(Topic ID: 88481)

Project Sparkade! (Yet Another Gameroom Project)

By copperpot

9 years ago



Topic Stats

  • 7 posts
  • 5 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 9 years ago by copperpot
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    Sparkade Concept Bravo 3.png
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    #1 9 years ago

    Well, the time has come. I have too many machines. They are too loud in the house. Something has to give. I had two options:

    1) Sell them all. Get out of the business. Move on.
    2) Move all the machines into an upstairs bedroom.
    3) Start an arcade business! BUY MORE MACHINES. Everyone WINS!
    4) Convert a single car garage bay into a 14 x 19 ft Arcade Room!

    1 is a terrible idea. Choosing this one is called giving up on life.
    2 is also a terrible idea. I would lose a room currently being used, and then theres moving machines upstairs, which is horrible.
    3 is such a good idea, but I'm incredibly lazy. So maybe not so good.
    4 is maybe expensive, but who cares, I can't take it with me!

    So, I planned out about a 13.5 x 18x5 room in Sketchup first, complete with the fixtures that are already there (garage door, water heater, etc):

    Sparkade Concept Alpha.pngSparkade Concept Alpha.png

    That looked pretty good, maybe a little tight, so let's throw the room together:

    Sparkade Concept Bravo 1.pngSparkade Concept Bravo 1.png
    Sparkade Concept Bravo 2.pngSparkade Concept Bravo 2.png
    Sparkade Concept Bravo 3.pngSparkade Concept Bravo 3.png

    Ok, so that all looks good. More than good. This looks like my little slice of heaven. Plenty of room for pins, plenty of room for my arcades. A place to hide when my wife or kids are going crazy. I can lock the door from the inside even. Everything sounds magical about this.

    NOTE: This is where I usually stop my daydreaming. But, I have a real problem. Too many pins, my house can fit 4, I have 6 keepers. So. SOMETHING is going to happen. Remember the 4 options above?! Welp, Here we go..

    So, I had a GC buddy of mine swing by and estimate building the wall, running some Electrical, and doing a Mr. Slim Mitsubishi Mini Split. The price came in under a newer Stern pin, so.. WHY NOT!

    Well, I'll tell you why not. Cleaning out a garage is a royal PITA. So much old sh1t lying around. Had to go clean all that stuff out. Here's the before picture of the garage (mostly) cleaned out. It was too embarassing to take pictures before I did this. Remember, these pics were taken AFTER we removed the 3pins, one arcade game, work bench, cabinets, and other random crap that noone actually needs to own.

    20140420_191901_resized-242.jpg20140420_191901_resized-242.jpg

    So, we pulled the trigger. Framers are here. More details to follow as they come.

    #2 9 years ago

    hahaha AWESOME brother keep us updated on the progress... good choice me thinks

    #3 9 years ago

    I had to buy a new house. Good luck!

    #4 9 years ago

    I like how you've included all of that empty space. I think we all know that's going to be filled up with more pins within 2 months. The plans for our addition originally included space for chairs and a bar table... To me the sketchup looks like what you showed your wife so that she would think it was a "reasonable addition" instead of a pinhoarder hang out (can you just key the door with a 700 lock, so that way all of the appropriate guests already have a key?).

    I'm looking forward to this being completed in time for swimming season.

    #5 9 years ago

    I'm assuming you've measured this, but putting it out there in case, you can take the glass off those machines right? It's pretty tight, so just checking.

    Keep us updated, looks like a ton of fun!

    #6 9 years ago
    Quoted from Aurich:

    I'm assuming you've measured this, but putting it out there in case, you can take the glass off those machines right? It's pretty tight, so just checking.

    Dude, I set it up with all the distances to even make sure you had butt clearance when opposing games are being played. I *think* I've thought of everything

    Quoted from ghostrachel:

    (can you just key the door with a 700 lock, so that way all of the appropriate guests already have a key?).

    That's a killer idea.

    #7 9 years ago

    Update! Framing and Walls are IN! Painting will happen today, and then I get to figure out my plan for the floors and for hiding the water heater.

    Here's some things that have come up along the way.

    1) Insulated garage doors. As part of this upgrade, I've insulated the garage door with one of those kits from Lowe's. The R-value is pretty low (around R-5), but it seems to fit well, wasn't terribly expensive, and looks good installed. I'll measure temps when it gets a little hotter in Arizona. Since I'll be cooling the space, I definitely need to try to take some load off the mini split, so we'll see if this helps. I have a feeling I need to go ahead and do some insulation on the outer garage wall as well, but I did order a badass mini split that should be able to handle this small space efficiently..

    Insulfoam.jpgInsulfoam.jpg

    2) Mini split. I've ordered a 1 Ton Mr. Slim Mitsubishi Mini Split. Finding folks knowledgeable about installing these is not easy. Most of your normal HVAC guys will quote you an outrageous price for install. Luckily, I "know a guy that knows a guy" so that price is OK, not great, but, much better than what some of those guys usually quote. Right now my GC is arguing with the drywall, electrical, and hvac guy on where exactly it should go. I guess that's what complicates things for these installs. Drainage lines, hidden linesets, etc. I'm really excited to get this thing in and running, and that *should* happen soon (not going to give a day, because that never seems to pan out in my experience).

    Obligatory work pics:

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    20140422_190351_resized.jpg20140422_190351_resized.jpg

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