DIYer Digs Deep for the Perfect Theater Spot
By Rachel Cericola
Dr. Waqar Shah added an underground bunker to build his dream room.

It’s easy to dream about home theater. However, Dr. Waqar Shah had always planned to make that dream into reality. When the good doctor decided to have a home built three years ago, he went into it with a very specific idea for his home theater room.

His plan even included where the theater would be placed. Dr. Shah commissioned his home-builder to add a special spot below his new home’s three-car garage. This would allow him to lay out the room with seating for about 15 people. “I had the theater plans before I had plans for the rest of the house,” he says. “I knew what I wanted.”




How the room looked and performed was certainly important. However, what was going on inside the walls was just as crucial to this project. To keep the install clean and easy to upgrade, Dr. Shah had his installer run all of the cables and wires through 3-inch PVC conduits.

That wiring scheme wasn’t just something that Dr. Shah read about on a forum. It was something he learned from past experience. Years ago, he worked on a home theater room for his sister. “At that time, I ran an S-Video cable in the wall for the projector from the AV rack,” Dr. Shah says.

“Since installation, we have gone through component cable, then DVI, and now HDMI. The conduits make it easy to exchange cables for new technology. PVC pipes in the wall always ensure for a clean look for future upgrades. In my sister’s theater, we had run wires along the walls and ceiling.”

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