Home Stores in town.
Here is a picture of the fixture glass against the newly painted walls.
Lights are supposed to get installed sometime this coming week.
Stainless Steel Elbow Shank Assembly
The stainless steel elbow shank assemblies arrived on friday. It took me a while to order these because I was not convinced that these would be a perfect fit for my 4" draft tower.
Draft towers are made in numerous sizes. Probably the most popular size is 3". The draft tower I purchased is 4". The curve of the flange would ideally match the arc of the draft tower for a perfect fit.
When looking for shank assemblies, you can then see why I expected to find different arched flanges for the specific tower diameter. Apparently, though, this is not the case. It appears that the only such assemblies are one-size-fits-all.....so I had to settle for this.
As a result, I was rather worried about the fit for these assemblies. Turns out that I was right to be concerned about this. These flanges do not fit perfectly. I think it is close enough where no one (but me) will notice it. But, the main concern is getting the assemblies tight enough to be solidly attached, but not too tight to bend the tower surface.
The flange is clearly a smaller arc than the 4" diameter draft tower. It would be my guess that this assembly would fit a 3" tower perfectly. As a result of the flange having a smaller arc, when set against a 4" tower, the outside edges of the flange touch the walls of the tower whereas the middle of the flange does not touch the tower. This is unfortunate because you would like it the other way around. It would be much better if the middle was flush and the outside edges flared out a bit and didn't touch the tower. In that instance, you would not have to worry about bending the tower noticeably.
I do not want to over exaggerate the issue - the gap is fairly small and you likely would not notice it visually unless you were looking for it. Once you look directly at the outer flange from the top, you can clearly see the gap. I think this will work as long as I don't over tighten the flanges and bend the tower as a result.
I think a small rubber washer between the curved flange and the draft tower would be a good idea so that the outside edges of the flange don't "dig" into the tower surface.
Above is a rather poor attempt to take a picture showing the gap between the draft tower and the curved flange. Below is a picture of the assembled draft tower and drip tray.
Draft towers are made in numerous sizes. Probably the most popular size is 3". The draft tower I purchased is 4". The curve of the flange would ideally match the arc of the draft tower for a perfect fit.
When looking for shank assemblies, you can then see why I expected to find different arched flanges for the specific tower diameter. Apparently, though, this is not the case. It appears that the only such assemblies are one-size-fits-all.....so I had to settle for this.
As a result, I was rather worried about the fit for these assemblies. Turns out that I was right to be concerned about this. These flanges do not fit perfectly. I think it is close enough where no one (but me) will notice it. But, the main concern is getting the assemblies tight enough to be solidly attached, but not too tight to bend the tower surface.
The flange is clearly a smaller arc than the 4" diameter draft tower. It would be my guess that this assembly would fit a 3" tower perfectly. As a result of the flange having a smaller arc, when set against a 4" tower, the outside edges of the flange touch the walls of the tower whereas the middle of the flange does not touch the tower. This is unfortunate because you would like it the other way around. It would be much better if the middle was flush and the outside edges flared out a bit and didn't touch the tower. In that instance, you would not have to worry about bending the tower noticeably.
I do not want to over exaggerate the issue - the gap is fairly small and you likely would not notice it visually unless you were looking for it. Once you look directly at the outer flange from the top, you can clearly see the gap. I think this will work as long as I don't over tighten the flanges and bend the tower as a result.
I think a small rubber washer between the curved flange and the draft tower would be a good idea so that the outside edges of the flange don't "dig" into the tower surface.
Above is a rather poor attempt to take a picture showing the gap between the draft tower and the curved flange. Below is a picture of the assembled draft tower and drip tray.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Beer Dispensing
Now to the fun part.....the draft tower.After a lot of research, decided to buy the draft tower through a metal fabrication company instead of through beer supply stores. This saves you a lot of money. A 4" draft tower with 4 dispenser holes cost just over $100. Compare that to $400 to $1000 for "pre-made" towers.
http://www.acumetalfab.com/ (4" draft arm - brushed stainless)
I also decided to buy a matching drip tray (with drain), also in brushed stainless. This was another $100, but will add a nice finishing touch.
The only downside to "building" your own tower is that the draft tower is curved and you need special hardware to enable the mounting of beer faucets to the curved surface. Turns out that there is a very easy solution to this problem:
$27.60 - Stainless Steel Elbow Shank Assembly
http://www.micromatic.com/draft-keg-beer/taps-faucets-pid-4329AS-3E.html
For faucets, I decided to go with the ventmatic (formerly Shiron) forward seal faucet, from Northern Brewer (local beer supply store), also in stainless steel finish.
http://www.northernbrewer.com/pics/fullsize/ventmatic.jpg
This is going to be COOL!!!!!!!
Beer Fridge
The finished basement will feature a beer fridge with 4 keg capacity (2 5-Gal Cornelius kegs and 2 smaller 2 or 2-1/2 gallon kegs).
Due to the design of the basement, some compromises needed to be made. The current system I have is a small chest freezer (top door) which can hold 3 5-Gal Cornelius kegs. The freezer resides in a closet on the opposite side of the wall where I thought the bar would be located. Long story short, after sitting down with designers (and wife), the bar was moved to a completely different location and the beer fridge is now being built into the counter. This poses a few problems.
First, under-counter appliances are specially designed to vent out the front. Second, it would be difficult to accomodate a top-opening chest freezer, especially since the counter will be extremely heavy (granite).
So, we searched and searched and searched and searched for an under-counter fridge that would work. The best thing I could find is a plain jane 6-CU FT GE (GMR06AAPBB). This is not completely ideal as this fridge does have a freezer section that will need to be bent upwards for keg clearance. I believe that if I bend it carefully, I will not break the coil loop (which would be really bad).
Due to the design of the basement, some compromises needed to be made. The current system I have is a small chest freezer (top door) which can hold 3 5-Gal Cornelius kegs. The freezer resides in a closet on the opposite side of the wall where I thought the bar would be located. Long story short, after sitting down with designers (and wife), the bar was moved to a completely different location and the beer fridge is now being built into the counter. This poses a few problems.
First, under-counter appliances are specially designed to vent out the front. Second, it would be difficult to accomodate a top-opening chest freezer, especially since the counter will be extremely heavy (granite).
So, we searched and searched and searched and searched for an under-counter fridge that would work. The best thing I could find is a plain jane 6-CU FT GE (GMR06AAPBB). This is not completely ideal as this fridge does have a freezer section that will need to be bent upwards for keg clearance. I believe that if I bend it carefully, I will not break the coil loop (which would be really bad).
Since this fridge is completely ugly (just a plain black), we are purchasing the optional wood trim kit (TPK6) to allow us to replace the door with a custom wood panel.
To get the beer out of the keg, I will also (obviously) have to drill a hole through the top of the fridge. I looked to see if I could get some engineering design documents (CAD files) from GE specifying the location of the coils. So far, no luck, so I'm going to have to peel the outer shell of the fridge carefully and locate the coils before drilling. Never done this before, so I have no idea how hard it will be to find the coils.
To get the beer out of the keg, I will also (obviously) have to drill a hole through the top of the fridge. I looked to see if I could get some engineering design documents (CAD files) from GE specifying the location of the coils. So far, no luck, so I'm going to have to peel the outer shell of the fridge carefully and locate the coils before drilling. Never done this before, so I have no idea how hard it will be to find the coils.
Purchased locally at Warners' Stellian.
Wood Trim Kit: TPK6
Hi there. Welcome to my blog. The intention of this blog is to document our quest to finish our basement, to post pictures for friends to see, and to ramble on and on endlessly about the individual components of the basement.
Unfortunately, this blog was started closer to the end of the project than the beginning, so, this is not exactly going to be chronologically ordered.
Unfortunately, this blog was started closer to the end of the project than the beginning, so, this is not exactly going to be chronologically ordered.
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