Home Theater Construction: Floors

Home Theater Construction: Floors

There are many choices of floors and some depend on the environment and room design. When cho

osing your floor type keep into consideration the acoustic properties of the floor as well as the placement of your room. If your bu

ilding a home theater in your attic consider a sub-floor construction that offers increased acoustic control (such as mass loaded vi

nyl barrier and or “booted” floor joists) or in your basement something that can be warm, heated and offers moisture resis

tance.

Tile Floors

Tiles are great for basements and easy to clean
floors. Fairly quick and easy to install and very good stain/moisture
r esistance. A good way to ad some warmth to the room when
using tiles is to have throw rugs or even a carpet padding
where you sit.

Acoustic Properties: Tiles offer a highly reflective
surface. If you have a solid (drywall) flat ceiling you may
want t o consider a throw-rug or carpeting on tile floors
to help control reflection and possible sound echo.

Vinyl Floors

Vinyl floors are very durable floors good for busy multipurpose recreation rooms or basement rooms. No concerns about w

ater damage and fairly easy to clean. Vinyl floors can come in small squares or large sheets that are simply glued to your sub floor

with a special adhesive.

Acoustic Properties: Hard to match acoustic properties -Some vinyl floors are highly reflective while others are dense

and highly absorptive.

Wood floors

Wood floors are visually attractive, easy to clean and esthetically pleasing to a rooms appearance. We recommend that y

ou do not use standard wood floors in sub floors/basements due to potential moisture/mold/mildew risks.

Acoustic Properties: Highly reflective. Wood floors can echo sound or compensate for an absorptive ceiling.

Manufactured Floors(fake wood)

Today’s manufactured flooring can look and feel exactly like real wood and the great part is there are many brands that

are certified and even recommended for basement/sub-floor applications.

Carpet

Carpet is the standard for most commercial movie theaters and it works great in home theater applications. For high tra

ffic or theater at home look many vendors offer a variety of low-pile carpet with interesting patterns and textures for home theater

use. The low-pile carpet offers good acoustic properties and is stubborn to abuse that can come from popcorn, sodas, candies and al

l the goodies you potentially may spill.

Carpet Tiles

Easy to install, often moisture resistant and great for high traffic areas carpet tiles are increasingly popular for th

e DIY home theater builder. Usually sold in one square foot or 16 inch squares these tiles can be self adhesive backing or glued to

the floors. Some designs even use these squares along the walls because of ease of installation and affordability.